I seem to recall someone adding up the total mass in asteroids and it came out to a pitifully small number for a planet. It was a great deal smaller than Mercury, if I remember correctly.
They haven't said anything about a "you must give us your encryption keys" aspect of the NZ law, but they may very well follow the UK's lead in that regard. I'm really curious to see what happens the first time someone gets thrown in the slammer for refusing to provide a password. Really, it's just like giving someone a prison sentence because they refuse to confess to a crime, regardless of their guilt or innocence. Oh but don't worry, it'll only be used on people who we're sure are guilty. You have the solemn word of the government on that, yessir.
Unfortunately, they've now passed a law which says you have to hand the decryption keys over on request or spent 2 years in a UK jail - even if you've forgotten the password. So, the UK cops can now say "Give me the password for this ZIP file you encrypted in 1988. Can't remember? Tough. Go to jail for 2 years."
Hear, hear. And this also lends itself to certain abuses. Say you arrest someone suspected of doing something naughty, but you can't prove anything. Ok, after you nab his computer, just put a couple of encrypted files and emails on his system. Bring him in, demand that he disclose the passwords. Obviously, he won't be able to. Instant 2 years in the slammer.
Another good analogy: Guns. Guns really have exactly one purpose. To kill people, or at least do them significant amounts of damage. Yet if I go out and legally buy a gun and then go postal, no one blames the dealership I bought it from.
You almost have to feel sorry for the RIAA and the MPAA. They try so very hard to stuff the genies back into the lamp. And their cause is so very doomed to fail.
And I suppose everyone outide the US spends hours every day reading about all the obscure man and woman who, though they may have potential, have not actually done anything to make their names known outside the lab/workshop/cubicle? Not being a US citizen means every single last piece of media produced, mainstream or not, is seen by you? Sure, whatever.
Here's one guy: Moller. Do you know who he is? No? Shame on you! His inventions could change everything! That you know of Bill Gates and not Moller is just plain ridiculous. Your country must be stupid.
How about John Chambers? Who is he? Oh, just the CEO of the largest company on the planet. If you didn't know that, you and your countrymen must be stupid.
Exactly. That example with the two girls was very poorly chosen. I'm very sorry that the chicks blame their mom for having them when she couldn't possibly know about her genetics. Just because they're too stupid to draw meaningful conclusions from this kind of information, it's no reason to put a hold on genetic research.
slowly dull the population and introduce sequences that are linked to more tractable behavior. After fifty or sixty years, you have a population that isn't very sharp and is rather sheeplike in mentality Oh, right. An ungodly large number of people (the politicians, the geneticists, the secretaries, the families of everyone) will be able to keep a secret from a public who (at least for the first 20 or 30 years) would instantly go apeshit. And you're going to keep it a secret for 2 generations? Two words: bull and shit. Every single person who was in on it would want exemption for their family, but to keep the two groups separate, you'd have to tell the families of all the 'keep em smart' group (as well as they're friends and their families) so they could avoid everyone else. Hmm, probably several thousand people in the US alone, half of them unsavory lawyers and politicians just itching to make a name for themselves with some grandios public event (how about uncovering a major conspiracy for starters?).
Always remember: Two men can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
Why gene splicing is bad in crops IMO is because a company will do somthing like make a crop grow bigger and faster then add another gene to prevent second generation propagation of the crop That's sort of analagous to software manufacturers requiring that you keep a cd in the drive to run the program or some such copy protection nonsense. Can anyone tell me what happens to software like that within minutes of its release?
Exactly, someone comes up with a hack that disables it. Now how about a virus that reactivates those genes? Whammo, you have now pirated DNA-ware.
More likely, the company would remove anything and everything related to reproduction from the genome. This would make a genetic hacker's job harder, but still doable.
I wonder what a genetic hacker underground would be like? Obviously not until genetic engineering equipment comes down a great deal in price, but then computers cost comparative amounts in the 50's, right?
Why would bacteria that can survive gamma rays, vacuum, extreme temperatures and everything else that space can throw at them, evolve into something as wimpy as a human? The larger and more complex an organism gets, the more fragile it gets. Smacking a fly doesn't always kill it, but what would happen to a human whacked with a fleshy 1000' wide baseball bat swung by a Titan the size of Mt Everest? Drop a mouse from from several stories and it'll scurry away. Drop an elephant and it'll splatter.
But, as nature has so kindly pointed out to us, more complex organisms can often do a lot of cool shit that simpler ones can't, which tends to make up for their other shortcomings. They also tend to be able to wipe out their simpler bretheren, which is definitely a bonus for an evolving species.
Lastly, sucking vacuum for extended periods of time is not something evolution has specifically equipped any species to do. It is therefore an ability that will not be missed much when it disappears in the genetic record.
If the network equipment belongs to the company then TPTB have every right to limit what gets sent through it. Restricting downloading of movies, mp3s, and warez on the limited company bandwidth is not outrageous, especially if it's causing problems in the server room.
Similarly, if the system you're working on belongs to the company, they would have the right to tell you what you can and cannot put on it. It's their stuff, after all, though it would be a really, really jerkass thing for them to not let you put your own files on it.
Besides, I doubt the employees being fired simply for trading mp3's. They were probably in line to be terminated (for previous bandwidth abuses or pissing off the boss or whatever) and this provided an adequate excuse to do so.
I don't think stopping is quite that abrupt. From the article, it sounds more like drag increases as the speed drops and the vacuum bubble gets smaller and smaller. By the time the supercavitating stops, the sub/torpedo is down to a reasonable speed.
Cool idea with the parachutes! And if you've got wings, why bother landing on water? Have your boat land in the airport alongside the 747's.
I think he means some company patenting/copyrighting/trademarking some critical aspect of the technology and then trying to play god with everyone who wants to use it. For instance, Super Sonic Sub Systems Inc. applies for a patent for 'the shape of a submersible vessel that causes supercavitation at high speeds'. That sort of thing is stupid, prohibits competition, and in general makes life miserable for anyone who's interested in the industry. Imagine of the Wright brothers had patented the shape of the wing.
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Re:Napster and Google sued
on
Caffeine Vault
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· Score: 1
What on earth posessed you to post that here? Post it here or here.
You're just gonna get moderated down and then anyone browsing at +1 (ie, damn near everyone) won't see it.
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Re:What happened to the other 50%?
on
Caffeine Vault
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· Score: 1
LD50 is not the lethal dose. It's the dose at which the survival of the taker is basically a flip of the coin deal. If you increase the dosage from there, a greater proportion of the subjects will die. It's sorta like the half-life of radioactive isotopes only applied to legal speed.
Hell, I've known that ever since I did a high school science project on caffeine. That was fun. They gave me this jar of like, 500g of the pure stuff and said 'Have fun'.
Yeah, they are full movies, but look at the quality. They're for the most part 60MB asf's. No one in their right mind would watch Gladiator in that format over seeing it in their theater or buying the VHS/DVD. At most, they'll get it so they'll have something to own before the DVD comes out.
Just becuase you don't believe in a certain religion, doesn't give you license to bash Christianity or any other religion. I think it's sad and despicable that there seems to be a fair proportion of/. readers that are so vehemently anti-Christian I have to say, I haven't seen any postings yet saying that the little guy should have lost because of his content nor condemning him for his beliefs. Everything else I do agree with you on, though. I am not religious (anti-religious and non-religious are totally separate, please remember that). I think it's a bunch of hokey ideas, but I'm sure as hell:) not gonna tell you "what's your's is mine" because of it. (However, if you knock on my door peddling the word of God during Star Trek your ass is grass:)
I really think this would be made simpler if no one was allowed to try and steal another domain for any reason whatsoever. This includes blatant cases of cybersquatting, since the line between legitimate use and not is so fine it's nonexistent. If you want the domain that badly, you'll just have to buy it from the owner. If that means paying through the nose, tough luck. Treat the domain name like any other piece of privately owned property (like land or cars or whatever) and questions about 'proper use' of it go away.
.. this mean that i can start my own fotball team called slashdot and then demand slashdot.org? *thinks* What's really scary is that according to this judge, you can. After all, what's so important about a bunch of geeks discussing their new Mac cubes?
The team doesn't even have to be called Slashdot, just find a word in a language in which the pronunciation is similar. Trademark it, go to WIPO HQ in Geneva(?), and then fend off the ensuing army of militant nerds. Of which I will be a member. Nobody takes away my/., dammit!!!!.
Wait a sec, they demand you pay their legal fees before they've even taken you to court? What'd they do, show up on your doorstep and say, "Hi, we're suing you for your domains and since we called our lawyers before calling you, you owe us some money as well?"
It may have started that way, but it really doesn't apply anymore. I mean, PETA owned peta.com and then sued (and won, the bastards) to get peta.org which, at the time, was running a parody of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals). Following the for-profit/non-profit reasoning (the parody sold stuff), the two should have changed places.
[adding more TLDs] Squatting would then be eliminated Yes, there are too few TLDs, but no, it won't eliminate squatting. I can still grab bible.rel and wait for the pope to sue me. Adding more TLDs will help alleviate 'who deserves to have this domain' squabbles (I won't dignify it by calling it a fight) like this one.
we get Corinthians.Orig.rel (the Greek), Corinthians.de.rel (the German translation) Nifty idea, kind of combining country codes with normal TLDs. Not sure if it would work, and you wouldn't need them for countries with the same language. It'd probably just make it too complicated, though, especially for sites that would otherwise give no clue to their origin. Instead of just trying a site, you'd have to try half a dozen sites with various country/language codes. Ah well.
Slashdot Mirror
I seem to recall someone adding up the total mass in asteroids and it came out to a pitifully small number for a planet. It was a great deal smaller than Mercury, if I remember correctly.
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Damn, but this whole thing stinks.
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Hear, hear. And this also lends itself to certain abuses. Say you arrest someone suspected of doing something naughty, but you can't prove anything. Ok, after you nab his computer, just put a couple of encrypted files and emails on his system. Bring him in, demand that he disclose the passwords. Obviously, he won't be able to. Instant 2 years in the slammer.
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Oh I'm sure. And it just sounds _so_ reasonable when you say it like that.
Christ, I don't think he could have made it sound more Big Brother-ish even if he'd tried.
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Another good analogy:
Guns. Guns really have exactly one purpose. To kill people, or at least do them significant amounts of damage. Yet if I go out and legally buy a gun and then go postal, no one blames the dealership I bought it from.
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You almost have to feel sorry for the RIAA and the MPAA. They try so very hard to stuff the genies back into the lamp. And their cause is so very doomed to fail.
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Here's one guy: Moller. Do you know who he is? No? Shame on you! His inventions could change everything! That you know of Bill Gates and not Moller is just plain ridiculous. Your country must be stupid.
How about John Chambers? Who is he? Oh, just the CEO of the largest company on the planet. If you didn't know that, you and your countrymen must be stupid.
Go to hell, Katz.
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Exactly. That example with the two girls was very poorly chosen. I'm very sorry that the chicks blame their mom for having them when she couldn't possibly know about her genetics. Just because they're too stupid to draw meaningful conclusions from this kind of information, it's no reason to put a hold on genetic research.
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Oh, right. An ungodly large number of people (the politicians, the geneticists, the secretaries, the families of everyone) will be able to keep a secret from a public who (at least for the first 20 or 30 years) would instantly go apeshit. And you're going to keep it a secret for 2 generations? Two words: bull and shit. Every single person who was in on it would want exemption for their family, but to keep the two groups separate, you'd have to tell the families of all the 'keep em smart' group (as well as they're friends and their families) so they could avoid everyone else. Hmm, probably several thousand people in the US alone, half of them unsavory lawyers and politicians just itching to make a name for themselves with some grandios public event (how about uncovering a major conspiracy for starters?).
Always remember: Two men can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
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That's sort of analagous to software manufacturers requiring that you keep a cd in the drive to run the program or some such copy protection nonsense. Can anyone tell me what happens to software like that within minutes of its release?
Exactly, someone comes up with a hack that disables it. Now how about a virus that reactivates those genes? Whammo, you have now pirated DNA-ware.
More likely, the company would remove anything and everything related to reproduction from the genome. This would make a genetic hacker's job harder, but still doable.
I wonder what a genetic hacker underground would be like? Obviously not until genetic engineering equipment comes down a great deal in price, but then computers cost comparative amounts in the 50's, right?
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The larger and more complex an organism gets, the more fragile it gets. Smacking a fly doesn't always kill it, but what would happen to a human whacked with a fleshy 1000' wide baseball bat swung by a Titan the size of Mt Everest? Drop a mouse from from several stories and it'll scurry away. Drop an elephant and it'll splatter.
But, as nature has so kindly pointed out to us, more complex organisms can often do a lot of cool shit that simpler ones can't, which tends to make up for their other shortcomings. They also tend to be able to wipe out their simpler bretheren, which is definitely a bonus for an evolving species.
Lastly, sucking vacuum for extended periods of time is not something evolution has specifically equipped any species to do. It is therefore an ability that will not be missed much when it disappears in the genetic record.
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Of course, I'm posting this from work... /. :)
I can just see the HR department making it against company policy to read, post to, or even talk about
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Similarly, if the system you're working on belongs to the company, they would have the right to tell you what you can and cannot put on it. It's their stuff, after all, though it would be a really, really jerkass thing for them to not let you put your own files on it.
Besides, I doubt the employees being fired simply for trading mp3's. They were probably in line to be terminated (for previous bandwidth abuses or pissing off the boss or whatever) and this provided an adequate excuse to do so.
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What I want to know is with the tests they did, what were the effects on the surface?
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Cool idea with the parachutes! And if you've got wings, why bother landing on water? Have your boat land in the airport alongside the 747's.
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I think he means some company patenting/copyrighting/trademarking some critical aspect of the technology and then trying to play god with everyone who wants to use it. For instance, Super Sonic Sub Systems Inc. applies for a patent for 'the shape of a submersible vessel that causes supercavitation at high speeds'. That sort of thing is stupid, prohibits competition, and in general makes life miserable for anyone who's interested in the industry. Imagine of the Wright brothers had patented the shape of the wing.
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You're just gonna get moderated down and then anyone browsing at +1 (ie, damn near everyone) won't see it.
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LD50 is not the lethal dose. It's the dose at which the survival of the taker is basically a flip of the coin deal. If you increase the dosage from there, a greater proportion of the subjects will die. It's sorta like the half-life of radioactive isotopes only applied to legal speed.
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Hell, I've known that ever since I did a high school science project on caffeine. That was fun. They gave me this jar of like, 500g of the pure stuff and said 'Have fun'.
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Yeah, they are full movies, but look at the quality. They're for the most part 60MB asf's. No one in their right mind would watch Gladiator in that format over seeing it in their theater or buying the VHS/DVD. At most, they'll get it so they'll have something to own before the DVD comes out.
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I have to say, I haven't seen any postings yet saying that the little guy should have lost because of his content nor condemning him for his beliefs. Everything else I do agree with you on, though. I am not religious (anti-religious and non-religious are totally separate, please remember that). I think it's a bunch of hokey ideas, but I'm sure as hell
I really think this would be made simpler if no one was allowed to try and steal another domain for any reason whatsoever. This includes blatant cases of cybersquatting, since the line between legitimate use and not is so fine it's nonexistent. If you want the domain that badly, you'll just have to buy it from the owner. If that means paying through the nose, tough luck. Treat the domain name like any other piece of privately owned property (like land or cars or whatever) and questions about 'proper use' of it go away.
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What's really scary is that according to this judge, you can. After all, what's so important about a bunch of geeks discussing their new Mac cubes?
The team doesn't even have to be called Slashdot, just find a word in a language in which the pronunciation is similar. Trademark it, go to WIPO HQ in Geneva(?), and then fend off the ensuing army of militant nerds. Of which I will be a member. Nobody takes away my /., dammit!!!!.
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Wait a sec, they demand you pay their legal fees before they've even taken you to court? What'd they do, show up on your doorstep and say, "Hi, we're suing you for your domains and since we called our lawyers before calling you, you owe us some money as well?"
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It may have started that way, but it really doesn't apply anymore. I mean, PETA owned peta.com and then sued (and won, the bastards) to get peta.org which, at the time, was running a parody of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals). Following the for-profit/non-profit reasoning (the parody sold stuff), the two should have changed places.
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Yes, there are too few TLDs, but no, it won't eliminate squatting. I can still grab bible.rel and wait for the pope to sue me. Adding more TLDs will help alleviate 'who deserves to have this domain' squabbles (I won't dignify it by calling it a fight) like this one.
we get Corinthians.Orig.rel (the Greek), Corinthians.de.rel (the German translation)
Nifty idea, kind of combining country codes with normal TLDs. Not sure if it would work, and you wouldn't need them for countries with the same language. It'd probably just make it too complicated, though, especially for sites that would otherwise give no clue to their origin. Instead of just trying a site, you'd have to try half a dozen sites with various country/language codes. Ah well.
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