Isn't the old Psych 100 rule of thumb that people can remember about 7 + or - 2 elements of information in their short term memory? Seems like we're getting painfully close to the limit!
Is this the system where you would dial the area code before the number (e.g., 703-555-1212 instead of just 505-1212) even on local calls? If so, they're already doing this in a number of places (including VA, where I live). It's tough to tell from the article....
I wonder if this is gonna freak out the folks at Apple.. they've historically held pretty control over their systems (with their OS and proprietary HW).
Might scare them to see people tweaking the OS on their machines....
"You can't forge MD5," Weekly said via instant message. "Napster uses MD5 to fingerprint each song. The thing is, if you change one bit in the song, you get a different MD5. Meaning that if you try and track songs by their MD5s, and the users find out, they will be able to very easily modify their songs to have wildly different MD5s."
Why not make this part of the file-sharing protocol? The user could click a box that says "Use anti-signature device" before downloading and a few unimportant bits would get flipped intentionally during download. Then, every file would have a unique MD5 signature.
If it's been patented commercially already, no thank you. The last thing the web needs is to get wrapped up in another Unisys/GIF problem.
And how the heck does it figure out what the "foreground" and "background" components are, anyway? If I have to go in and mask out the background before saving, then forget it.
You pay me $20, and I'll throw your computer in the back of my pickup and dump it off at the landfill in the middle of the night.
Ah, capitalism at work..
:)
Re:Some kind of record has to be kept
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 1
You have to keep track of who voted (so people don't vote twice). This doesn't mean keeping full logs of every transaction, but it isn't possible to not keep any logs at all as the article initially states.
Nah, no need to keep a log. Just wipe out the person's password when their voting transaction goes through.
Great, you've got the word of the week calendar, too. If you're interested in an intelligent discussion, then don't resort to petty name-calling. Since I am interested in an intelligent discussion, here goes...
They wanted to avoid the frightful nature of a dominating majority that might exploit the rights of a strong minority.
I fail to see how this is the case - as it is now, the minority has LESS say in things because of the electoral college. The minority's voice (in this case, Nader's) got "rounded out" -- he received zero electoral votes even though a substantial number of American's supported him.
Perhaps you meant a geographic minority -- e.g., more densely populated areas (Northeast?) get more say in who is elected, trumping the voice of less densely populated areas... I could see merit in that argument...
With the Congress split evenly today and unlikely to change anytime soon given the American attention span for all things political, I think we can agree that change is about as likely as snow in hell.
What difference does it make if Congress is split evenly? Even though this change would, in this case, benefit Democrats, it's a bipartisan issue. I consider myself a pretty firm Repulican, but I would (currently - I'm always willing to entertain intelligent arguments) support elimination of the electoral college.
An unfortunate side effect of this system is that republicans won't bother campaigning in historically dem states, and vice versa, which is a disservice to the voters, really.
I don't buy that for an instant. On the contrary, a popularly elected president would be forced to visit states during his campaign that he currently ignores. For instance, Maryland is a traditionally Democratic state. It has a strong Repulican base, but a couple of larger districts always swing the state. So, no one bothers campaigning there because everyone knows the Democrats will win Maryland's electoral votes. Under a popular election, the strong Repulican base would come into play and encourage a campaign in MD by both sides.
Hmmm... I fail to see how it would significantly impact the level of power the President has over Congress.. nor do I see how a popular vote constitues a "mandate" any more than an electoral vote does... can you elaborate?
It was pointed out here the other day that the electoral college was established out of fear that the US population would be unable to educate themselves about the candidates enough to make an informed decision. It's very easy to inform yourself about a candidate via the Internet and TV/Radio in today's US. Plus, we have an educated country today, something the founding fathers couldn't claim when they penned the electoral college.
The electoral college is a dinosaur in desperate need of EXTINCTION! Just cause it's always been that way don't make it RIGHT..
Sid
Interesting that it looks like Gore's won the popular vote..
This may be the end of the electoral college once people realize that the Executive branch of government is not truly representative of the people's will..
Excellent, it takes something like this to hit 'em where they sleep.
Politicians are finally going to have to wake up and realize that no one wins when it comes to censorship. "Go ahead and burn the all the books. Whoa, hold on, those are MY memoirs. I meant burn EVERYONE ELSE'S books". Yeesh.
Now, if we could only make other geek-ish issues like DMCA, IP-law, and guaranteed anonymity hit home as clearly, we could probably get something DONE inside Beltway-gridlock-land.
Hmmm... so you get to name dinosaurs you discover?.. Now THAT would be a great Slashdot poll. If a new dinosaur is discovered, what would your favorite name be?
I think I would name it Kharma-whoreus. Hopefully, it'll breathe fire.
Whew, it must have been a long day today.. my posts are making less and less sense as the hours wind down..
Your karma should burn because T. Rex is not one of the 'long necked' type dinos. Geez, don't you research your jokes?;-) (and yes that's a winking smiley dammit!)
Yeah, that post went pretty much like this:
"Bronto-... Bronta-... Bronto-.... screw it. T.Rex."
I'm getting sick and friggin' tired of seeing e-mails with the subject "Re: Info you requested".. when I know for a FACT that I didn't request anything from them! Geez, like they really think I'm going to want to do business with a DECEPTIVE company..
Scary thing is, I'm starting to see the same practices in REGULAR junk mail. I'm getting envelopes marked "INSIDE! The info you requested!" and "Your subscription verification!" when I requested NO info NOR signed up for any subscriptions. They're just trying to panic you into opening the envelope, getting them past marketing brick wall #1.
The political parties we have extend back under different names to the beginning of politics in this country, and I imagine trace their roots all the way back to the major parties in England. Basically, there's always been a "right" and a "left", regardless of what they've been called. (I think Tories and Whigs at one point?)
There's nothing "official" about the two-party system - it just sort of grew that way out of convenience. In fact, in his farewell Presidential speech, George Washington warned against the evils of forming political parties. He could already see factioning taking place among the founding fathers. Despite his warnings, the two-party system still emerged.
In the past, there have been other third parties that have achieved some level of success -- Bull Moose (is that right?), more recently the Reform Party, etc... but America has largely remained two party, perhaps out of tradition (and fear of "throwing your vote away" on a third-party candidate) as much as anything else.
Ever see that episode of Simpsons where the two aliens (Krang and the other fella - can't remember the name) steal the bodies of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole?
Reporter: "How do you feel about abortions?" Krang:"Abortions for some, tiny American flags for others!" People:"Yaaaay!!"
Any way, the point was, it didn't matter which one got elected -- whichever one you voted for, world domination would ensue.
At times, it feels like it doesn't matter which political spin factory we hire to blow sunshine up our skirts -- they're just going to spout a lot of rhetoric and try REALLY hard to preserve the status quo while pretending to have the least offensive opinions possible.
No (major) candidate in 30 years has had the initiative of a JFK. Tell me that you're going to put a man on MARS by the end of the decade (ala JFK's man on the moon) and I'll vote for you.
I *think* he's describing the technology he wrote behind Shields Up! He alluded to a "new, high-speed method" for scanning IP ports reliably when he created Shields Up! and promised he would draw back the curtain at some point and explain how he did it...
In short, I think this essentially *is* Shields Up...
For goodness sakes, does this company think they own the IP for barcodes?? Or that they invented the idea of an online database??
Or do they think that somehow combining the two represents a brand new idea that should be protected from competition?
Yeesh. I don't remember anyone promising these people that they had some God-given RIGHT to make money and trample everyone else in the process. If you want to make money in a capitalist marketplace, offer a *better* product for *less* money!
"While MP3.com battled its way through the courts, two potential competitors funded by the major labels prepared to launch similar streaming music services.
With backing from BMG and Universal and a deal with Virgin Megastores, Musicbank is set to debut sometime before the end of the year. Earlier in
the year, Sony announced plans to unveil a streaming digital locker
service."
So in reality, the major labels liked MP3.com's idea so much, they decided to run 'em out of business and copy their idea! Very Microsoftian, no?
From the page: "There was a time when the citizens of the US did not need to understand legal jargon to understand the law."
Hmm.. nice sentiment, but it sure hasn't been true in recent memory! Although it wasn't the US, remember what Shakespeare said about lawyers - they were a pain in the ass back in his day, too!
If you can mount an IDE HD I wonder how tough it would be to get an IDE CD-ROM up and going?
It seems like it would make swapping media a heck of lot easier... if I'm running this thing in an car, I don't wanna go using a HD anyway. CD-ROM or flash would be preferable.
Oops! Another bumpy road - there's $250 down the tubes..:)
Slashdot Mirror
Is this the system where you would dial the area code before the number (e.g., 703-555-1212 instead of just 505-1212) even on local calls? If so, they're already doing this in a number of places (including VA, where I live). It's tough to tell from the article....
Might scare them to see people tweaking the OS on their machines....
Why not make this part of the file-sharing protocol? The user could click a box that says "Use anti-signature device" before downloading and a few unimportant bits would get flipped intentionally during download. Then, every file would have a unique MD5 signature.
And how the heck does it figure out what the "foreground" and "background" components are, anyway? If I have to go in and mask out the background before saving, then forget it.
You just wait until *I'm* put in charge of a nuclear death ray satellite. Momma would be so proud.
Ah, capitalism at work..
Nah, no need to keep a log. Just wipe out the person's password when their voting transaction goes through.
Great, you've got the word of the week calendar, too. If you're interested in an intelligent discussion, then don't resort to petty name-calling. Since I am interested in an intelligent discussion, here goes...
They wanted to avoid the frightful nature of a dominating majority that might exploit the rights of a strong minority.
I fail to see how this is the case - as it is now, the minority has LESS say in things because of the electoral college. The minority's voice (in this case, Nader's) got "rounded out" -- he received zero electoral votes even though a substantial number of American's supported him.
Perhaps you meant a geographic minority -- e.g., more densely populated areas (Northeast?) get more say in who is elected, trumping the voice of less densely populated areas... I could see merit in that argument...
With the Congress split evenly today and unlikely to change anytime soon given the American attention span for all things political, I think we can agree that change is about as likely as snow in hell.
What difference does it make if Congress is split evenly? Even though this change would, in this case, benefit Democrats, it's a bipartisan issue. I consider myself a pretty firm Repulican, but I would (currently - I'm always willing to entertain intelligent arguments) support elimination of the electoral college.
I don't buy that for an instant. On the contrary, a popularly elected president would be forced to visit states during his campaign that he currently ignores. For instance, Maryland is a traditionally Democratic state. It has a strong Repulican base, but a couple of larger districts always swing the state. So, no one bothers campaigning there because everyone knows the Democrats will win Maryland's electoral votes. Under a popular election, the strong Repulican base would come into play and encourage a campaign in MD by both sides.
It was pointed out here the other day that the electoral college was established out of fear that the US population would be unable to educate themselves about the candidates enough to make an informed decision. It's very easy to inform yourself about a candidate via the Internet and TV/Radio in today's US. Plus, we have an educated country today, something the founding fathers couldn't claim when they penned the electoral college.
The electoral college is a dinosaur in desperate need of EXTINCTION! Just cause it's always been that way don't make it RIGHT.. Sid
This may be the end of the electoral college once people realize that the Executive branch of government is not truly representative of the people's will..
Politicians are finally going to have to wake up and realize that no one wins when it comes to censorship. "Go ahead and burn the all the books. Whoa, hold on, those are MY memoirs. I meant burn EVERYONE ELSE'S books". Yeesh.
Now, if we could only make other geek-ish issues like DMCA, IP-law, and guaranteed anonymity hit home as clearly, we could probably get something DONE inside Beltway-gridlock-land.
I think I would name it Kharma-whoreus. Hopefully, it'll breathe fire.
Whew, it must have been a long day today.. my posts are making less and less sense as the hours wind down..
Yeah, that post went pretty much like this: "Bronto- ... Bronta-... Bronto-.... screw it. T.Rex."
Buck up, little T. Rex, it's all right..
Whew, bad joke. I can practically smell my karma burning.. :)
Sid
Sid
I'm getting sick and friggin' tired of seeing e-mails with the subject "Re: Info you requested".. when I know for a FACT that I didn't request anything from them! Geez, like they really think I'm going to want to do business with a DECEPTIVE company..
Scary thing is, I'm starting to see the same practices in REGULAR junk mail. I'm getting envelopes marked "INSIDE! The info you requested!" and "Your subscription verification!" when I requested NO info NOR signed up for any subscriptions. They're just trying to panic you into opening the envelope, getting them past marketing brick wall #1.
Sid
The political parties we have extend back under different names to the beginning of politics in this country, and I imagine trace their roots all the way back to the major parties in England. Basically, there's always been a "right" and a "left", regardless of what they've been called. (I think Tories and Whigs at one point?)
There's nothing "official" about the two-party system - it just sort of grew that way out of convenience. In fact, in his farewell Presidential speech, George Washington warned against the evils of forming political parties. He could already see factioning taking place among the founding fathers. Despite his warnings, the two-party system still emerged.
In the past, there have been other third parties that have achieved some level of success -- Bull Moose (is that right?), more recently the Reform Party, etc... but America has largely remained two party, perhaps out of tradition (and fear of "throwing your vote away" on a third-party candidate) as much as anything else.
Reporter: "How do you feel about abortions?"
Krang:"Abortions for some, tiny American flags for others!"
People:"Yaaaay!!"
Any way, the point was, it didn't matter which one got elected -- whichever one you voted for, world domination would ensue.
At times, it feels like it doesn't matter which political spin factory we hire to blow sunshine up our skirts -- they're just going to spout a lot of rhetoric and try REALLY hard to preserve the status quo while pretending to have the least offensive opinions possible.
No (major) candidate in 30 years has had the initiative of a JFK. Tell me that you're going to put a man on MARS by the end of the decade (ala JFK's man on the moon) and I'll vote for you.
Que Paso? Can you elaborate on what exactly this "slamming" practice is? Did they switch your provider without your permission?
In short, I think this essentially *is* Shields Up...
Or do they think that somehow combining the two represents a brand new idea that should be protected from competition?
Yeesh. I don't remember anyone promising these people that they had some God-given RIGHT to make money and trample everyone else in the process. If you want to make money in a capitalist marketplace, offer a *better* product for *less* money!
With backing from BMG and Universal and a deal with Virgin Megastores, Musicbank is set to debut sometime before the end of the year. Earlier in the year, Sony announced plans to unveil a streaming digital locker service."
So in reality, the major labels liked MP3.com's idea so much, they decided to run 'em out of business and copy their idea! Very Microsoftian, no?
Hmm.. nice sentiment, but it sure hasn't been true in recent memory! Although it wasn't the US, remember what Shakespeare said about lawyers - they were a pain in the ass back in his day, too!
It seems like it would make swapping media a heck of lot easier... if I'm running this thing in an car, I don't wanna go using a HD anyway. CD-ROM or flash would be preferable.
Oops! Another bumpy road - there's $250 down the tubes.. :)