Joe user: What's this I see? I have to enter my password? Ok.
People are just getting around to the idea that random crap mailed to them might contain a virus (although enough people still run them...). It'll be a while yet before they're even the least bit suspicious of stuff on CDs, especially ones they've bought from reputable sources.
I agree that they won't give it a second thought; I just don't think they'll give it a first thought, either.
Just a nit - in a lot of places water is not free; you pay a charge to have water and sewage service. Mine amounts to around 25GBP a month, or about 40USD.
And yes, I do still buy bottled water from time to time, as I can't take my house taps with me on the way to work. (Sure, I could bottle some at home and take that, but often I don't realise I'm thirsty until I'm passing the shop...)
Because then lots of school kids would have to walk to school in the dark. I'm the last one to scream "think of the children!!1!one!", but that's a dumb idea on its own.
Besides, why force so many people to spend a lot of their time living at night? Sure, *I'd* actually quite like it, but then I'm weird like that. Would you really force people to emigrate just to be able to live in the light?
Ah, the new clarion call - "Won't somebody please think of the terrorists?!?!?". The old one was getting a little tired, wasn't it?
The internet may be a hotbed of terrorist activity or not, but the US government has no right to spy on my computer or my communications. Hell, it doesn't even have the right to spy on its own citizens, thanks to that pesky "Constitution" thing.
It's not difficult as such - it'll require a fair amount of thrust to produce a decent acceleration, but that may not be a problem if you have enough warning to take your time over getting it in position.
As for launching the thing to orbit, you could (theoretically) launch a shell and fill it with Moon rocks.
b) doesn't do much to a 6800 ton asteroid travelling at 1600 miles per hour.
It does exactly the same to the asteroid as the asteroid does to it. Action and reaction are equal and opposite; the asteroid is pulled towards the craft with the same force. That obviously produces a much lesser acceleration, but apply some thrust to the craft and theoretically you could indeed drag the asteroid off course.
The only problem I see is that gravitationally speaking, both masses are absolutely tiny, and so the forces involved will also be minute. I've not run through the maths, and I assume that the guys at Nasa have, but my gut feeling is that while this *would* work, the asteroid would have to be an awfully long way away when we started trying to deflect it.
The key difference between OSS investment and any other investment is that there can never be a true "loss" in value.
While that's true from a community perspective, if a VC dumps several million dollars into an open source project and never sees any profit in return, you can bet that that's goign to be viewed as a loss by them and their peers.
I don't know the details of the experiment in question (and I don't have time to RTFA), but they'll be looking for waves given off by some distant massive object.
Just because the equipment list doesn't include a massive accelerating body doesn't mean that there are none within range.
If enticing the electrons to move to a lower orbit releases energy, it's going to require energy input to make them return to a normal orbit. If and when the atoms "collapse", the reaction will be endothermic, not exothermic - you'll cool the surrounding matter, not cook it.
We shouldn't need to provide a picture to prove who we are.:)
Never mind that, it shouldn't matter who you are - male, female, white, black, brown, yellow, red, green, old, young, immortal, eternal, gay, straight, bi, celebate - none of it matters (or should), as long as you play the game with good grace and don't cheat.
No, absolutely not. Under UK law, any British citizen is cleared to see RESTRICTRED material. In order to see CONFIDENTIAL you need to be at least BC (basic check) cleared, and so on. (My "normal" security clearance clears me for controlled access to TOP SECRET material).
HOWEVER, as in all things security-related, the principle of "need to know" applies. That is that while Jo may well have sufficient clearance to read the document/code/whatever I'm working on, if Jo doesn't *need* to see it, Jo doesn't *get* to see it. Regardless of the legality of things, clients are going to want a greater degree of security than that and in any case, my company's policy dictates a greater degree of security. (It also dictates cost cutting and revenue increasing, hence...)
just make sure anyone with access to the office holds SC clearance.
Well duh, that was kind of my point. Even ignoring the cleaners (as others have pointed out), there are plenty of *employees* with access (of course!) who aren't SC cleared, let alone clients, friends of employees, delivery people, etc.
Besides which, my point wasn't "I work on sensitive stuff and I don't have an office!", my point was "hey, *none* of us have offices, what makes the admins think they're any different?". To put it another way, my boss doesn't have an office (he has the desk next to mine), and he not only has hire and fire power over people, he has access to salary records, absence records, etc. Off for a fortnight because you're heading for a nervous breakdown due to relationship troubles? He has access to the records and oked the absence, and I can reach over and smack him without so much as turning from my monitor.
Admins? What do they have compared to that, that requires privacy? (Other than the root password, which is a very poorly kept secret at most companies anyway (e.g. I know our domain admin password myself))
I've never seen an office that isn't completely open plan. I work on sensitive government projects (RESTRICTED in the Official Secrets Act sense) and my desk is accessible to anyone who gets in through the front doors. (2 of, plus building security and office reception, but still)
So the network admins have been moved out of their offices? Cry me a river, and welcome to the 21st century along with the rest of us.
IMNSHO, excluding anyone purely on geographical location is stupid. If the person has the tools and skills required, they should be elligible to enter, full stop. I don't care if they live in Canada or Outer Mongolia, if they are able to enter they should be permitted to enter.
I realise that in some cases it may be impractical or impossible to give them their prize, but so what? Donate it to a worthy cause, or give it to the next best entry. If the contest was restricted on the basis of skin colour, or sex, or similar, people would be up in arms in protest.
That said, I can't actually see where it says that anyone is excluded on the basis of geographical location...
now they'd be liable even if the "idea" was never shown to anyone or published.
In order to be granted a patent, the storyline must be published in the patent application. These are available for everyone to search over.
No, that's not publication in the traditional sense as it applies to stories, and no, it doesn't make it right*, but it does mean that the idea most certainly will have been published and shown to people.
[* As it happens, I think this is an unthinkably bad idea, and makes an absolute mockery of the whole concept of intellectual property, and I speak as someone who is a supporter of the original intent of IP protection.]
If you're going to take that stance, you might as well blame the compiler writers for making it possible to compile code to machine executable, or Kernigan and Ritchie for C, or the guys who developed transistors, or Maxwell for his equations...
Sony's rootkit makes this easier. Now, instead of having to develop both the cheat and a way or protecting it from the Warden, one has only to develop the cheat. No, Sony haven't caused cheating, but they've certainly made it easier. More seriously, they've made it easier for malware and viruses to go undetected too. No, this isn't the first or only rootkit available, but it's the first that's been available for the cost of a music CD, the purchase of which is going to look utterly innocent.
No. The Sony rootkit isn't deployed in order to thwart The Warden, just like the knives in my kitchen weren't created and sold to kill humans with.
If I create something to beat The Warden, that uses Sony's rootkit to hide, then *I* am the one liable, not Sony, just like Kitchen Devil aren't liable for any psychotic killing sprees I may go on with their products.
Like it or not (and I certainly don't), IE is the de facto standard. We can whine about standards compliance until we're blue in the face (and believe me, I have), but the fact is that if your site doesn't work in IE, upwards of 85% of your potential visitors are excluded. Now, that may well not matter if it's just a personal vanity site, but for companies that's not a good idea.
I thought it had been established long ago that the slashdot editors don't edit as such, they just approve and reject stories. No checking for factual accuracy, grammar, spelling, or any other things real editors would do is performed - it's even in the FAQ.
That said, that was fine when this was a hobbyist site; it's somewhat irksome now that it's a commercial venture. Not that I pay anything for it, other than the time spent frequenting and contributing of course...
GUBA is a pay-for service, yet for some reason the summary neglects to mention this. Call me cynical, but when something as fundamental as that is missed out, I start thinking "advert".
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Not to mention that breach of contract (or EULA) is a civil matter, not a criminal one.
A more likely scenario is:
Joe user: What's this I see? I have to enter my password? Ok.
People are just getting around to the idea that random crap mailed to them might contain a virus (although enough people still run them...). It'll be a while yet before they're even the least bit suspicious of stuff on CDs, especially ones they've bought from reputable sources.
I agree that they won't give it a second thought; I just don't think they'll give it a first thought, either.
Just a nit - in a lot of places water is not free; you pay a charge to have water and sewage service. Mine amounts to around 25GBP a month, or about 40USD.
And yes, I do still buy bottled water from time to time, as I can't take my house taps with me on the way to work. (Sure, I could bottle some at home and take that, but often I don't realise I'm thirsty until I'm passing the shop...)
Javascript has nothing to do with Java, other than sharing part of a name and some syntax.
You'd have thought a site for techies would know this...
Because then lots of school kids would have to walk to school in the dark. I'm the last one to scream "think of the children!!1!one!", but that's a dumb idea on its own.
Besides, why force so many people to spend a lot of their time living at night? Sure, *I'd* actually quite like it, but then I'm weird like that. Would you really force people to emigrate just to be able to live in the light?
Ah, the new clarion call - "Won't somebody please think of the terrorists?!?!?". The old one was getting a little tired, wasn't it?
The internet may be a hotbed of terrorist activity or not, but the US government has no right to spy on my computer or my communications. Hell, it doesn't even have the right to spy on its own citizens, thanks to that pesky "Constitution" thing.
a) is difficult to move all by itself.
It's not difficult as such - it'll require a fair amount of thrust to produce a decent acceleration, but that may not be a problem if you have enough warning to take your time over getting it in position.
As for launching the thing to orbit, you could (theoretically) launch a shell and fill it with Moon rocks.
b) doesn't do much to a 6800 ton asteroid travelling at 1600 miles per hour.
It does exactly the same to the asteroid as the asteroid does to it. Action and reaction are equal and opposite; the asteroid is pulled towards the craft with the same force. That obviously produces a much lesser acceleration, but apply some thrust to the craft and theoretically you could indeed drag the asteroid off course.
The only problem I see is that gravitationally speaking, both masses are absolutely tiny, and so the forces involved will also be minute. I've not run through the maths, and I assume that the guys at Nasa have, but my gut feeling is that while this *would* work, the asteroid would have to be an awfully long way away when we started trying to deflect it.
Aren't they gonna implement a secure user-privilege levels?
They did, in NT. In the 9x series didn't have anything like that, but then I've always maintained that that family of OSes was a bad joke.
Do you have any idea how much Oracle actually costs, compared to a Windows Server licence?
The key difference between OSS investment and any other investment is that there can never be a true "loss" in value.
While that's true from a community perspective, if a VC dumps several million dollars into an open source project and never sees any profit in return, you can bet that that's goign to be viewed as a loss by them and their peers.
I do enjoy a truly pathetic copyrestriction system, don't you?
Personally, I prefer them to truly effective copy restriction systems...
I don't know the details of the experiment in question (and I don't have time to RTFA), but they'll be looking for waves given off by some distant massive object.
Just because the equipment list doesn't include a massive accelerating body doesn't mean that there are none within range.
You asked for correction... (your sig)
If enticing the electrons to move to a lower orbit releases energy, it's going to require energy input to make them return to a normal orbit. If and when the atoms "collapse", the reaction will be endothermic, not exothermic - you'll cool the surrounding matter, not cook it.
We shouldn't need to provide a picture to prove who we are. :)
Never mind that, it shouldn't matter who you are - male, female, white, black, brown, yellow, red, green, old, young, immortal, eternal, gay, straight, bi, celebate - none of it matters (or should), as long as you play the game with good grace and don't cheat.
No, absolutely not. Under UK law, any British citizen is cleared to see RESTRICTRED material. In order to see CONFIDENTIAL you need to be at least BC (basic check) cleared, and so on. (My "normal" security clearance clears me for controlled access to TOP SECRET material).
HOWEVER, as in all things security-related, the principle of "need to know" applies. That is that while Jo may well have sufficient clearance to read the document/code/whatever I'm working on, if Jo doesn't *need* to see it, Jo doesn't *get* to see it. Regardless of the legality of things, clients are going to want a greater degree of security than that and in any case, my company's policy dictates a greater degree of security. (It also dictates cost cutting and revenue increasing, hence...)
just make sure anyone with access to the office holds SC clearance.
Well duh, that was kind of my point. Even ignoring the cleaners (as others have pointed out), there are plenty of *employees* with access (of course!) who aren't SC cleared, let alone clients, friends of employees, delivery people, etc.
Besides which, my point wasn't "I work on sensitive stuff and I don't have an office!", my point was "hey, *none* of us have offices, what makes the admins think they're any different?". To put it another way, my boss doesn't have an office (he has the desk next to mine), and he not only has hire and fire power over people, he has access to salary records, absence records, etc. Off for a fortnight because you're heading for a nervous breakdown due to relationship troubles? He has access to the records and oked the absence, and I can reach over and smack him without so much as turning from my monitor.
Admins? What do they have compared to that, that requires privacy? (Other than the root password, which is a very poorly kept secret at most companies anyway (e.g. I know our domain admin password myself))
I've never seen an office that isn't completely open plan. I work on sensitive government projects (RESTRICTED in the Official Secrets Act sense) and my desk is accessible to anyone who gets in through the front doors. (2 of, plus building security and office reception, but still)
So the network admins have been moved out of their offices? Cry me a river, and welcome to the 21st century along with the rest of us.
IMNSHO, excluding anyone purely on geographical location is stupid. If the person has the tools and skills required, they should be elligible to enter, full stop. I don't care if they live in Canada or Outer Mongolia, if they are able to enter they should be permitted to enter.
I realise that in some cases it may be impractical or impossible to give them their prize, but so what? Donate it to a worthy cause, or give it to the next best entry. If the contest was restricted on the basis of skin colour, or sex, or similar, people would be up in arms in protest.
That said, I can't actually see where it says that anyone is excluded on the basis of geographical location...
now they'd be liable even if the "idea" was never shown to anyone or published.
In order to be granted a patent, the storyline must be published in the patent application. These are available for everyone to search over.
No, that's not publication in the traditional sense as it applies to stories, and no, it doesn't make it right*, but it does mean that the idea most certainly will have been published and shown to people.
[* As it happens, I think this is an unthinkably bad idea, and makes an absolute mockery of the whole concept of intellectual property, and I speak as someone who is a supporter of the original intent of IP protection.]
If you're going to take that stance, you might as well blame the compiler writers for making it possible to compile code to machine executable, or Kernigan and Ritchie for C, or the guys who developed transistors, or Maxwell for his equations...
Sony's rootkit makes this easier. Now, instead of having to develop both the cheat and a way or protecting it from the Warden, one has only to develop the cheat. No, Sony haven't caused cheating, but they've certainly made it easier. More seriously, they've made it easier for malware and viruses to go undetected too. No, this isn't the first or only rootkit available, but it's the first that's been available for the cost of a music CD, the purchase of which is going to look utterly innocent.
No. The Sony rootkit isn't deployed in order to thwart The Warden, just like the knives in my kitchen weren't created and sold to kill humans with.
If I create something to beat The Warden, that uses Sony's rootkit to hide, then *I* am the one liable, not Sony, just like Kitchen Devil aren't liable for any psychotic killing sprees I may go on with their products.
Unfortunately.
I'm sure he'd agree that we should at least try to prove him wrong than just accepting his word as truth.
Somewhere in the world, someone is testing Einstein's theories right now.
So far, we've failed to prove them wrong.
Discworld light is slow because of the strong magical field.
Like it or not (and I certainly don't), IE is the de facto standard. We can whine about standards compliance until we're blue in the face (and believe me, I have), but the fact is that if your site doesn't work in IE, upwards of 85% of your potential visitors are excluded. Now, that may well not matter if it's just a personal vanity site, but for companies that's not a good idea.
I thought it had been established long ago that the slashdot editors don't edit as such, they just approve and reject stories. No checking for factual accuracy, grammar, spelling, or any other things real editors would do is performed - it's even in the FAQ.
That said, that was fine when this was a hobbyist site; it's somewhat irksome now that it's a commercial venture. Not that I pay anything for it, other than the time spent frequenting and contributing of course...
GUBA is a pay-for service, yet for some reason the summary neglects to mention this. Call me cynical, but when something as fundamental as that is missed out, I start thinking "advert".