"Those cars have to go somewhere." No, they don't. If one lives in or near a place like NYC a car is not only an option, but often a burden. If you are fond of cars and the room to use them, do what I did and move far away from crowded urban centers.
The more people are crowded together the more they must do to accomodate each other. I don't want to live in a beehive so I left.
"Folks drive for many reasons, one being a sense of going where they want, when they want." This causes traffic jams and gridlock when they all decide to play in the same place. It is clearly in societies interest to discourage this.
The Netherlands system is an excellent idea. In the US there is a severe problem with uninsured and unlicensed drivers. I'd be glad to see automated license plate reading systems to reduce the problem.
"Nonetheless, ever since then I've been gearing up to move to a country that is not in the Western Axis, as I am increasingly getting the feeling that we as Muslims just aren't welcome."
There is no reason for non-Muslims to want Muslims, because as believers they spread Islam. The spread of Islam cannot be considered desirable by non-Muslims because of the societies it creates. Islam is an exceptionally oppressive religion in practice, and practice trumps theory. I've seen the best you can do even with massive wealth (KSA, and the Gulf Emirates) and do not want MY country to be like them. Many of us don't care about political correctness, and don't want even "reasonable" Muslims in their midst. If Muslim society is good and righteous, Muslims might prove their loyalty by moving back to the Caliphate. I don't need them. I don't want Islamic changes in MY society. I don't want Muslims to have leverage by increasing their population in MY country. Just because Islam is a "religion" doesn't mean it should not be viewed as a political ideology. I am free to oppose Islam (everywhere but Islamic countries) just as I am free to oppose Maoism or Stalinism. To the extent my country becomes Islamic I will be less free, so anything that induces Muslims to leave suits me fine.
"I find it kinda disconcerting that I could one day be confronted by police with an exhaustive list of my movements for the last 10 years." I could care less. It would establish my innocence. I don't find it intimidating at all.
The more different technologies people learn to work with, the more they will learn to think in tech terms and the more they will see how all these wonderful pieces fit together. Someone in the Third World could use an OLPC to, for example, surf Toyota information, check out the multimachine yahoo group, and build a useful machine tool from old truck parts to machine new truck parts!
Someone who believes the universe is a divine monarchy can never honestly embrace secular democracy. They can use it to gain power, but that does not involve a personal buy-in. The nature of deistic religion means that one is either a Fundamentalist or a hypocrite, and any squalling to the contrary may be regarded as a delusion or a lie.
"Now, which of these things have the bible thumpers made their top priority?"
Controlling sex gives social control of the tribe. Encouraging violence towards opponents expands tribal power. Never forget that we are dealing with the belief systems of desert tribesmen, no matter what the modern veneer. Judge them by their works, be they Taliban or Talibaptist.
"This is just plain amazingly cruel to everyone who gave them the benefit of the doubt and took the risk of being an early adopter."
Some of us find it amazingly funny that anyone gives any software company the benefit of the doubt, at least with their own money. I don't ever do that so I don't ever get burned, end of story. Never forget that with any version of Windows, millions of adopters will take the risk ahead of you, so it is reasonable to wait and let someone else step in shit first. By the time any new version of Windows is somewhat sorted out, it's easier to get it cheap (or free with a borked PC that had an OEM install).
I figure the point of being a geek is like the point of being a mechanic. I use my knowledge and judgment to save money and make money. I never buy new cars and never buy a new operating system for the same reasons.:)
"I feel a little nervous about a world where the US has allowed stupid leaders to bleed away all their power and we have to find another buttress against the casual cruelty of China and a resurgent Russia."
No one is concerned with doing anything other than business with China and Russia, and no one that matters wants or needs a buttress against them. Round-eyes were never really welcome in Asia, and should have let it utterly alone. As for Russia, if NATO deserves to survive it can easily afford a military to restrain Russia while offering economic linkage. Without a Cold War, the US is not needed in the world. Not even Jihadism is enough to make anyone care much, because one dare not confuse a religion (all of which are wonderful) with a political ideology...
The ISP doing the filtering means errors are not easily corrected. OTOH, client-side filtering software can be extremely restrictive because the people who want filtering can have their preferred internet experience without shitting up yours or mine. Churches and other groups could even provide whitelists to parents who want that.
I like this. People need challenge and conflict. What could be better for the students and those faculty who work with them than to fight the RIAA and learn from the experience? They'll remember this battle all their lives.
"Its more secure having the actually memory embedded inside the machine instead on the outside in a port, accessible for anyone that have physicall access to your office."
The same pieces could easily be inside the case. Not all USB ports are external. Of course, SATA CF adapters have been available for sometime:
It is to be hoped that some of those students are going to BE lawyers one day, and all this lawyer hatin' conveniently ignores that many lawyers are idealists and work pro bono for good causes.
I delight in seeing young people use the system to fight for their freedoms.
An appropriate response would be a widely propagated "leaker howto" written as a fictional story for non-geeks so it would be protected speech. The trouble with leakers is that they don't practice proper security, use resources at home and work, and leave a trail.
OTOH wardriving with a laptop running from liveCD or similar setup that never saved incriminating data would allow leaking of most anything (don't forget to spoof thy MAC address or have a throwaway wireless card). Data that one wished to send could be kept on a USB key (or CF card in a PCMCIA CF adapter, fits more neatly) which would be wiped and disposed of after use. An easy way would be to insert drive in a used soda can, crush can under boot, then recycle. (A media destruction howto should be included.)
Revolutionary fiction can be a great motivator if written towards the appropriate audience. I'll use the example of "The Turner Diaries", though it doesn't reflect my views at all.
"how would this device differ from tasers, tear gas, or rubber bullets?"
It would be far less likely to cause physical damage. Rubber bullets can kill and maim if they strike the skull or eye, Tasers have killed ~70 people (granted, they are much safer than billy clubs), and tear gas can be dangerous depending on concentration.
"The right to violent self-defense is essential to freedom... It is also essential to get those high homicide rates. Your call."
Lawful self-defense/= homicide.
"Self-defense should be proportional to the actual threat. Shooting any burglar because some burglars might become violent is just stupid. If the burglar is coming at you, fine. If he's trying to leave or running away, no."
The applicable laws cover that. They vary by state, so do read yours.
"Your wife is a psycho. (and apparently you are as well, from the tone of your post)"
Nice troll, but note I mentioned firing into the ground to facilitate bullet retrieval. That is not "psychotic" We both have military training and are disciplined shooters. Making noise to scare away the crackheads worked, no one was injured, and the situation was de-escalated nicely. What you may (and others who may be unfamiliar with the way criminals like crackheads think) not understand is that they only respect people who appear scary. I'm not some crazed redneck, but I'll emulate one if it is useful. Crackheads are not deterred by the consequences of crack use, so that worldview limits the things that do deter them.:)
"Then all of a sudden it is the burglar who is being threatened for life, and who feels a need to defend yourself. Do you really want to go into that spiral?" There is no spiral. Burglar has choice of turning and running or being shot. If he entered an occupied residence he may be presumed willing to attack and subdue anyone in that residence. If he hopped my fence and continued past my barking dogs he was determined to enter. I'm not advocating trap guns or other nonsense, I'm advocating reasonable latitude in defending myself and other humans in my house where I have the reasonable (through human history) expectation of security. If I get burgled and no one is home, that's why I buy home insurance!
"A burglar has no intent to kill. If he would, why not do armed robbery instead? Why not take people hostage, take them to their home, clear out and kill them?"
He may have no INITIAL intent to kill/rape/assault. Your statement seems to imply burglars are a logical, rational lot. Some meth head who has been awake for thirty days may start out to burgle, but they aren't necessarily going to stick to that. Never assume the bad guy is interested in your logic. I'm not expecting to defend against Slashdotters, so I don't assume crooks think like Slashdotters.:)
That isn't weird. I want to see the RIAA and anyone who supports them boycotted out of business. As long as these groups are able to make money they will survive.
"We're not even confident that our social experiment will last right now. We've had 120 years or so of real technology -- and there's no guarantee that resource constraints, political strife, or any number of environmental factors won't return us to subsistence farming within a few more generations."
Some of us, maybe many of us, but we have enough individuals to afford to lose many. Other mammals lose plenty of individuals while the species survives. If we preserve information and technology we can continue to advance.
Life being "mean, poor, brutish and short" didn't stop humans. We just breed to compensate.
"Which is right and proper since in most Western countries the state doesn't demand the death penalty for burglary."
You mistake shooting a "burglar" for penalizing said burglar instead of SELF-defense. Defending yourself is not to be confused with lynching. A "burglar" (intruder) is a huge risk to the occupant of a house because the intruder has incentive to kill the householder to shut him/her up, and sometimes does. Crimes of opportunity in a home invasion include rape, torture, arson to cover up the evidence etc. Intruders are not typically like Roger Moore in "The Saint".
If you don't want to defend yourself, it is your right not to. To say that I cannot defend myself is to say that I don't matter, and those who would violate me do. I respectfully disagree. Even in Iraq, the US allows householders one firearm. This is because police response is reactive, not preemptive. All the cops can usually do is collect evidence and maybe arrest the perp for whatever he/she did. This neither does not reverse or prevent damage to the victim.
When I was TDY to Saudi Arabia, some crackheads decided to party on my property. My wife asked them to leave. They told her to fsck off and made threatening statements. (We lived in an area with light police protection and long response times.) She retreated to the house, got our our Mini-14, and put several warning shots into the ground (not towards the crackheads) where the bullets could be retrieved if required. They promptly left and never returned for the remaining three years we lived there. When the police finally responded, the officer was fine with it. (I love the South!
The right to violent self-defense is essential to freedom, because if you are forbidden to defend yourself anyone can do their will to you.
"Linux has to do more than just be as good as Windows once it's installed. It has to actively capture market share. To do that, the migration process must be no more complicated than a single click:"Ubuntu has detected Windows XP installed on this system. Do you want to install a Dual Boot System?" Yes. Click. Done. If it's not as easy as that, guess what? No market share for you. Not yours."
IMO the whole dual-booting thing confuses noobs and they get pissed off if they trash their Winstall. I help them set up another computer to learn on instead. It isn't as if computers are expensive. I find a decent spare machine and have them install while I supervise. If it's worth doing, it's worth getting a bit of gear to do it more easily.
IMO the ideal way to learn Linux is to have two PCs next to each other so you can use your Winbox to surf for info while installing Linux on the other machine.Learning ANY OS is easier if you can play on a computer set aside for the purpose. The next best is a hard drive swap rack and a second hd for Linux, but used PCs are cheap or free nowadays. If clutter is a problem, use a KVM switch to share monitor/keyboard/mouse.
Learning ANY OS is easier if you can play on a computer set aside for the purpose. When one is at the earliest noob stage, hosing their Windows install while installing or churning between distros is an annoyance they don't need. I suggest starting with a live CD (Ubuntu or my favorite, Sidux) and exploring that. The live CD can rescue your data if you later trash your hard disk install. Partitioning BTW is basic to any OS install, and the info is available with some Googling. There are plenty of Linux forums with helpful people, and I never got told, even back in 1999, to "RTFM".
Funny, but you do have a valid point. Locks keep honest people honest.
It isn't difficult to slice through or drill most locks or the doors holding them, let alone picking the lock, but if there is an armed human on the other side that changes the game a bit.:)
Slashdot Mirror
"Those cars have to go somewhere."
No, they don't. If one lives in or near a place like NYC a car is not only an option, but often a burden.
If you are fond of cars and the room to use them, do what I did and move far away from crowded urban centers.
The more people are crowded together the more they must do to accomodate each other. I don't want to live in a beehive so I left.
"Folks drive for many reasons, one being a sense of going where they want, when they want."
This causes traffic jams and gridlock when they all decide to play in the same place. It is clearly in societies interest to discourage this.
The Netherlands system is an excellent idea. In the US there is a severe problem with uninsured and unlicensed drivers. I'd be glad to see automated license plate reading systems to reduce the problem.
"Nonetheless, ever since then I've been gearing up to move to a country that is not in the Western Axis, as I am increasingly getting the feeling that we as Muslims just aren't welcome."
There is no reason for non-Muslims to want Muslims, because as believers they spread Islam.
The spread of Islam cannot be considered desirable by non-Muslims because of the societies it creates.
Islam is an exceptionally oppressive religion in practice, and practice trumps theory.
I've seen the best you can do even with massive wealth (KSA, and the Gulf Emirates) and do not want MY country to be like them.
Many of us don't care about political correctness, and don't want even "reasonable" Muslims in their midst. If Muslim society is good and righteous, Muslims might prove their loyalty by moving back to the Caliphate. I don't need them. I don't want Islamic changes in MY society. I don't want Muslims to have leverage by increasing their population in MY country.
Just because Islam is a "religion" doesn't mean it should not be viewed as a political ideology. I am free to oppose Islam (everywhere but Islamic countries) just as I am free to oppose Maoism or Stalinism. To the extent my country becomes Islamic I will be less free, so anything that induces Muslims to leave suits me fine.
"I find it kinda disconcerting that I could one day be confronted by police with an exhaustive list of my movements for the last 10 years."
I could care less. It would establish my innocence. I don't find it intimidating at all.
Either way, MSFT gets paid. They have plenty of time to sort out Vista.
The more different technologies people learn to work with, the more they will learn to think in tech terms and the more they will see how all these wonderful pieces fit together.
Someone in the Third World could use an OLPC to, for example, surf Toyota information, check out the multimachine yahoo group, and build a useful machine tool from old truck parts to machine new truck parts!
Compare their lot to that of US workers in the 1920s and 1930s, and suddenly their compensation looks a lot better.
Someone who believes the universe is a divine monarchy can never honestly embrace secular democracy.
They can use it to gain power, but that does not involve a personal buy-in.
The nature of deistic religion means that one is either a Fundamentalist or a hypocrite, and any squalling to the contrary may be regarded as a delusion or a lie.
"Now, which of these things have the bible thumpers made their top priority?"
Controlling sex gives social control of the tribe. Encouraging violence towards opponents expands tribal power. Never forget that we are dealing with the belief systems of desert tribesmen, no matter what the modern veneer. Judge them by their works, be they Taliban or Talibaptist.
"The question is : should I study Arabic or Spanish to welcome our new overlords."
:)
Yes.
"This is just plain amazingly cruel to everyone who gave them the benefit of the doubt and took the risk of being an early adopter."
:)
Some of us find it amazingly funny that anyone gives any software company the benefit of the doubt, at least with their own money. I don't ever do that so I don't ever get burned, end of story.
Never forget that with any version of Windows, millions of adopters will take the risk ahead of you, so it is reasonable to wait and let someone else step in shit first. By the time any new version of Windows is somewhat sorted out, it's easier to get it cheap (or free with a borked PC that had an OEM install).
I figure the point of being a geek is like the point of being a mechanic. I use my knowledge and judgment to save money and make money. I never buy new cars and never buy a new operating system for the same reasons.
"I feel a little nervous about a world where the US has allowed stupid leaders to bleed away all their power and we have to find another buttress against the casual cruelty of China and a resurgent Russia."
No one is concerned with doing anything other than business with China and Russia, and no one that matters wants or needs a buttress against them. Round-eyes were never really welcome in Asia, and should have let it utterly alone.
As for Russia, if NATO deserves to survive it can easily afford a military to restrain Russia while offering economic linkage.
Without a Cold War, the US is not needed in the world. Not even Jihadism is enough to make anyone care much, because one dare not confuse a religion (all of which are wonderful) with a political ideology...
The ISP doing the filtering means errors are not easily corrected.
OTOH, client-side filtering software can be extremely restrictive because the people who want filtering can have their preferred internet experience without shitting up yours or mine. Churches and other groups could even provide whitelists to parents who want that.
I like this. People need challenge and conflict.
What could be better for the students and those faculty who work with them than to fight the RIAA and learn from the experience? They'll remember this battle all their lives.
"Its more secure having the actually memory embedded inside the machine instead on the outside in a port, accessible for anyone that have physicall access to your office."
c s-adsahdcf-sata-cf-adapter-review-6.html?Itemid=27
The same pieces could easily be inside the case. Not all USB ports are external. Of course, SATA CF adapters have been available for sometime:
http://www.fastsilicon.com/storage-reviews/addoni
By the way, anyone have links to tutorials for installing a hypervisor to such a setup?
"Then I took a mental note not to re-visit that website again."
Might wanna add that note to your hosts file too.
"I can own many things, but not my partner. She stays as long as she wants me, and vice versa. And it is good."
With a wise attitude like that, your odds are good she'll stay a very long time.
It is to be hoped that some of those students are going to BE lawyers one day, and all this lawyer hatin' conveniently ignores that many lawyers are idealists and work pro bono for good causes.
I delight in seeing young people use the system to fight for their freedoms.
An appropriate response would be a widely propagated "leaker howto" written as a fictional story for non-geeks so it would be protected speech. The trouble with leakers is that they don't practice proper security, use resources at home and work, and leave a trail.
OTOH wardriving with a laptop running from liveCD or similar setup that never saved incriminating data would allow leaking of most anything (don't forget to spoof thy MAC address or have a throwaway wireless card). Data that one wished to send could be kept on a USB key (or CF card in a PCMCIA CF adapter, fits more neatly) which would be wiped and disposed of after use. An easy way would be to insert drive in a used soda can, crush can under boot, then recycle. (A media destruction howto should be included.)
Revolutionary fiction can be a great motivator if written towards the appropriate audience. I'll use the example of "The Turner Diaries", though it doesn't reflect my views at all.
"how would this device differ from tasers, tear gas, or rubber bullets?"
It would be far less likely to cause physical damage.
Rubber bullets can kill and maim if they strike the skull or eye, Tasers have killed ~70 people (granted, they are much safer than billy clubs), and tear gas can be dangerous depending on concentration.
"The right to violent self-defense is essential to freedom...
/= homicide.
:)
:)
It is also essential to get those high homicide rates. Your call."
Lawful self-defense
"Self-defense should be proportional to the actual threat.
Shooting any burglar because some burglars might become violent is just stupid. If the burglar is coming at you, fine. If he's trying to leave or running away, no."
The applicable laws cover that. They vary by state, so do read yours.
"Your wife is a psycho. (and apparently you are as well, from the tone of your post)"
Nice troll, but note I mentioned firing into the ground to facilitate bullet retrieval. That is not "psychotic"
We both have military training and are disciplined shooters. Making noise to scare away the crackheads worked, no one was injured, and the situation was de-escalated nicely. What you may (and others who may be unfamiliar with the way criminals like crackheads think) not understand is that they only respect people who appear scary. I'm not some crazed redneck, but I'll emulate one if it is useful. Crackheads are not deterred by the consequences of crack use, so that worldview limits the things that do deter them.
"Then all of a sudden it is the burglar who is being threatened for life, and who feels a need to defend yourself. Do you really want to go into that spiral?"
There is no spiral. Burglar has choice of turning and running or being shot. If he entered an occupied residence he may be presumed willing to attack and subdue anyone in that residence. If he hopped my fence and continued past my barking dogs he was determined to enter.
I'm not advocating trap guns or other nonsense, I'm advocating reasonable latitude in defending myself and other humans in my house where I have the reasonable (through human history) expectation of security. If I get burgled and no one is home, that's why I buy home insurance!
"A burglar has no intent to kill. If he would, why not do armed robbery instead? Why not take people hostage, take them to their home, clear out and kill them?"
He may have no INITIAL intent to kill/rape/assault. Your statement seems to imply burglars are a logical, rational lot. Some meth head who has been awake for thirty days may start out to burgle, but they aren't necessarily going to stick to that. Never assume the bad guy is interested in your logic. I'm not expecting to defend against Slashdotters, so I don't assume crooks think like Slashdotters.
"In a weird way, I hope that this fails"
That isn't weird. I want to see the RIAA and anyone who supports them boycotted out of business. As long as these groups are able to make money they will survive.
"We're not even confident that our social experiment will last right now. We've had 120 years or so of real technology -- and there's no guarantee that resource constraints, political strife, or any number of environmental factors won't return us to subsistence farming within a few more generations."
Some of us, maybe many of us, but we have enough individuals to afford to lose many. Other mammals lose plenty of individuals while the species survives. If we preserve information and technology we can continue to advance.
Life being "mean, poor, brutish and short" didn't stop humans. We just breed to compensate.
"Which is right and proper since in most Western countries the state doesn't demand the death penalty for burglary."
You mistake shooting a "burglar" for penalizing said burglar instead of SELF-defense. Defending yourself is not to be confused with lynching.
A "burglar" (intruder) is a huge risk to the occupant of a house because the intruder has incentive to kill the householder to shut him/her up, and sometimes does.
Crimes of opportunity in a home invasion include rape, torture, arson to cover up the evidence etc.
Intruders are not typically like Roger Moore in "The Saint".
If you don't want to defend yourself, it is your right not to. To say that I cannot defend myself is to say that I don't matter, and those who would violate me do. I respectfully disagree.
Even in Iraq, the US allows householders one firearm. This is because police response is reactive, not preemptive. All the cops can usually do is collect evidence and maybe arrest the perp for whatever he/she did. This neither does not reverse or prevent damage to the victim.
When I was TDY to Saudi Arabia, some crackheads decided to party on my property. My wife asked them to leave. They told her to fsck off and made threatening statements. (We lived in an area with light police protection and long response times.) She retreated to the house, got our our Mini-14, and put several warning shots into the ground (not towards the crackheads) where the bullets could be retrieved if required. They promptly left and never returned for the remaining three years we lived there. When the police finally responded, the officer was fine with it. (I love the South!
The right to violent self-defense is essential to freedom, because if you are forbidden to defend yourself anyone can do their will to you.
"Linux has to do more than just be as good as Windows once it's installed. It has to actively capture market share. To do that, the migration process must be no more complicated than a single click:"Ubuntu has detected Windows XP installed on this system. Do you want to install a Dual Boot System?" Yes. Click. Done. If it's not as easy as that, guess what? No market share for you. Not yours."
IMO the whole dual-booting thing confuses noobs and they get pissed off if they trash their Winstall. I help them set up another computer to learn on instead. It isn't as if computers are expensive. I find a decent spare machine and have them install while I supervise. If it's worth doing, it's worth getting a bit of gear to do it more easily.
IMO the ideal way to learn Linux is to have two PCs next to each other so you can use your Winbox to surf for info while installing Linux on the other machine.Learning ANY OS is easier if you can play on a computer set aside for the purpose. The next best is a hard drive swap rack and a second hd for Linux, but used PCs are cheap or free nowadays.
If clutter is a problem, use a KVM switch to share monitor/keyboard/mouse.
Learning ANY OS is easier if you can play on a computer set aside for the purpose.
When one is at the earliest noob stage, hosing their Windows install while installing or churning between distros is an annoyance they don't need.
I suggest starting with a live CD (Ubuntu or my favorite, Sidux) and exploring that. The live CD can rescue your data if you later trash your hard disk install.
Partitioning BTW is basic to any OS install, and the info is available with some Googling. There are plenty of Linux forums with helpful people, and I never got told, even back in 1999, to "RTFM".
Funny, but you do have a valid point. Locks keep honest people honest.
:)
It isn't difficult to slice through or drill most locks or the doors holding them, let alone picking the lock, but if there is an armed human on the other side that changes the game a bit.