I think it would be interesting if patents were treated a bit more like trademarks in that if you don't defend them you lose them. it may stop a few things from happening; 1. Waiting till a product gets widely accepted and then suing. If you don't sue withing a certain number of years the patent is dead. 2. Picking on the small guys who do not have the money to defend themselves. Require patent holder to sue all patent violators or the patent is dead. The main issue is would the patent holder know about the infringement. In many cases it would be easy but harder in others. The second point would allow the target of the lawsuit to bring in other bigger players to help defend against bad patents.
I have Asperger's Syndrome an Autism spectrum disorder. Autism is a spectrum meaning that almost everyone has it to some degree. The difference between a quirk and a disorder is that a disorder gets in the way of every day life. Sure every geek is awkward at times but autism is a different thing. For example, most people keep eye contact pretty well. I have to think about it because my natural tendency is to watch someone's mouth when they speak because that is where the information is coming from. I get little information from facial expressions until I think about them and compare them with past experiences. This makes social interactions very tiring as I have to think about everything; very little come intuitively. I have learned why I get exhausted and frustrated in social situations and have, since the diagnosis, found ways to deal with it. So your definition of autism disorder being a bit nerdy/geeky is way off.
That being said, I do not see it as any justification for breaking the law. In fact I see it as a reason for harsher punishment. Autistic people do not get social cues so we have a tendency to be rule followers. Autism has nothing to do with confusing right and wrong. I think the mention of autism was to garner sympathy and maybe a lesser sentence. I say throw the book at him.
There's nothing Mars-specific about those; they aren't even interplanetary travel problems.
The difference being that homicide and suicide will not wipe out the human race but it can wipe out a colony. All it takes in a lunatic to blow up the oxygen plant and there goes every life. Both of these problems are exacerbated by the inability to significantly change one's environment. On Earth one can make new friends, move to a new city, spend time outdoors, etc, These options do not exist when you have to see and work with the person or persons you hate every day. There is a much higher probability of developing a psychosis on a Mars colony than on Earth. Considering the failed isolation experiments on Earth I would say it was almost a certainty.
Valid problems, but sufficiently well-engineered hardware and equipment can mitigate them
Well engineered hardware and equipment has never failed? What about that door seal that hasn't been replaced in 10 years. Every item has a mean time between failure and there is no way to manufacture everything on Mars.
Those aren't going to be problems because supply missions are pointless for a colony.
That is the whole point. Mars colonies are not viable because they can never be made self sufficient. There will always be parts that can not be manufactured on Mars that will be needed as they wear out and fail.
So Martian dwellers will not die of thirst and possibly starvation. There are still the following to deal with; 1. suicide 2. homicide 3. radiation 4. equipment failure 5. missed supply missions 6. funding cuts which end supply missions.
How about the following? 1. An app that interfaces with a glucose reader that calculates what dose of insulin and when to administer but miscalculates and over/under prescribes. 2. An app that displays ECGs for cardiologists but mis-displays and life threatening illnesses are missed. 3. A portable ECG that mis-records? I used to work at a company that uses puck sized ECGs with USB interfaces. 4. An app that interfaces with a blood pressure cuff and attempts to diagnose high blood pressure.
A smart phone makes a great display and data recorder and they can get into areas where mistakes can cause death or disability.
What's relevant is the climate of the last few thousand years
Considering the recorded history of ice coverage is only 40 years and using your "few thousand years" as a guide that is still only 1.3% of the relevant time period.
You are still thinking too short a time period. I am thinking 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 years ago. What happened in the last 500 years is still to short a time to say that ice loss similar to what is happening now has not happened before and without the help of man.. Recorded history is a snap of the fingers in geologic time.
Even if it goes back to the '30s, 80 years is a millisecond in geologic terms. There is too much emphasis put on "recorded history" when is is such a short time period.
According to this German energy report (page 9) the output of solar generated electricity ranges from 0.35 TWh in January to 5.1 TWh in July. So in the sunny summer months solar works great. In the stormy winter months not so much. Look at page 13. Notice that the conventional power production in January is at least as much as the total production in May through August. Even wind is not reliable. Look at page 45. The first and last week have lots of wind power produced; week 3 almost none.There still needs to be the conventional electricity sources available when solar and wind is not sufficient. There are too many reports of record breaking output and too few of the low outputs.
Also take a look at page 74. Notice as Solar becomes more prevalent so does the importation of electricity in the morning and evening. Overall the more solar produced the more electricity imported and less exported.
An Anonymous Coward post an accusation against someone using a real ID.. Also notice that he replied to his own message and not one of mine. Probably hoping I would not notice. As they say; "consider the source"
I have commented all all his assertions in other posts.
The thing is that different systems pick up different minutiae. Did you actually try the process of creating prints and using them on different systems? If you used the same encoding software then sure it will work but different companies use different software.
The cost of email is in the infrastructure which is shared across hundreds of other uses.
How does that relate to you assertion that "Punch-clocks have been good enough for about a century." New technology comes along that is better than old technology.
Authoritarians tend towards a lack of empathy, so it is no surprise you come to that conclusion.
Anarchists tend towards paranoid delusions. That statement is about as relevant to the discussion as yours. You have no idea whether or not I am an authoritarian.
That is a deliberate mis-reading of the article
I think you need to read the article you cited better;
When she put her covered finger on the biometric pad, it registered the fake fingerprint, which was not in the database of criminals.
So instead of trying to determine the identification of someone for entry, Japan is trying to determine the ID to keep them out. Though I am not familiar with the workings of Japan's system, trying to prove that you are NOT someone is really not a good use of biometrics.
Japan is matching against a small database of people blacklisted from entry. If the fingerprint they scan is not in the database you are allowed entry.That is very different than verifying someone's identity with a fingerprint. The article says nothing about using biometrics to confirm that someone IS in a database. As the article said;
unless the system has a database of EVERY person in the world, then it has no idea that the fake fingerprints are not real.
For all the system knows the fake fingerprint could be computer generated and not relate to a person at all.
Three intellectually dishonest claims from you say to me that you are more interested in a pissing-match rather than finding truth, so I'm done.
So personal attacks, and assumptions of my motive are you last comment? To me that shows someone who's argument has failed.
Breach of contract, invasion of privacy, mental suffering, etc. Enough for the employees to not have to work for years. A few hundred thousand each should about do.
You already consented to the recording, and the recording was lawfully made.
You consented to recording for "customer service and training purposes" and nothing else. Use by the police would be outside that consent and require a search warrant with cause. Search warrants are hard to get for fishing expeditions. The same thing goes for gathering fingerprints for the purposes of time tracking. If they can get a search warrant for the electronic fingerprint they can have you come in and get fingerprinted.
What about next years model, the model they use to replace it when they inevitably break?
It is up to the union to keep track of that sort of thing and vet the new model. It's their job.
Two years out a crime is committed in a tube, a police officer notes tube workers use fingerprint scanners,
Your last point is moot if the union is doing it's job. Even if the system did log the fingerprint image, giving those images to the police makes the statement "We will never give fingerprint data to the police" a lie. Also, according to this the police need authorization from the person to take his fingerprints. I believe any unauthorized fingerprints transmitted to the police would have to be removed under those provisions as the employer would be acting as an agent for the police.
This analysis is based on the assumption that a 5% decrease in production can not be made up by other manufacturers. The telling question is whether or not all buyers are being supplied with the chips they need. Is the price increase due to manufacturers not getting part of the fear of not getting parts? If everyone is getting what they need then it is an artificial shortage.
Punch-clocks have been good enough for about a century.
So has snail mail and we use it much less today as we have a better technology called email.
Whether one is scanning a fingerprint, punching a card or signing a sheet of paper I see no difference. The worker is being treated the same way; in your view as a criminal.
Do you have evidence that such attacks have been mitigated?
I can't find the reference but an article I read said that better sensors detect temperature and blood flow to counter the fake fingers.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it would be interesting if patents were treated a bit more like trademarks in that if you don't defend them you lose them. it may stop a few things from happening;
1. Waiting till a product gets widely accepted and then suing. If you don't sue withing a certain number of years the patent is dead.
2. Picking on the small guys who do not have the money to defend themselves. Require patent holder to sue all patent violators or the patent is dead.
The main issue is would the patent holder know about the infringement. In many cases it would be easy but harder in others. The second point would allow the target of the lawsuit to bring in other bigger players to help defend against bad patents.
Men's cleavage? Oh, wait, that was a joke. I had to thing about that for a minute.
I have Asperger's Syndrome an Autism spectrum disorder. Autism is a spectrum meaning that almost everyone has it to some degree. The difference between a quirk and a disorder is that a disorder gets in the way of every day life. Sure every geek is awkward at times but autism is a different thing. For example, most people keep eye contact pretty well. I have to think about it because my natural tendency is to watch someone's mouth when they speak because that is where the information is coming from. I get little information from facial expressions until I think about them and compare them with past experiences. This makes social interactions very tiring as I have to think about everything; very little come intuitively. I have learned why I get exhausted and frustrated in social situations and have, since the diagnosis, found ways to deal with it. So your definition of autism disorder being a bit nerdy/geeky is way off.
That being said, I do not see it as any justification for breaking the law. In fact I see it as a reason for harsher punishment. Autistic people do not get social cues so we have a tendency to be rule followers. Autism has nothing to do with confusing right and wrong. I think the mention of autism was to garner sympathy and maybe a lesser sentence. I say throw the book at him.
There's nothing Mars-specific about those; they aren't even interplanetary travel problems.
The difference being that homicide and suicide will not wipe out the human race but it can wipe out a colony. All it takes in a lunatic to blow up the oxygen plant and there goes every life. Both of these problems are exacerbated by the inability to significantly change one's environment. On Earth one can make new friends, move to a new city, spend time outdoors, etc, These options do not exist when you have to see and work with the person or persons you hate every day. There is a much higher probability of developing a psychosis on a Mars colony than on Earth. Considering the failed isolation experiments on Earth I would say it was almost a certainty.
Valid problems, but sufficiently well-engineered hardware and equipment can mitigate them
Well engineered hardware and equipment has never failed? What about that door seal that hasn't been replaced in 10 years. Every item has a mean time between failure and there is no way to manufacture everything on Mars.
Those aren't going to be problems because supply missions are pointless for a colony.
That is the whole point. Mars colonies are not viable because they can never be made self sufficient. There will always be parts that can not be manufactured on Mars that will be needed as they wear out and fail.
So Martian dwellers will not die of thirst and possibly starvation. There are still the following to deal with;
1. suicide
2. homicide
3. radiation
4. equipment failure
5. missed supply missions
6. funding cuts which end supply missions.
Water is only one part of the equation.
How about the following?
1. An app that interfaces with a glucose reader that calculates what dose of insulin and when to administer but miscalculates and over/under prescribes.
2. An app that displays ECGs for cardiologists but mis-displays and life threatening illnesses are missed.
3. A portable ECG that mis-records? I used to work at a company that uses puck sized ECGs with USB interfaces.
4. An app that interfaces with a blood pressure cuff and attempts to diagnose high blood pressure.
A smart phone makes a great display and data recorder and they can get into areas where mistakes can cause death or disability.
Where is that record? Citations please. They are only comparing the last 30 years not the last few thousand years.
What's relevant is the climate of the last few thousand years
Considering the recorded history of ice coverage is only 40 years and using your "few thousand years" as a guide that is still only 1.3% of the relevant time period.
You are still thinking too short a time period. I am thinking 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 years ago. What happened in the last 500 years is still to short a time to say that ice loss similar to what is happening now has not happened before and without the help of man.. Recorded history is a snap of the fingers in geologic time.
Even if it goes back to the '30s, 80 years is a millisecond in geologic terms. There is too much emphasis put on "recorded history" when is is such a short time period.
According to this German energy report (page 9) the output of solar generated electricity ranges from 0.35 TWh in January to 5.1 TWh in July. So in the sunny summer months solar works great. In the stormy winter months not so much. Look at page 13. Notice that the conventional power production in January is at least as much as the total production in May through August. Even wind is not reliable. Look at page 45. The first and last week have lots of wind power produced; week 3 almost none.There still needs to be the conventional electricity sources available when solar and wind is not sufficient. There are too many reports of record breaking output and too few of the low outputs.
Also take a look at page 74. Notice as Solar becomes more prevalent so does the importation of electricity in the morning and evening. Overall the more solar produced the more electricity imported and less exported.
All over the world ,in smaller high population density countries, high-end fiber is being deployed while powerful monopolies
FTFY. Comparing the US to countries like Japan is not valid.
An Anonymous Coward post an accusation against someone using a real ID.. Also notice that he replied to his own message and not one of mine. Probably hoping I would not notice. As they say; "consider the source"
I have commented all all his assertions in other posts.
We have differing opinions.
Your claim is that it can be done. The proof if yours to provide.
Since you have not done the printing process and tried it on different systems I still call conjecture.
The thing is that different systems pick up different minutiae. Did you actually try the process of creating prints and using them on different systems? If you used the same encoding software then sure it will work but different companies use different software.
The cost of email is in the infrastructure which is shared across hundreds of other uses.
How does that relate to you assertion that "Punch-clocks have been good enough for about a century." New technology comes along that is better than old technology.
Authoritarians tend towards a lack of empathy, so it is no surprise you come to that conclusion.
Anarchists tend towards paranoid delusions. That statement is about as relevant to the discussion as yours. You have no idea whether or not I am an authoritarian.
That is a deliberate mis-reading of the article
I think you need to read the article you cited better;
When she put her covered finger on the biometric pad, it registered the fake fingerprint, which was not in the database of criminals.
So instead of trying to determine the identification of someone for entry, Japan is trying to determine the ID to keep them out. Though I am not familiar with the workings of Japan's system, trying to prove that you are NOT someone is really not a good use of biometrics.
Japan is matching against a small database of people blacklisted from entry. If the fingerprint they scan is not in the database you are allowed entry.That is very different than verifying someone's identity with a fingerprint. The article says nothing about using biometrics to confirm that someone IS in a database. As the article said;
unless the system has a database of EVERY person in the world, then it has no idea that the fake fingerprints are not real.
For all the system knows the fake fingerprint could be computer generated and not relate to a person at all.
Three intellectually dishonest claims from you say to me that you are more interested in a pissing-match rather than finding truth, so I'm done.
So personal attacks, and assumptions of my motive are you last comment? To me that shows someone who's argument has failed.
What damages do you expect to recover?
Breach of contract, invasion of privacy, mental suffering, etc. Enough for the employees to not have to work for years. A few hundred thousand each should about do.
You already consented to the recording, and the recording was lawfully made.
You consented to recording for "customer service and training purposes" and nothing else. Use by the police would be outside that consent and require a search warrant with cause. Search warrants are hard to get for fishing expeditions. The same thing goes for gathering fingerprints for the purposes of time tracking. If they can get a search warrant for the electronic fingerprint they can have you come in and get fingerprinted.
Rapiscan
One company does it so all companies do it?
What about next years model, the model they use to replace it when they inevitably break?
It is up to the union to keep track of that sort of thing and vet the new model. It's their job.
Two years out a crime is committed in a tube, a police officer notes tube workers use fingerprint scanners,
Your last point is moot if the union is doing it's job. Even if the system did log the fingerprint image, giving those images to the police makes the statement "We will never give fingerprint data to the police" a lie. Also, according to this the police need authorization from the person to take his fingerprints. I believe any unauthorized fingerprints transmitted to the police would have to be removed under those provisions as the employer would be acting as an agent for the police.
This analysis is based on the assumption that a 5% decrease in production can not be made up by other manufacturers. The telling question is whether or not all buyers are being supplied with the chips they need. Is the price increase due to manufacturers not getting part of the fear of not getting parts? If everyone is getting what they need then it is an artificial shortage.
This is what I am talking about when I say "punch machines".
I guess you should set your abbreviation threshold to a value higher than 1. At 2 It shows 7 of my posts out of 54(13%)..
Now drug use is a human right, lol.
I also checked the article. The tape changed the fingerprint so they could not be recognized rather than match another print. It is a different issue.
Punch-clocks have been good enough for about a century.
So has snail mail and we use it much less today as we have a better technology called email.
Whether one is scanning a fingerprint, punching a card or signing a sheet of paper I see no difference. The worker is being treated the same way; in your view as a criminal.
Do you have evidence that such attacks have been mitigated?
I can't find the reference but an article I read said that better sensors detect temperature and blood flow to counter the fake fingers.