Having been active on the Internet since the 90's and a/. reader since the late 90's I'm pretty much up to speed on the degree of identity theft that has taken place. But where's the money? Where's the proceeds of all the identity and credit card theft? If you added up all the stolen identities and credit card thefts you'd think a big chunk would have been bitten out of the economy. There doesn't seem to be any significant bleeding. Does it all add up to not much more than a drop in the bucket. On a personal note I think I'd be better serve being able to establish my personal information has been stolen multiple times. Maybe a new type of fraud will be 'stealing' your own credit cards and going on an online spending spree.
I'm a strong environmentalist, but also strongly support exporting recycling and waste management to developing countries. I think the overriding necessary condition is one of controls over the exportation of waste goods and the methods of waste management. Obviously control over waste management in an autonomous state is highly problematic, but for developing countries that are willing to meet the requirements, the benefits to them and to us are considerable. The protocols and governing legislation necessary to the effective and safe management of wast and recyclables could be a vital link to injecting democratic methods into developing nations. In return we might consider barter rather than hard currency. The process would link us to them and allow for a more tractable means of aiding developing countries at all levels. Moreover the recyclables would introduce them to the amenities of our manufacturing sector and provide a basis for future trade. Breaking down recyclables and waste products according to effective, environmental protocols would also give hands on education in basis technology. Seeing such trade as an 'evil', passing of the costs of waste management and recycling onto poorer nations misses the rich interchange of wealth and technology along with cultural ties such trade can effect.
Sleep theories seem to range considerably but there is consensus that most people need, on average 8 hours. Some theorists hold that sleep and dreaming are processes that developed to, one the one hand, keep us still and hidden away from night time predators, and, OTOH, to consolidate recent critical experiences into long term memories. My own recent theory is that sleep is the brain's synchronization process. It's loosely stated the brain is widely distributed and massively parallel processed and that even a simple idea like 'apple' requires disparate brain modules to function synchronously. I think sleep and dreaming are the brains way to rehearse complex activities recently required in waking life. The brain in sleep is thus like a symphonic orchestra in rehearsal, especially in terms of dreaming. Although other sleep cycles seem to be necessary to body repair. Men, in recent readings, are thought to require much more deep sleep than women because it's in deep sleep that the male body effects repairs. Thus far I've not come across my idea that sleep and dreaming are synchronization and rehearsal events, but on/. I expect a fair, unbiased hearing.;)
The ancient Greeks, remember Pythagoras, saw numbers as things, and, IIRC, used their alphabet to represent numbers. Then came the cumbersome Roman numerical system and, finally, more or less, the Arabic which may have been derived from Indian, Sanskrit sources. OK, so history aside, why bother. Because as far back as the first flicker of the enlightenment commentators have been suggesting Science would become the new religion. If a religion is seen as 'the book', or, the canon cementing a civilization together than it becomes convenient and, perhaps, even necessary that symbols pop up everywhere. If e were everywhere, which it is kinda, then science, or, the sciences may become more tractable to more people. This is gonna happen anyway, but will it induce in true believers the criticality crucial to the methodology of science? My best guess is no, most people are happily submerged in their limbic motivations and drives and live wet lives blissfully out of touch with the arduous work of critical thinking. It's been recently suggested that intelligence stems from associational pathways. Wild extrapolation allows one to posit that while science symbols made ubiquitous would help people better immerse themselves in the new story driven by science theory, and, more especially evolution theory; it won't help foster critical thought.
3 years for me, but it's not as difficult as quitting smoking. The rewards are probably as great or greater than quitting smoking. The time freed up for living is the most mind blowing thing, not to mention being able to keep up with the core science stuff and getting back to being playfully curious rather than a spoon fed couch potato.
Schizophrenia isn't very well defined and, to further complicate things, there are diagnoses that couple schizophrenia with other disorders that, in turn, aren't well defined. Two current, prevalent theories, not necessarily at odds, suggest on one hand that schizophrenia is tied directly into the dopamine system, and, OTOH, that schizophrenia is a disorder arising from the brain's architecture. The first theory usually involves medications that dampen the dopamine system but that have, literally, potentially killer, side effects. The idea that schizophrenia is tied to the brain's architecture is broad and incorporates ideas that there are genetic, congenial causes for schizophrenia that can be exacerbated by environmental factors, such as physical, or, emotional insult or forms of neglect. Concurrent with the second view is that the small, inter neurons that connect long range disparate neural pathways don't function up to par in schizophrenics. Smoking cigarettes is prevalent among schizophrenics but given the lack of consensus as to what constitutes schizophrenia it's unlikely that a link between the effects of nicotine and schizophrenic symptoms is rigorous or robust. Nicotine and caffeine both seem to be disproportionatley favoured by certain types of uni students. I doubt there's any significant representation of schizophrenia among said population of students.
The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are those the public is most likely to bring to mind when envisioning schizophrenics, these include auditory hallucinations and paranoid behaviour. It's these symptoms that seem to be most amenable to treatment with drugs that act on the dopamine system. The second set of the disease's symptoms are termed negative symptoms and include social isolation and degrees of depression. These secondary symptoms currently have few effective treatments. My best guess would be that nicotine and smoking, (the ritual and anachronistic, Freudian, oral pleasure) treat the secondary symptoms.
FWIW I'm a diagnosed schizophrenic with a uni education and a plus 160 IQ. I've been diagnosed as schizophrenic, schizo-affective, and, possibly not schizophrenic at all; but my favourite diagnosis came from a neuropsychiatrist, who, upon learning that I had begun studies of epistemology at age 17, said: "People who study epistemology... (long pause)... I don't know... (head shaking)... I just don't know." My case seems to be the more interesting because I recognized my symptoms and sought medical attention, and, while suffering the full range of symptoms, was able to deal with them as symptoms of a disease and not as in any way defining who I am or considering them as causes of action. John Nash, he of "A Beautiful Mind" escaped the symptoms of his schizophrenia when he learned not to argue with his voices. The most debilitating aspect of schizophrenia is that people seem not to understand that it's a brain based disease and that the mind, as put by a neuroscientist, is just the brain doing it's job. More high functioning schizophrenics are able to get on with their lives because schizophrenia is now known to be a a disease no different than any other and the symptoms can be detected, marked, treated, minimized, and, over time, all but disregarded in day to day life.
The Land Rushes that served up the last of the best lands America had to offer aren't too unlike the rationale driving the patenting of intellectual property. Corporations are driven by the need to protect themselves from potential future costs by claiming every "square inch" of intellectual property the US patent system will allow them to grab. If international laws are put in place governing intellectual property that are enforceable then the current seeming madness is the best available means of positioning American interests for the largest possible slice of the pie. About the time of the last land rushes Spencer's ideology of "survival of the fittest" was being touted as a rationale for the unconscionable actions of Yankee Traders who were infamous for their ruthless greed. It's a hedgemonists' zero sum game. There's method in the madness, madness though it be.
IANANP 'n I'm just ask'n but could this be a solution to Large Hadron Collider Struggling ? We all know if it weren't for Einstein running at the speed of light while shaving we wouldn't even have a Special Theory of Relativity. But like I said I'm just throw'n the idea out there.
Thanks for the pointer. I've not tried it, but do run Octave and R. Although, after plus 2 decades on PCs, I find pen and paper best suited to my needs.
"Don't do the crime, If you can't do the time." "S/he ain't worth the time." The latter one simply means if you're thinking about hurting someone for whatever reason make sure s/he is worth the time you might have to serve. Wet crimes are done by individuals for their own gain. There's no degree of separation between them and the crime. It's their hormones talking. In this case the guy stole a domain with a sexy name. The idea of the name had to juice him up to the point where he got stupid enough to try to pull it off first hand. A crime involving an amount over $X will usually put you in a different arena with much stiffer penalties. Petty criminals with drug habits shoplift all day every day and just wind their way in and out of court without much of a care. The real criminal profits are tied to our inability to rationally handle classes. Corporations routinely push the boundaries of criminal activity by playing off individual tied to criminal activity against the legal entity that is the corporation said criminals work for. Our inability to distinguish criminal activity by a class of people or an entity of a different class order is a virulent criminal ecological niche. Most corporations are also very adept at stealing or defrauding small amounts from each customer in a large customer base and thereby reaping huge criminal gains while forcing investigations for small $ amounts or calling for class action suits.
My last Word, Office Pro 2003. No one asks for it anymore. There was a time in the recent past when the majority of requests for submissions would be accompanied by a request for a.doc format, not anymore. Now it's just email me and most of the stuff stays in the cloud or in email format. HTML 5 will probably be the last nail driven in the infrastructure that makes the browser the be all and end all of office documentation. Excel is still deeply entrenched among the bean counters and the armchair quarterbacks running sports fantasy teams but, for my purposes, I've found OpenOffice and GNU Cash to be ample in all regards.
That's gonna leave a mark.
Late night "relaxed" post.
It was supposed to be: While we the people believe the principles involved are moot, the principals of the RIAA believe we the people should be mute. Still not all that good, but really, I've very little shame.:)
So you're selling a revived game and in the most self deprecating manner front page it's availability on/. where it's most likely to garner the most exposure to the audience most likely to buy it. All the while dismissing any thoughts of making a buck. I salute you sirs, you're evil genius marketing talents are truly evil. Day job in MS marketing?
For awhile I've believed any world people capable of distant space travel and other colonization would need as a prerequisite world peace, world order and one rule of law. First the marshaling of resources necessary would require near world wide cooperation and second, as is presently our case, prior to a world government, states knowledgeable enough to even consider such far ranging travel would most likely put their resources toward weaponizing near space as a response deterrent to their presumed enemies. Second the best and the brightest necessary to such an undertaking aren't going to be on hand in any one nation or coalition and will be the best and the brightest we as a species can muster. Large inter tribal structures are capable of bonding factious tribes and when such inter tribal structures offer benefits they can act as a deterrent to conflict. Inter planetary, let alone inter stellar travel are such magnanimous undertakings and can drive world peace and world law. It may be that any world that has achieved space travel technology able to colonize distant planets have in place laws that would make it highly problematic for them to contact waring tribes such as ourselves. Who would they contact? Would their choice of a tribe to contact cause conflict?
The software is lagging behind hardware on every PCish platform. So now the hardware is so far ahead some developer is talking about room to develop a new experience. How sad is that. Kids use their gaming boxes to gossip with one another while their gaming, that's the only recent real development. The games aren't going anywhere because all that's being added is more dynamic detail to the same old tired story lines. Go read the epic of Gilgamesh written about 3000 or so years ago, it's the same old story a fight for love and glory. There are new paths to be found for gamers but they're going to come from creative genius that delivers a new experience from a now, nearly formed matrix nested in the mature Internet. MS doesn't do creative, not ever, never; it's not just anathema to them, it's outside their event horizon.
In his book 'Laws of Form', G.S.Brown stated, (from memory) "draw a distinction and a universe comes into being". His book was widely panned and he was seen as markedly eccentric but the idea of a universe coming into being when a distinction is drawn is useful. Our moral code is necessarily somewhat arbitrary and plastic, but we need an agreed upon moral code if we're to govern ourselves. Democracy should ensure the greatest possible personal freedom under the rule of law. Where you go from there is up for grabs. I believe in the family unit as paramount. A man and a woman raising a family is my personal kernel, for others, my values might seem ridiculous or even criminal but that doesn't vitiate the need for a value system that carries moral weight. From my value system cloning is immoral but stem cell research isn't, from my value system abortion is a woman's right for others not. Ultimately, in the face of all the choices and dilemmas, experience and common sense shows democracy and the rule of law to be the best available form of government. Right now people like me who value the family unit as the heart of democracy are still in the majority although the line is fuzzy on stem cell research, the line on cloning isn't, cloning technology should be closely scrutinized and regulated.
An old PBS special on everybody's favourite organ, the brain, broadcast the finding that gossip is prevalent in language use and that our relatively, outsized brains may have evolved as a response to more convoluted social programmes. The infrequent times I listen to a commercial radio station, (I've not had commercial TV for 3 yrs), I often find google used as a means of acquiring the tidbits of information commonly referred to as cocktail party gossip. Twitter is an example of the same function. ( In fact I would venture a search engine streamlined to twitter would be a winner. ) Bing is to Google what Ralf Lauren is to Beneton and the whole issue is about marketing. The outlier portion of users that don't constitute the gossip crowd aren't going to show in the tally. The primary internet search engines are at least 3 years past being serviceable as anything but marketing tools unless the user has put in the time to tweak their searches or is searching for stuff that isn't worth marketing. Other than that closing the loop will amount to a bluetooth dongle picking up on the wearer's conversation and feeding in just so catchphrases and jokes while demanding in payment the wearer buy a specific product with the necessary exclamatory endorsement.
Not long ago a story ran describing a long term debt offering by MS. The story was noteworthy because it stated MS had never offered long term debt instruments. Old school investment theory, as I remember it, would characterize an MS offering of long term debt instruments as one sign of a mature company. It may be the MS brain trust sees it's revenue flattening out and wants to lock in some long term money. Moving into bricks and mortar is another story, although if they see their revenue base flattening or receding like a middle aged hair line then maybe their looking to generate new revenue from a new venue. The question arises as to the likelihood of their offering their own boxes. I'm pretty sure the margin on PC stuff is as thin as it gets but they must have a strategy in hand. Some time ago Bill Gates rather infamously prophesied that, about now, PC hardware would be free with the OS and software being the only costs. Whatever the present state of information suggests I'd expect some good old extend, embrace and extinguish action.
no operation, noop was a term used by early assembly language programmers for people, perhaps very much like yourself, who talked a great deal about programming without ever having written any worthwhile code. BlueJ is an IDE, but one that is specifically developed for teaching Java. It's so good MS tried to steal the idea but got caught and after a lot of hand waving backed off saying it was just a bad mistake, kinda like your momma talks about you.
Corporations have come to place a premium on aggregating personal information. If incorporated entities that do business with private individuals place such a premium on the individual's personal information doesn't that constitute value in a contractual sense? If personal information is of considerable value then is any one individual in a position to sell or contract h/is/er private data to a legal entity? Could a legal entity be incorporated in such a manner as to better protect the rights of any one individual to privacy and/or reimbursement for use of their private data than might a single individual? Would there be a pay off? Is it a viable business model, aggregating personal information, as a way to better ensure privacy, prohibit abuse and perhaps see some value in return? I dunno.
Admittedly I'm a noop but I've put in 20yrs on PCs and studied most of the structure of PC operating systems and most of the key languages. While I still think BlueJ is an outstanding introduction to the concepts of programming I believe learning the CLI is the best introduction to progamming because it forces the student to interact with the OS while introducing the basic statements of all programming languages. Programming languages tend to either be to low level and demanding an abstruse use of logic or high level while trying to explain how to implement abstruse rules of logic in a way said to be more tractable to 'common sense'. But the CLI uses nearly all the basic concepts and interacts directly with the OS and acts on files. It instructs in the fundamentals of programming languages while adding the benefit of displaying how an OS is structured and functions. I'm probably way off on this but it worked for me, remember I'm a noop, unworthy of being flamed and deserving of at best contemptuous neglect.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Having been active on the Internet since the 90's and a /. reader since the late 90's I'm pretty much up to speed on the degree of identity theft that has taken place. But where's the money? Where's the proceeds of all the identity and credit card theft? If you added up all the stolen identities and credit card thefts you'd think a big chunk would have been bitten out of the economy. There doesn't seem to be any significant bleeding. Does it all add up to not much more than a drop in the bucket. On a personal note I think I'd be better serve being able to establish my personal information has been stolen multiple times. Maybe a new type of fraud will be 'stealing' your own credit cards and going on an online spending spree.
I'm a strong environmentalist, but also strongly support exporting recycling and waste management to developing countries. I think the overriding necessary condition is one of controls over the exportation of waste goods and the methods of waste management. Obviously control over waste management in an autonomous state is highly problematic, but for developing countries that are willing to meet the requirements, the benefits to them and to us are considerable. The protocols and governing legislation necessary to the effective and safe management of wast and recyclables could be a vital link to injecting democratic methods into developing nations. In return we might consider barter rather than hard currency. The process would link us to them and allow for a more tractable means of aiding developing countries at all levels. Moreover the recyclables would introduce them to the amenities of our manufacturing sector and provide a basis for future trade. Breaking down recyclables and waste products according to effective, environmental protocols would also give hands on education in basis technology. Seeing such trade as an 'evil', passing of the costs of waste management and recycling onto poorer nations misses the rich interchange of wealth and technology along with cultural ties such trade can effect.
...Gathering... ...Gathering... gee that was really satisfying, I why?
Sleep theories seem to range considerably but there is consensus that most people need, on average 8 hours. Some theorists hold that sleep and dreaming are processes that developed to, one the one hand, keep us still and hidden away from night time predators, and, OTOH, to consolidate recent critical experiences into long term memories. My own recent theory is that sleep is the brain's synchronization process. It's loosely stated the brain is widely distributed and massively parallel processed and that even a simple idea like 'apple' requires disparate brain modules to function synchronously. I think sleep and dreaming are the brains way to rehearse complex activities recently required in waking life. The brain in sleep is thus like a symphonic orchestra in rehearsal, especially in terms of dreaming. Although other sleep cycles seem to be necessary to body repair. Men, in recent readings, are thought to require much more deep sleep than women because it's in deep sleep that the male body effects repairs. Thus far I've not come across my idea that sleep and dreaming are synchronization and rehearsal events, but on /. I expect a fair, unbiased hearing. ;)
The ancient Greeks, remember Pythagoras, saw numbers as things, and, IIRC, used their alphabet to represent numbers. Then came the cumbersome Roman numerical system and, finally, more or less, the Arabic which may have been derived from Indian, Sanskrit sources. OK, so history aside, why bother. Because as far back as the first flicker of the enlightenment commentators have been suggesting Science would become the new religion. If a religion is seen as 'the book', or, the canon cementing a civilization together than it becomes convenient and, perhaps, even necessary that symbols pop up everywhere. If e were everywhere, which it is kinda, then science, or, the sciences may become more tractable to more people. This is gonna happen anyway, but will it induce in true believers the criticality crucial to the methodology of science? My best guess is no, most people are happily submerged in their limbic motivations and drives and live wet lives blissfully out of touch with the arduous work of critical thinking. It's been recently suggested that intelligence stems from associational pathways. Wild extrapolation allows one to posit that while science symbols made ubiquitous would help people better immerse themselves in the new story driven by science theory, and, more especially evolution theory; it won't help foster critical thought.
3 years for me, but it's not as difficult as quitting smoking. The rewards are probably as great or greater than quitting smoking. The time freed up for living is the most mind blowing thing, not to mention being able to keep up with the core science stuff and getting back to being playfully curious rather than a spoon fed couch potato.
The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are those the public is most likely to bring to mind when envisioning schizophrenics, these include auditory hallucinations and paranoid behaviour. It's these symptoms that seem to be most amenable to treatment with drugs that act on the dopamine system. The second set of the disease's symptoms are termed negative symptoms and include social isolation and degrees of depression. These secondary symptoms currently have few effective treatments. My best guess would be that nicotine and smoking, (the ritual and anachronistic, Freudian, oral pleasure) treat the secondary symptoms.
FWIW I'm a diagnosed schizophrenic with a uni education and a plus 160 IQ. I've been diagnosed as schizophrenic, schizo-affective, and, possibly not schizophrenic at all; but my favourite diagnosis came from a neuropsychiatrist, who, upon learning that I had begun studies of epistemology at age 17, said: "People who study epistemology... (long pause)... I don't know... (head shaking)... I just don't know." My case seems to be the more interesting because I recognized my symptoms and sought medical attention, and, while suffering the full range of symptoms, was able to deal with them as symptoms of a disease and not as in any way defining who I am or considering them as causes of action. John Nash, he of "A Beautiful Mind" escaped the symptoms of his schizophrenia when he learned not to argue with his voices. The most debilitating aspect of schizophrenia is that people seem not to understand that it's a brain based disease and that the mind, as put by a neuroscientist, is just the brain doing it's job. More high functioning schizophrenics are able to get on with their lives because schizophrenia is now known to be a a disease no different than any other and the symptoms can be detected, marked, treated, minimized, and, over time, all but disregarded in day to day life.
The Land Rushes that served up the last of the best lands America had to offer aren't too unlike the rationale driving the patenting of intellectual property. Corporations are driven by the need to protect themselves from potential future costs by claiming every "square inch" of intellectual property the US patent system will allow them to grab. If international laws are put in place governing intellectual property that are enforceable then the current seeming madness is the best available means of positioning American interests for the largest possible slice of the pie. About the time of the last land rushes Spencer's ideology of "survival of the fittest" was being touted as a rationale for the unconscionable actions of Yankee Traders who were infamous for their ruthless greed. It's a hedgemonists' zero sum game. There's method in the madness, madness though it be.
IANANP 'n I'm just ask'n but could this be a solution to Large Hadron Collider Struggling ? We all know if it weren't for Einstein running at the speed of light while shaving we wouldn't even have a Special Theory of Relativity. But like I said I'm just throw'n the idea out there.
Thanks for the pointer. I've not tried it, but do run Octave and R. Although, after plus 2 decades on PCs, I find pen and paper best suited to my needs.
"Don't do the crime, If you can't do the time." "S/he ain't worth the time." The latter one simply means if you're thinking about hurting someone for whatever reason make sure s/he is worth the time you might have to serve. Wet crimes are done by individuals for their own gain. There's no degree of separation between them and the crime. It's their hormones talking. In this case the guy stole a domain with a sexy name. The idea of the name had to juice him up to the point where he got stupid enough to try to pull it off first hand. A crime involving an amount over $X will usually put you in a different arena with much stiffer penalties. Petty criminals with drug habits shoplift all day every day and just wind their way in and out of court without much of a care. The real criminal profits are tied to our inability to rationally handle classes. Corporations routinely push the boundaries of criminal activity by playing off individual tied to criminal activity against the legal entity that is the corporation said criminals work for. Our inability to distinguish criminal activity by a class of people or an entity of a different class order is a virulent criminal ecological niche. Most corporations are also very adept at stealing or defrauding small amounts from each customer in a large customer base and thereby reaping huge criminal gains while forcing investigations for small $ amounts or calling for class action suits.
My last Word, Office Pro 2003. No one asks for it anymore. There was a time in the recent past when the majority of requests for submissions would be accompanied by a request for a .doc format, not anymore. Now it's just email me and most of the stuff stays in the cloud or in email format. HTML 5 will probably be the last nail driven in the infrastructure that makes the browser the be all and end all of office documentation. Excel is still deeply entrenched among the bean counters and the armchair quarterbacks running sports fantasy teams but, for my purposes, I've found OpenOffice and GNU Cash to be ample in all regards.
That's gonna leave a mark. Late night "relaxed" post. It was supposed to be: While we the people believe the principles involved are moot, the principals of the RIAA believe we the people should be mute. Still not all that good, but really, I've very little shame. :)
While we the people believe the principles involved are moot. The RIAA believes we the people should be mute.
If you can cram it in a locker maybe geeks can give phys ed bullies a substitute to abuse.
So you're selling a revived game and in the most self deprecating manner front page it's availability on /. where it's most likely to garner the most exposure to the audience most likely to buy it. All the while dismissing any thoughts of making a buck. I salute you sirs, you're evil genius marketing talents are truly evil. Day job in MS marketing?
For awhile I've believed any world people capable of distant space travel and other colonization would need as a prerequisite world peace, world order and one rule of law. First the marshaling of resources necessary would require near world wide cooperation and second, as is presently our case, prior to a world government, states knowledgeable enough to even consider such far ranging travel would most likely put their resources toward weaponizing near space as a response deterrent to their presumed enemies. Second the best and the brightest necessary to such an undertaking aren't going to be on hand in any one nation or coalition and will be the best and the brightest we as a species can muster. Large inter tribal structures are capable of bonding factious tribes and when such inter tribal structures offer benefits they can act as a deterrent to conflict. Inter planetary, let alone inter stellar travel are such magnanimous undertakings and can drive world peace and world law. It may be that any world that has achieved space travel technology able to colonize distant planets have in place laws that would make it highly problematic for them to contact waring tribes such as ourselves. Who would they contact? Would their choice of a tribe to contact cause conflict?
The software is lagging behind hardware on every PCish platform. So now the hardware is so far ahead some developer is talking about room to develop a new experience. How sad is that. Kids use their gaming boxes to gossip with one another while their gaming, that's the only recent real development. The games aren't going anywhere because all that's being added is more dynamic detail to the same old tired story lines. Go read the epic of Gilgamesh written about 3000 or so years ago, it's the same old story a fight for love and glory. There are new paths to be found for gamers but they're going to come from creative genius that delivers a new experience from a now, nearly formed matrix nested in the mature Internet. MS doesn't do creative, not ever, never; it's not just anathema to them, it's outside their event horizon.
Finally the blue man won't be singing the bluez all alone
In his book 'Laws of Form', G.S.Brown stated, (from memory) "draw a distinction and a universe comes into being". His book was widely panned and he was seen as markedly eccentric but the idea of a universe coming into being when a distinction is drawn is useful. Our moral code is necessarily somewhat arbitrary and plastic, but we need an agreed upon moral code if we're to govern ourselves. Democracy should ensure the greatest possible personal freedom under the rule of law. Where you go from there is up for grabs. I believe in the family unit as paramount. A man and a woman raising a family is my personal kernel, for others, my values might seem ridiculous or even criminal but that doesn't vitiate the need for a value system that carries moral weight. From my value system cloning is immoral but stem cell research isn't, from my value system abortion is a woman's right for others not. Ultimately, in the face of all the choices and dilemmas, experience and common sense shows democracy and the rule of law to be the best available form of government. Right now people like me who value the family unit as the heart of democracy are still in the majority although the line is fuzzy on stem cell research, the line on cloning isn't, cloning technology should be closely scrutinized and regulated.
An old PBS special on everybody's favourite organ, the brain, broadcast the finding that gossip is prevalent in language use and that our relatively, outsized brains may have evolved as a response to more convoluted social programmes. The infrequent times I listen to a commercial radio station, (I've not had commercial TV for 3 yrs), I often find google used as a means of acquiring the tidbits of information commonly referred to as cocktail party gossip. Twitter is an example of the same function. ( In fact I would venture a search engine streamlined to twitter would be a winner. ) Bing is to Google what Ralf Lauren is to Beneton and the whole issue is about marketing. The outlier portion of users that don't constitute the gossip crowd aren't going to show in the tally. The primary internet search engines are at least 3 years past being serviceable as anything but marketing tools unless the user has put in the time to tweak their searches or is searching for stuff that isn't worth marketing. Other than that closing the loop will amount to a bluetooth dongle picking up on the wearer's conversation and feeding in just so catchphrases and jokes while demanding in payment the wearer buy a specific product with the necessary exclamatory endorsement.
Not long ago a story ran describing a long term debt offering by MS. The story was noteworthy because it stated MS had never offered long term debt instruments. Old school investment theory, as I remember it, would characterize an MS offering of long term debt instruments as one sign of a mature company. It may be the MS brain trust sees it's revenue flattening out and wants to lock in some long term money. Moving into bricks and mortar is another story, although if they see their revenue base flattening or receding like a middle aged hair line then maybe their looking to generate new revenue from a new venue. The question arises as to the likelihood of their offering their own boxes. I'm pretty sure the margin on PC stuff is as thin as it gets but they must have a strategy in hand. Some time ago Bill Gates rather infamously prophesied that, about now, PC hardware would be free with the OS and software being the only costs. Whatever the present state of information suggests I'd expect some good old extend, embrace and extinguish action.
no operation, noop was a term used by early assembly language programmers for people, perhaps very much like yourself, who talked a great deal about programming without ever having written any worthwhile code. BlueJ is an IDE, but one that is specifically developed for teaching Java. It's so good MS tried to steal the idea but got caught and after a lot of hand waving backed off saying it was just a bad mistake, kinda like your momma talks about you.
Corporations have come to place a premium on aggregating personal information. If incorporated entities that do business with private individuals place such a premium on the individual's personal information doesn't that constitute value in a contractual sense? If personal information is of considerable value then is any one individual in a position to sell or contract h/is/er private data to a legal entity? Could a legal entity be incorporated in such a manner as to better protect the rights of any one individual to privacy and/or reimbursement for use of their private data than might a single individual? Would there be a pay off? Is it a viable business model, aggregating personal information, as a way to better ensure privacy, prohibit abuse and perhaps see some value in return? I dunno.
Admittedly I'm a noop but I've put in 20yrs on PCs and studied most of the structure of PC operating systems and most of the key languages. While I still think BlueJ is an outstanding introduction to the concepts of programming I believe learning the CLI is the best introduction to progamming because it forces the student to interact with the OS while introducing the basic statements of all programming languages. Programming languages tend to either be to low level and demanding an abstruse use of logic or high level while trying to explain how to implement abstruse rules of logic in a way said to be more tractable to 'common sense'. But the CLI uses nearly all the basic concepts and interacts directly with the OS and acts on files. It instructs in the fundamentals of programming languages while adding the benefit of displaying how an OS is structured and functions. I'm probably way off on this but it worked for me, remember I'm a noop, unworthy of being flamed and deserving of at best contemptuous neglect. :)