Funny. I thought it looked more like the puny civilization with tech 1000 years behind, only a handful of scattered cities, and a military that is barely adequate to fend off barbarians, waltzing up to the capital of your massively powerful world-spanning empire and demanding you give them tons of money, all your tech, and half your cities.
They could probably get away with adding a few extra balloons in dense urban areas and keeping them at a lower altitude. Considering that the demand for bandwidth would be greater in these regions anyway, this might be a good idea regardless of the air traffic problem.
In fact, I can't remember the last time I've used a hundred dollar bill
Well, not everyone is as poor as you.:)
True, I don't think I've been in a situation where twentys would have been more cumbersome than C-notes for several years now. But what would old Franklin and Grant say to being relegated to the scrap heap of currency!
The prices you name are an order of magnitude more than what is actually being charged. And I'm kind of confused as to what you think scalping is. Printing out fake tickets is forgery. Scalping is buying real tickets that will quickly becomse scarce and then selling them for a higher price, counting on high demand and low or nonexistant supply to make people willing to pay you your profit margin.
So are we going to be forging tickets? Well, I find it unlikely that you would be able to sell 200 tickets an hour, even at massive megaplexes, for more than a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights (but of course we don't really know how many people are going to show up for these). Really, who's going to bother buying from a scruffy-looking character with tickets that sometimes don't work to save themselves 8 cents? So, at 25 cents each, maybe a thousand a week, tops, nets you $250. Not an inconsiderable sum, but you probably had to spend a good twenty hours doing it. Not what I would call lucrative.
Hence the ridiculously low ticket price. Do you want to have the hassle of trying to search for a valid bar code ticket for a movie online, then print and cut out copies for all your friends, hoping that it'll actually work when you get there, all to save yourself an amount of change you would probably not pick up off the ground if the opportunity presented itself? Scalping? Scalp a 33 cent ticket for 36 cents? You spend more than that on chewing gum. If you sold 200 of them every hour you'd rake in a whopping $6/hour, and that doesn't even include printing costs.
This is the lesson the MPAA and RIAA are refusing to learn. People are using P2P because it's free and often more convenient than trotting down to the local store. They must respond by becoming close-to-free and even more convenient. Instead of selling what the customer wants to buy, they are selling only what the executives want sell. And surprise, surprise, when an alternative presents itself, the masses flock to it.
No, I don't _believe_ evolution is true. Do you _believe_ that you can breathe air? Do you _believe_ that when you drop a brick it'll fall down? It is not the sort of thing that needs to be taken on faith alone.
I believe that an omnipotent being could create anything he wanted, even a world where evolution appears to be true
That particular line of reasoning makes you capable of convincing yourself of anything. Solipsism, aliens running the government, two-headed elvis clones, and the belief that Atlantis will rise again are all within the delusional fantasy realm of religion. You want to believe in something that can't be proven? Fine, be my guest. I happen to like cats more than dogs and good luck trying to convince me otherwise. But the minute you actually let it interfere with things that can be be discussed rationally is when I cease to take you seriously.
On rereading this, I do apologize if I come off as extremely rude. I _believe_ that the worst thing a person can do with their brain is to not use it. To blindly believe in something because it sounds good, without ever acknowledging the possibility that self-gratification is the real reason for doing so seems to me to be the intellectual equivalent of self-mutilation. Can you honestly respect a religion in which the Head Honcho gives you intelligence just so he can punish you for have the audacity to use it?
I've always been fascinated by the potential for consensual imaging that AR allows. Instead of being a PC in your face, it actually changes what you and everyone else sees in the room you're in. Want a painting on the wall? No problem, just add it to the network and anyone wearing the glasses will see it, adjusted for size/position/orientation.
Of course, for the illusion to be convincing, you have to be able to pinpoint the position of your eyes with great speed and accuracy.
Re:Nothing Good Is Going To Come Of This
on
I, Spammer
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· Score: 1
It's this sort of thing that reaffirms my faith in the ability to find actual intelligent people amongst the human race. We have some activity, spamming, whch every single person here despises, there being only varying degrees of hatred. It would be worth truly heroic sums to us if spam could be done away with. And yet there are an awful lot of people here that shy away instantly from the knee-jerk reaction of 'make it illegal' that has been the hallmark of nations and governments throughout history. Very refreshing.
The difficulty with advertiseing is that a lot of the time it's impossible to know for certain that your ad in the newspaper/on TV/over the radio/in bulk spam is actually haveing a real effect. So a company with a few thousand or million to spare will probably just throw money at spammers on the grounds that "it has to be improving our sales, right?", and to hell the 99% of people that are sick to death of hearing about the new Swedish Penis Enlarger.
Re:Ronnie Scelson's Info, Courtesy of ROKSO
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I, Spammer
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· Score: 1
Well, then where'd Spamhaus get their info? I'd like to think they didn't just copy a WHOIS output verbatim without so much as calling a phone number.
Re:Why do people do this?
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I, Spammer
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· Score: 1
After all, he hasn't opted out of the Slashdot-snail-spam-bomb now has he?
Re:Dang it, there goes my stomach lining...
on
I, Spammer
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· Score: 1
You can verify your list of emails, or write a brute force program that will keep track of all emails that are verified by the address
Do not allow batch queries and put in a delay of, say, 3 seconds per inquiry from a given IP.
Better to scrap the current email protocols and develop a new one that enforces accountability
Agreed. Anything government enforced is going to be a ham-handed nightmare. Better to let techies come up with a decent protocol and wait for the next batch of email server and client apps to support it.
Re:What's the range of effect?
on
Mastering Light
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The 'near-100% efficiency' doesn't mean that the process is energy-free, just that the light coming out is almost as intense as the light coming in. Ordinary filters don't convert anything, they just block out what you don't want. If only 10% of the emitted light is of a frequency you want, then 90% is lost by using a filter. This process actually converts the incoming light into the outgoing, so any losses are due to imperfections in the system.
Don't all alcholic drinks change your visible color spectrum if you drink enough of it?
Re:More to the point...
on
Mastering Light
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Does this mean we'll finally be able to get X-Ray specs?
Sure, if you shift the frequency down far enough. Problem is, you would only be able to see the world in x-rays. And lemme tell you, it's pretty dark at that end of the spectrum. The atmosphere filters out most of the higher-range radiation (a few dozen kilometers of air is about as effective as 8 centimeters of solid lead), which is why x-ray machines are all about the generation of radiation; seeing it on film the easy part.
If you want comic-book style x-ray specs, then we're talking about short microwave and far-infrared radiation. Then you just shift the radiation back up into the visible spectrum and you can see through clothes, flesh, fairly un-dense stuff like that.
Ah yes, the UK. Where you can be sent to prison if you forget your password or tell anyone that the cops asked you for it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm far from the young American critising Europe. But I feel that there is simply no government on Earth that is totally immune to the creeping authoritarian mindset. Even those that are doing well in this regard are constantly under pressured by demagogues within and less free nations without. It's so very tempting to just pack your bags and head for greener pastures, but I don't think that solution can last. In the long run, the most effective way to live in a free country is to make it the one you're already in.
The point is that these databases, lack of privacy, and the ability to monitor every aspect of someone's life are coming. They will be here whether we like it or not.
The question is not whether or not to allow it, since disallowing it can't be enforced. If the government can't effectively enforce 'no drugs' on us, can we actually enforce 'no databases' on them?
The real question is "Who has access?". As the parent said, do we give it only to a control freak elite and hope they won't abuse it? Bear in mind that we won't even be able to find out if they do. Or do we instead give it to _everyone_, knowing that it will be abused by some, but those abuses will be visible to everyone and also allowing the potential for putting them to good use as well?
I suggest you read "The Transparent Society" by David Brin. He makes an excellent argument that freedom and privacy are not only not completely dependent on one another, but that privacy is really not all it's cracked up to be.
So if I believe the world is flat and Santa Claus lives at the North Pole you are obligated to respect it? Oh please...
Beliefs about things that are ambiguous or uncertain are one thing. In such cases, they are usually called opinions. Belief without any care for reason or logic and in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary are foolish. The currently held theories about the formation of this planet and the development of life are as much scientific fact as gravity. And as you may or may not know, even though the Theory of Gravity was proven to not hold true under certain circumstances, its applicability for situations where absolute precision is not required remains as good as ever. Let's face it; there's no amount of study we can ever do that will suddenly show that Earth is not round or that Luna is really made of green cheese and has a cream-filled center.
No, I didn't buy the matrix-in-a-matrix bit. What I gathered from the Architect was that the last 1% of humans that don't buy the illusion must have an out. A safety pressure valve for the matrix, as it were. Those who must escape can go to Zion. But Zion is a very real threat, so it has to be exterminated periodically. The holding pool must be emptied, lest it spill over and make a mess. But The One #6 didn't buy it. He risked both the death of Trinity and the extinction of the human race for the hope of saving both.
Just occured to me. The line from the first movie: "When the matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted.... It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth." is actually true. The One #5 was present when the previous Zion got wiped and, as part of his deal with the Architect, chose the first 23 people to free and to build, yet again, the last human city on earth.
Most everyone I know who's seen it agrees that the movie itself was excellent, but the ending just makes you want to throttle the Brothers. Blatant, utterly blatant cliffhanger.
It's not a 'matrix-in-a-matrix', it's that Zion and the recurrence of The One are just as integral to the stability of the matrix as the power pods themselves. It's an outlet for the 1% of humans that don't accept the illusion; the ones who must have their power of choice. But Zion is a very real threat, so the machines have to periodically sweep it clean to keep them from actually overrunning the place. What the Archicet and the Source were supposed to get out of Neo, what the 'code that he carried' was all about, I couldn't quite figure out.
Other than that, your analysis is quite good. Humans escape from one invisible enslavement and end up nowhere but right in another, even more invisible one.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny. I thought it looked more like the puny civilization with tech 1000 years behind, only a handful of scattered cities, and a military that is barely adequate to fend off barbarians, waltzing up to the capital of your massively powerful world-spanning empire and demanding you give them tons of money, all your tech, and half your cities.
They could probably get away with adding a few extra balloons in dense urban areas and keeping them at a lower altitude. Considering that the demand for bandwidth would be greater in these regions anyway, this might be a good idea regardless of the air traffic problem.
'Flammable paint'? It was fucking rocket fuel.
By that line of reasoning, what happens if Google should ever crash and burn? Does the world cease to exist?
Well, not everyone is as poor as you. :)
True, I don't think I've been in a situation where twentys would have been more cumbersome than C-notes for several years now. But what would old Franklin and Grant say to being relegated to the scrap heap of currency!
So are we going to be forging tickets? Well, I find it unlikely that you would be able to sell 200 tickets an hour, even at massive megaplexes, for more than a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights (but of course we don't really know how many people are going to show up for these). Really, who's going to bother buying from a scruffy-looking character with tickets that sometimes don't work to save themselves 8 cents? So, at 25 cents each, maybe a thousand a week, tops, nets you $250. Not an inconsiderable sum, but you probably had to spend a good twenty hours doing it. Not what I would call lucrative.
This is the lesson the MPAA and RIAA are refusing to learn. People are using P2P because it's free and often more convenient than trotting down to the local store. They must respond by becoming close-to-free and even more convenient. Instead of selling what the customer wants to buy, they are selling only what the executives want sell. And surprise, surprise, when an alternative presents itself, the masses flock to it.
No, I don't _believe_ evolution is true. Do you _believe_ that you can breathe air? Do you _believe_ that when you drop a brick it'll fall down? It is not the sort of thing that needs to be taken on faith alone.
I believe that an omnipotent being could create anything he wanted, even a world where evolution appears to be true
That particular line of reasoning makes you capable of convincing yourself of anything. Solipsism, aliens running the government, two-headed elvis clones, and the belief that Atlantis will rise again are all within the delusional fantasy realm of religion. You want to believe in something that can't be proven? Fine, be my guest. I happen to like cats more than dogs and good luck trying to convince me otherwise. But the minute you actually let it interfere with things that can be be discussed rationally is when I cease to take you seriously.
On rereading this, I do apologize if I come off as extremely rude. I _believe_ that the worst thing a person can do with their brain is to not use it. To blindly believe in something because it sounds good, without ever acknowledging the possibility that self-gratification is the real reason for doing so seems to me to be the intellectual equivalent of self-mutilation. Can you honestly respect a religion in which the Head Honcho gives you intelligence just so he can punish you for have the audacity to use it?
Of course, for the illusion to be convincing, you have to be able to pinpoint the position of your eyes with great speed and accuracy.
It's this sort of thing that reaffirms my faith in the ability to find actual intelligent people amongst the human race. We have some activity, spamming, whch every single person here despises, there being only varying degrees of hatred. It would be worth truly heroic sums to us if spam could be done away with. And yet there are an awful lot of people here that shy away instantly from the knee-jerk reaction of 'make it illegal' that has been the hallmark of nations and governments throughout history. Very refreshing.
The difficulty with advertiseing is that a lot of the time it's impossible to know for certain that your ad in the newspaper/on TV/over the radio/in bulk spam is actually haveing a real effect. So a company with a few thousand or million to spare will probably just throw money at spammers on the grounds that "it has to be improving our sales, right?", and to hell the 99% of people that are sick to death of hearing about the new Swedish Penis Enlarger.
Well, then where'd Spamhaus get their info? I'd like to think they didn't just copy a WHOIS output verbatim without so much as calling a phone number.
After all, he hasn't opted out of the Slashdot-snail-spam-bomb now has he?
Do not allow batch queries and put in a delay of, say, 3 seconds per inquiry from a given IP.
Better to scrap the current email protocols and develop a new one that enforces accountability
Agreed. Anything government enforced is going to be a ham-handed nightmare. Better to let techies come up with a decent protocol and wait for the next batch of email server and client apps to support it.
The 'near-100% efficiency' doesn't mean that the process is energy-free, just that the light coming out is almost as intense as the light coming in. Ordinary filters don't convert anything, they just block out what you don't want. If only 10% of the emitted light is of a frequency you want, then 90% is lost by using a filter. This process actually converts the incoming light into the outgoing, so any losses are due to imperfections in the system.
Don't all alcholic drinks change your visible color spectrum if you drink enough of it?
Sure, if you shift the frequency down far enough. Problem is, you would only be able to see the world in x-rays. And lemme tell you, it's pretty dark at that end of the spectrum. The atmosphere filters out most of the higher-range radiation (a few dozen kilometers of air is about as effective as 8 centimeters of solid lead), which is why x-ray machines are all about the generation of radiation; seeing it on film the easy part.
If you want comic-book style x-ray specs, then we're talking about short microwave and far-infrared radiation. Then you just shift the radiation back up into the visible spectrum and you can see through clothes, flesh, fairly un-dense stuff like that.
Don't get me wrong, I'm far from the young American critising Europe. But I feel that there is simply no government on Earth that is totally immune to the creeping authoritarian mindset. Even those that are doing well in this regard are constantly under pressured by demagogues within and less free nations without. It's so very tempting to just pack your bags and head for greener pastures, but I don't think that solution can last. In the long run, the most effective way to live in a free country is to make it the one you're already in.
The question is not whether or not to allow it, since disallowing it can't be enforced. If the government can't effectively enforce 'no drugs' on us, can we actually enforce 'no databases' on them?
The real question is "Who has access?". As the parent said, do we give it only to a control freak elite and hope they won't abuse it? Bear in mind that we won't even be able to find out if they do. Or do we instead give it to _everyone_, knowing that it will be abused by some, but those abuses will be visible to everyone and also allowing the potential for putting them to good use as well?
I suggest you read "The Transparent Society" by David Brin. He makes an excellent argument that freedom and privacy are not only not completely dependent on one another, but that privacy is really not all it's cracked up to be.
Beliefs about things that are ambiguous or uncertain are one thing. In such cases, they are usually called opinions. Belief without any care for reason or logic and in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary are foolish. The currently held theories about the formation of this planet and the development of life are as much scientific fact as gravity. And as you may or may not know, even though the Theory of Gravity was proven to not hold true under certain circumstances, its applicability for situations where absolute precision is not required remains as good as ever. Let's face it; there's no amount of study we can ever do that will suddenly show that Earth is not round or that Luna is really made of green cheese and has a cream-filled center.
He's got stuff for interfacing with machines embedded in his skull, remember?
No, I didn't buy the matrix-in-a-matrix bit. What I gathered from the Architect was that the last 1% of humans that don't buy the illusion must have an out. A safety pressure valve for the matrix, as it were. Those who must escape can go to Zion. But Zion is a very real threat, so it has to be exterminated periodically. The holding pool must be emptied, lest it spill over and make a mess. But The One #6 didn't buy it. He risked both the death of Trinity and the extinction of the human race for the hope of saving both.
Just occured to me. The line from the first movie: "When the matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted. ... It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth." is actually true. The One #5 was present when the previous Zion got wiped and, as part of his deal with the Architect, chose the first 23 people to free and to build, yet again, the last human city on earth.
He picked up something either from his encounter with Smith or from going to the Source and meeting the Architect. Probably the latter.
Most everyone I know who's seen it agrees that the movie itself was excellent, but the ending just makes you want to throttle the Brothers. Blatant, utterly blatant cliffhanger.
It's not a 'matrix-in-a-matrix', it's that Zion and the recurrence of The One are just as integral to the stability of the matrix as the power pods themselves. It's an outlet for the 1% of humans that don't accept the illusion; the ones who must have their power of choice. But Zion is a very real threat, so the machines have to periodically sweep it clean to keep them from actually overrunning the place. What the Archicet and the Source were supposed to get out of Neo, what the 'code that he carried' was all about, I couldn't quite figure out.
Other than that, your analysis is quite good. Humans escape from one invisible enslavement and end up nowhere but right in another, even more invisible one.