If you have to bring up Sir Arthur Clarke, remember Songs of Distant Earth? Where they suddenly figured out that our sun would go nova by 3600 AD or thereabouts?
Now, I seriously doubt that this would happen. But at any rate things like this - even if they have been solved a year ago as suggested by others in other replies - make you wonder just how far off the "truth" we really still are.
Actually if you observe their actions, especially in groups, and especially when there's girls around... you'd figure most of them are braindead already, anyway....
I've actually seen a elementary school kid with a cellular... I am not sure if I should be sad... or happy, as it might be a geek in training..;)
That's still pretty stupid. If I return the unopened package and registration number that came with my PC, that should do the trick, how else am I ever going to buy a PC?
Case in Point: My ~DM700 Celeron based PC came with a ~DM800 license of Windows NT Workstation included..... You tell me if this makes sense.
(No, for DM700 I could never have built it from parts - which I usually prefer doing.)
That's eastern Europe, which has had its infrastructure gradually degraded by over 40 years of so-called communism. You can't compare that at all with Western Europe. I live in Germany, and the quality of the land lines is excellent.
People buy cellulars for mostly one issue: Mobility. That's it. No other reasons needed. Oh, yeah, so many of the youngsters buy them to show off and because they think it'll make them look cool, but they're pretty clueless anyway.
Yes, you can really browse the web on a palm sized say 160x160 pixel screen. You get little information on such a screen if you boost up your pages with huge graphics... but at the same time, many people use lynx to browse the web. Lynx at 80x25 is not that much more screen space than a palm pilot has....
Just think of the advantages: Anywhere you are, you can download news, the movie schedule, theatre reviews, or slashdot articles. It's the ultimate way of taking information with you - store it on a huge server at home and access whatever bits you happen to need with your WAP-enabled cellular. And the best is, you can have dynamic content. You can take along a movie schedule on your PalmPilot anyway - but you have to sync it all the time. And what happens when you are in a different city? Pay long distance calls once you find a place to hook up your modem, or use a cellular with modem anyway.
I say it rocks. It's the way of the future. Forget about the "web losing its flavor" - this is bringing the web back to its roots, back to its flavor - it was never intended as a multimedia layout engine in the first place.
I don't use IRC anymore, but that's besides the point.
With IRC, it's part of the software... But some sort of chat room organized by a tv station for discussion of controversial questions ought to be programmed in a way to allow anonymous comments.
Reminds me of the very cool introduction paragraph of the Twilight:2000 role playing game. I'm at work so can't type it in, but it was about how the fact that democracies would make the world peaceful because afterall democracies never make war is a lot of crap... Democracies are about the will of the people, and the will of the people is very often FOR war...
That said, I think the only reason why they didn't push the development of tsunami bombs and whatnot is that they found the "ultimate" weapon in the atomic bomb.
As for using these weapons, it'd be a very cold calcuation - I can easily imagine the US or some other country use a nuclear weapon if the spoils of war are great enough.
The main point behind those tidal wave bombs probably would have been to clear beaches and coasts. Remember, they were still planning to invade Japan until they found a "better" solution, and those tidal wave bombs probably would've made setting up a beachhead much easier.
Well using a nuke in a war is a very political decision - it'll make you hated all over the world. Not to mention it would certainly escalate almost every conflict. It'd work if you have any kind of nuclear war at your hands already, but then you could just drop the nuke on the target in the first place. In other situations, nukes are a big no-no.
Besides, there's nothing like fallout and mutated seamonsters to screw up your day.
At least dynamic IP users retain some kind of privacy - but think about all us geeks with leased lines and our own IP space. We're even easier to locate...
Showing your ips is generally a very bad idea. I think an IP should be handled the exact same way as a telephone number. You usually don't go about showing those on tv either, do you?
Then the conclusion can only be that the United States of America are, afterall, a warped country full of psychos.
Following your logic, I'm pretty certain the number of rapes must be infinitely larger in the UK than in the USA...
I can see the point or logic of wanting to own a gun if you are forced to live in a state of anarchy - Indonesia, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Somalia, or somesuch backwater countries, but it's kinda sad that the USA who pictures themselves as the leader of the western civilized world is totally and utterly incapable of protecting its own people and just tells them "buy a gun, protect yourself".
Well, only the American patent office could grant such a patent. It's sad, it's stupid, it pains, and it shows us, that NOONE over there has learnt from history.
I think they should dump whoever came up with this patent into the deepest depths of the pacific. Someone who has ideas such as those is not only seriously deranged, but a genuine danger to humanity.
It ALSO makes you wonder, with all the recent control trips, Echelon, and so on that the US has put on, how long will it be until some smart representative/senator/whatever comes up with the idea of really using the system? Maybe only on criminals at first - or child molesters - no once could argue with that... And some day it will creep into everyday usage and then they do it automatically with every newborn child. of course by then, us the people here in Europe get to 'benefit' from the same crap, because afterall, we wouldn't want to disagree with our 'friend', the USA.
Maybe it's my sarcastic and pessimistic nature coming out, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next Hitler is an American president, let's say, 15 or 20 years down the road.
Fortunately, the US patent office should hold little authority over the reast of the world.
besides, we have prior arts, if that's what it's called. We (speaking as German, not about me personally) marked people with a serial ID on their arms during world war two, if you remember that sad story of human history. Barcodes are just another form of representation for numbers.
If someone doesn't want to use Windows 98, he can bring his computer back to his reseller, who will fill a coupon and refund him.
Bring his computer back?
So basically if you don't want to use Windows, you have to bring back your entire computer for a refund?
if this was truely a Microsoft statement, then it's time to outlaw the company. I think they are getting too dangerous for our good.. Let the Americans have Microsoft if they desire product slavery, but I think they should not be allowed to trade in Europe anymore. Other monopolies got shut down, even in the overly capitalistic USA, why not Microsoft? Who did they bribe?
The only sensible way to deal with Microsoft these days seems to be to either sell your soul to them, or to hate them. A compromise seems no longer possible.
Yes, this might seem a little radical, but please - even a three year old should be able to see that MS has gotten way out of whack with reality.
I tend to agree with this guy. At first it might sound like a cool idea, but just imagine everyone on an average LA highway traffic jam suddenly take to the air. All those berserk gunmen could start bombing Highschools from the air instead of going in and do the diryt work themselves. Not to mention the problem of landing - Where do you land in a big city? On a rooftop? on a normal parking space? What about air traffic? The airspace over big cities is pretty full anyway (I can just see an air-car collide with a Boeing 747 over Hong Kong). Terrorists could pack one of these things full of TNT and instead of park it under the World Trade Center, they smash it into the building.
No, air traffic is NOT for the masses. Maybe it would be better to create a kind of "air taxi service" - inexpensive short-range flights could be possible with such devices.. Helicopters are loud and "windy", so "aircars" or somesuch might be a better alternative anyway. Currently, if you want to go to a city which is not one of the major metropoles, it's nearly impossible to get a flight. Many smaller towns don't even have an airport. Is this an alternative to passenger trains maybe?
They existed during the times of OS/2, and did lots of harm and no good, and they obviously exist in the Linux community. Those who insult, abuse, and even threaten people who disagree with them. Let's face it - living in a niche breeds fanatism. Why these advocacy idiots don't grow up, get a clue, and maybe a life too, is completely beyond me. Sure, there exist those who try "Good" linux advocacy, who have reasonable opinions and especially polite ways of dealing with those who disagree. They get drowned out in the noise created by those mentally retarded youngsters with foam at the mouth who think they're the center of the world.
Who can wonder about why there's wars between nations for little things like religious differences when we (speaking as one of millions of computer users) would like to beat each other to pulp just because - "everyone who uses Win/Lin/OS2/Palm/CE/Amiga/DOS/C64/Atari/Nike is an idiot"?
Slashdot Mirror
If you have to bring up Sir Arthur Clarke, remember Songs of Distant Earth? Where they suddenly figured out that our sun would go nova by 3600 AD or thereabouts?
Now, I seriously doubt that this would happen. But at any rate things like this - even if they have been solved a year ago as suggested by others in other replies - make you wonder just how far off the "truth" we really still are.
....I think it's really time for NSI to dump their database and adopt the RIPE whois database format.... it's SO much neater.... and free, too.... :)
Actually if you observe their actions, especially in groups, and especially when there's girls around... you'd figure most of them are braindead already, anyway....
;)
I've actually seen a elementary school kid with a cellular... I am not sure if I should be sad... or happy, as it might be a geek in training..
That's still pretty stupid. If I return the unopened package and registration number that came with my PC, that should do the trick, how else am I ever going to buy a PC?
Case in Point: My ~DM700 Celeron based PC came with a ~DM800 license of Windows NT Workstation included..... You tell me if this makes sense.
(No, for DM700 I could never have built it from parts - which I usually prefer doing.)
That's eastern Europe, which has had its infrastructure gradually degraded by over 40 years of so-called communism. You can't compare that at all with Western Europe. I live in Germany, and the quality of the land lines is excellent.
People buy cellulars for mostly one issue: Mobility. That's it. No other reasons needed. Oh, yeah, so many of the youngsters buy them to show off and because they think it'll make them look cool, but they're pretty clueless anyway.
Yes, you can really browse the web on a palm sized say 160x160 pixel screen. You get little information on such a screen if you boost up your pages with huge graphics... but at the same time, many people use lynx to browse the web. Lynx at 80x25 is not that much more screen space than a palm pilot has....
Just think of the advantages: Anywhere you are, you can download news, the movie schedule, theatre reviews, or slashdot articles. It's the ultimate way of taking information with you - store it on a huge server at home and access whatever bits you happen to need with your WAP-enabled cellular. And the best is, you can have dynamic content. You can take along a movie schedule on your PalmPilot anyway - but you have to sync it all the time. And what happens when you are in a different city? Pay long distance calls once you find a place to hook up your modem, or use a cellular with modem anyway.
I say it rocks. It's the way of the future. Forget about the "web losing its flavor" - this is bringing the web back to its roots, back to its flavor - it was never intended as a multimedia layout engine in the first place.
I don't use IRC anymore, but that's besides the point.
With IRC, it's part of the software... But some sort of chat room organized by a tv station for discussion of controversial questions ought to be programmed in a way to allow anonymous comments.
Reminds me of the very cool introduction paragraph of the Twilight:2000 role playing game. I'm at work so can't type it in, but it was about how the fact that democracies would make the world peaceful because afterall democracies never make war is a lot of crap... Democracies are about the will of the people, and the will of the people is very often FOR war...
That said, I think the only reason why they didn't push the development of tsunami bombs and whatnot is that they found the "ultimate" weapon in the atomic bomb.
As for using these weapons, it'd be a very cold calcuation - I can easily imagine the US or some other country use a nuclear weapon if the spoils of war are great enough.
I seriously doubt that governments willing to fire-bomb much of two enemy countries would've been concerned at all for some sort of animal.
How much would underwater nuclear explosions affect whales, anyway?
The main point behind those tidal wave bombs probably would have been to clear beaches and coasts. Remember, they were still planning to invade Japan until they found a "better" solution, and those tidal wave bombs probably would've made setting up a beachhead much easier.
Well using a nuke in a war is a very political decision - it'll make you hated all over the world. Not to mention it would certainly escalate almost every conflict. It'd work if you have any kind of nuclear war at your hands already, but then you could just drop the nuke on the target in the first place. In other situations, nukes are a big no-no.
Besides, there's nothing like fallout and mutated seamonsters to screw up your day.
At least dynamic IP users retain some kind of privacy - but think about all us geeks with leased lines and our own IP space. We're even easier to locate...
Showing your ips is generally a very bad idea. I think an IP should be handled the exact same way as a telephone number. You usually don't go about showing those on tv either, do you?
The least they should do is put up a big warning.
That's probably just a troll anyway, but I'll say:
a) Use OS/2 4.0 - It's MUCH neater, cleaner, etc.
b) Don't make yourself look silly by trying Win95 software on OS/2...
Then the conclusion can only be that the United States of America are, afterall, a warped country full of psychos.
Following your logic, I'm pretty certain the number of rapes must be infinitely larger in the UK than in the USA...
I can see the point or logic of wanting to own a gun if you are forced to live in a state of anarchy - Indonesia, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Somalia, or somesuch backwater countries, but it's kinda sad that the USA who pictures themselves as the leader of the western civilized world is totally and utterly incapable of protecting its own people and just tells them "buy a gun, protect yourself".
What a sick society.
Well, only the American patent office could grant such a patent. It's sad, it's stupid, it pains, and it shows us, that NOONE over there has learnt from history.
I think they should dump whoever came up with this patent into the deepest depths of the pacific. Someone who has ideas such as those is not only seriously deranged, but a genuine danger to humanity.
It ALSO makes you wonder, with all the recent control trips, Echelon, and so on that the US has put on, how long will it be until some smart representative/senator/whatever comes up with the idea of really using the system? Maybe only on criminals at first - or child molesters - no once could argue with that... And some day it will creep into everyday usage and then they do it automatically with every newborn child. of course by then, us the people here in Europe get to 'benefit' from the same crap, because afterall, we wouldn't want to disagree with our 'friend', the USA.
Maybe it's my sarcastic and pessimistic nature coming out, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next Hitler is an American president, let's say, 15 or 20 years down the road.
Fortunately, the US patent office should hold little authority over the reast of the world.
besides, we have prior arts, if that's what it's called. We (speaking as German, not about me personally) marked people with a serial ID on their arms during world war two, if you remember that sad story of human history. Barcodes are just another form of representation for numbers.
Either my eyes are even worse than usually, or it doesn't give a date.... Which one is it? :-)
Oh yeah and if my eyes are OK, when is this IPO supposed to take place?
Why would you want to get a refund for your computer? It's Windows that these people didn't want.... the computers were fine. Big difference.
Bring his computer back?
So basically if you don't want to use Windows, you have to bring back your entire computer for a refund?
if this was truely a Microsoft statement, then it's time to outlaw the company. I think they are getting too dangerous for our good.. Let the Americans have Microsoft if they desire product slavery, but I think they should not be allowed to trade in Europe anymore. Other monopolies got shut down, even in the overly capitalistic USA, why not Microsoft? Who did they bribe?
The only sensible way to deal with Microsoft these days seems to be to either sell your soul to them, or to hate them. A compromise seems no longer possible.
Yes, this might seem a little radical, but please - even a three year old should be able to see that MS has gotten way out of whack with reality.
I tend to agree with this guy. At first it might sound like a cool idea, but just imagine everyone on an average LA highway traffic jam suddenly take to the air. All those berserk gunmen could start bombing Highschools from the air instead of going in and do the diryt work themselves. Not to mention the problem of landing - Where do you land in a big city? On a rooftop? on a normal parking space? What about air traffic? The airspace over big cities is pretty full anyway (I can just see an air-car collide with a Boeing 747 over Hong Kong). Terrorists could pack one of these things full of TNT and instead of park it under the World Trade Center, they smash it into the building.
No, air traffic is NOT for the masses. Maybe it would be better to create a kind of "air taxi service" - inexpensive short-range flights could be possible with such devices.. Helicopters are loud and "windy", so "aircars" or somesuch might be a better alternative anyway. Currently, if you want to go to a city which is not one of the major metropoles, it's nearly impossible to get a flight. Many smaller towns don't even have an airport. Is this an alternative to passenger trains maybe?
The average user does NOT play text adventures.
I dunno, I get the main article just fine, but all the links are dead. "Connection Refused".
Try again next week?
You seem to confuse Germany with China.
They existed during the times of OS/2, and did lots of harm and no good, and they obviously exist in the Linux community. Those who insult, abuse, and even threaten people who disagree with them. Let's face it - living in a niche breeds fanatism. Why these advocacy idiots don't grow up, get a clue, and maybe a life too, is completely beyond me. Sure, there exist those who try "Good" linux advocacy, who have reasonable opinions and especially polite ways of dealing with those who disagree. They get drowned out in the noise created by those mentally retarded youngsters with foam at the mouth who think they're the center of the world.
Who can wonder about why there's wars between nations for little things like religious differences when we (speaking as one of millions of computer users) would like to beat each other to pulp just because - "everyone who uses Win/Lin/OS2/Palm/CE/Amiga/DOS/C64/Atari/Nike is an idiot"?
It disgusts me. Can't we all grow up, please?
Secure web-based mailer?
:)
Easy.
Put MindTerm (java-based SSH) on a web page on your server, log in, and use pine 8-)
This sounds reasonably secure to me.