Don't be too hard on the rentacops, most of them probably do their best.
But you raise a good point. Pay your employees well, don't treat them like shit and your security will be much improved. That goes for ALL employees in all industries. In my experience, the cleaning and maintenance staff have better physical access than even security.
Once the physical container is gone, the thief can work on it at their leisure. I question why anything sensitive would be stored on a laptop in the first place.
To expand on your point. A hammer in the hand of a carpenter is just a hammer. A hammer in the hand of a person standing in front of a broken jewellery store window with a bunch of stolen jewellery in his pocket, is a break and enter tool. In Canada anyway, posessing legitimate tools in non-legitimate circumstances can lead to additional charges.
If I were a writer, I'd be incredibly offended at someone that said my words had less meaning if they weren't printed on the right kind of
paper. What the hell does the media have to do with what I'm trying to say? The value of a piece of text is in the message that it
conveys, not the quality of the paper it's printed on.
"The medium is the message..." - Marshall Machluan
I am a writer. Content is important, but so is presentation. Literature is not composed of books on HTML, Linux, Perl etc. etc. etc. For these topics, content may far outweigh presentation. But what about O'Reilly? Their cover images and postcards are innovative and interesting. They add nothing to the content per se but go a long way in creating O'Reilly's image.
For literature, it may also be argued that content outweighs presentation. This attitude, while entirely practical, ignores the esthetics of books in general. I possess two versions of the Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. One version is the standard paperback, great for reading on the bus etc. The other is a presentation bound, tooled cover, boxed set. The paper is of superior quality and the printing is crisp and clear. I do read the "superior" version usually in an armchair with a cup of tea. Same book same content, entirely different experience. note: I said different not necessarily better.
Finally, there is the rightly famous version of Farenheit 451 bound in asbestos. Physical form bound to content to create somthing more than either alone.
We already have a dtd. It's known as grammar. No nasty little tags to worry about either.
Re:CueCat Controlled Junkyard Battlebot?
on
More Junkyard Wars
·
· Score: 1
There was a handheld game taht allowed you to scan in your fighters techniques from standard commercial barcodes.
I can see it now: "Oh no, battle bot 1 has just executed a Kraft Dinner reverse but got caught by the Jolt Cola flip!";)
or Upper Canada Rebellion, ro Upper Canada Ale. dragon's breath however, tastes like its name. The best beer to feed to our American friends is Brador.;) (6.5% alcohol)
Yeah I got carded in New York. I was 19 legal in Canada and drinking in the mess since I was 17 (not legally but tolerated). I showed the Waitress my mililtary ID and she brought me a beer.:)
Read any paper or article where some two-bit reporter mentions UNIX or GNU, and watch him bitching about those complicated commands, ackward syntax, and what not. Now that's a person who never took the half hour it takes a chimpanse to learn the effect of the ``|''. It's almost not funny
Well I'm not a chimp, but I have an arts degree...
I can, however, spell Chimpanzee, and write a 30 page essay on how it relates to contemporary neo-feminist criticism.;)
I know the effect of "|". After reading the article, I now understand what it does and why. That is the value of history. Just one of those damn now that makes sense! moments in life.
So it looks like someone is trying to make a quick buck. So what. The Idea is very intriguing especially if extended to a more flexible unit that could be used by user defined applications. From the obligatory Beowolf on a board to other more mundane uses, the idea has merit even if this particular implementation is fraudulent.
Admittedly, the set up costs for manufacturing such a beast are prohibitive, but the possibility of an old pc with all its slots loaded up with these boards each holding 6 $30 PI's or even $10 486's is just fun to contemplate.
The rail analogy can be taken further. Rail companies regularily share traffic over their lines. The in most cases, empty cars are sent back to their origin in the exact reverse order they travelled to reach the destination.
This results in empty cars travelling less than optimal routes back to their origin. The purpose of all this is to ensure that the companies who profitted from moving the loaded car, pay for moving the empty.
I believe a similar business model is being applied here. The backbone providers share their loads more or less equally. The little guys have little to contribute in terms of large scale inter-connectivity so are out of the game. But a packet is a still a packet, it is never empty or full like a boxcar, all packets cost something to send and receive no matter how large or small the connectivity provider is.
This leads to an interesting possibility. The smaller providers could charge the Backbone companies for access to their customer base. The big providers won't find the smaller markets profitable, but as a group, the smaller providers would represent a good piece of traffic. Podunk may not count for much, but 10,000 Podunks might make a Chicago.
Thank you for your intelligent commentary. Perhaps when you pass through adolescence you will have something of value to contribute to the world. Untill then, please place your opinions in the orifice you kindly provided the illustration of.
Test cases in United States courts have confirmed that a significant portion of the Microsoft software sold in retail stores is the product of a Monopoly.
The people of the United States have initiated an aggressive program to stop companies they believe may be using a monopoly to infringe on the distribution of competing product.
Consumers should be familiar with the warning signs of illegal software monopolies and practice safe O/S shopping to avoid being victimized when acquiring software from Monopolistic Corporations.
Look at the whole biotech issue. Patents are given to agribusiness for developments brought about by countless generations of small farmers, very much a case of patenting "prior art". Afaik, the whole soyabean plant is pretty much sewn up with patents, you can't tell me some corporation invented it in the last couple of decades.....
I'm a literary geek rather than programming geek, so the thought occurred to me; An author can copyright a work created in a lanugage but not the language itself.
Now as a bit of a hacker, (as in take a large, not quite blunt, object and batter less than optimal bits of code into a crude approximation of a program), "get" and "put" seem to be features of every coding language I have seen. They are in fact part of the grammar of programming independant of the language used by the programmer.
Patenting/copywriting "get" and "put" would be akin to trying to copyright "blue" or patent the concept of "verb". Further, since most (maybe all?) programming languages allow the creation of programmer defined methods or functions, patent restrictions on "get" and "put" are either pointless (the programmer uses a different name for a method that performs the same function) or insanely broadbased (all "get" and "put"-like methods are covered by the patent, for example all I/O would be covered by the patent). I don't think this would hold up even in the States.
Which raises the spectre of yet another anti-trust trial in which the court demands that the i/o functions, memory mangement functions, device control functions, etc, etc, are all spun off into separate companies..... No, let's not go there just yet....
Re:Is it wrong for army to use OSS software to kil
on
Why Do Open Source?
·
· Score: 1
The maker of a kitchen knife has no control over how it is used. The end user can slice bread or kill. Killing devices, (Firearms, combat knives etc) are a bit more problematic. However, if you don't want your code being applied to a certain task such as killing, don't write code that is useful for that purpose. Don't write targetting apps for cruise missiles, and your conscience will be clear. On the other hand, much software designed for peaceful or non-military purpose can be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. A database could be quite useful when compiling a list of those to be ethnicly cleansed. Similarily an image processing algortm can might be applied to a targetting system. In neither case can the developer be held responsible, nor should the developer feel responsible, for use of code outside its designed purpose.
As an ex-grunt, I'm a little iffy about so much tech. However, if the tech makes the killing more efficient, so much the better. More efficient killing means less collateral damage which means fewer civilian casualties. Given that my parents in the U.K., and my in-laws in Malta were subjected to the imprecision of Luftwaffe carpet bombing, I kinda like the idea of precision.
The potential for dna computing has long been realized. As noted in the article, the problem was trivial and easily solvable by inspection; by the human brain, a highly complex arrangement of DNA.
Storage of os's, data and aps that adapt are a function of life from amoeboids up. What is important here is molecular level switching, not DNA in and of itself.
Arts Rant on
Linus Torvalds (and others) store entire os's in their heads.
(pick your favourite musician) stores their whole repetoire in their head plus uncountable variations on those songs.
My two kids grow and adapt bettter than any app or box I have seen or am likely to see any time soon
That's was the intent of my post. A lot of scientific progress is made via people just poking around with out a defined goal. Grant money or other funding to allow people to poke around does hasten the process.
The whole grant writing process imho just serves to cripple science because the applicants have to justify their particular project. I would like to see a bunch of cash given out no strings attached.....
Given your astrology comment you must be trolling but what the hell....
The reason is called pure science. Research for the sake of research not for some tangible / marketable end. Sure astronomy may not affect your life right now but down the road, who knows.
Take say, Galvani, if he hadn't touched a frogs leg with a piece of metal and thought, "Cool the sucker jumped! I wonder why?" You would be scripting perl on an abacus. Astronomy may produce the basic research that will lead to any number of useful developments. See the warphole article from a few days back.
This has always been the problem with with pure research. No results, no funding, no funding, who knows what were missing.
Anybody notice that in the previous article on space warfare, most of the images were provided coutesy of Microsoft and now Microsoft is one of the major players bringing us these pics? Hmmmm.....
Let's take this a tiny step further. Preference tracking coupled with video manipulation can lead to all sorts of interesting possibilities.
You're watching Buffy, Willow is about to hack into some database. The tracking software notes you are a linux head and suddenly she's using Redhat.... or you're a mac freak and she's on a Imac.... Similarily for soundtracks, product shots, guest stars, just about anything could be change to reflect your preferences.
Hmm... The Friends mob winds up as vamps on Buffy and get staked. Not so bad.
The problem is ultimately you will wind up watching targetted infomercials. Manufacturers will compete for viewership much more aggressively. In the example I gave above, which distribution of linux would be shown?... The one with the most ad bucks to spend. I admit that linux may be a bad example so please consider beer.
If you get tracked as a beer drinker and say Coors wants your business, all you will see is Coors. Coors ads, Coors product shots, actors wearing Coors gear, a Coors delivery truck in the background.
As her Goebbels well knew, tell someone a lie often enough and long enough and they will believe it, no matter how outrageous. Now imagine if that lie was tailored to you exactly.
Slashdot Mirror
But you raise a good point. Pay your employees well, don't treat them like shit and your security will be much improved. That goes for ALL employees in all industries. In my experience, the cleaning and maintenance staff have better physical access than even security.
Once the physical container is gone, the thief can work on it at their leisure. I question why anything sensitive would be stored on a laptop in the first place.
To expand on your point. A hammer in the hand of a carpenter is just a hammer. A hammer in the hand of a person standing in front of a broken jewellery store window with a bunch of stolen jewellery in his pocket, is a break and enter tool. In Canada anyway, posessing legitimate tools in non-legitimate circumstances can lead to additional charges.
"The medium is the message..." - Marshall Machluan
I am a writer. Content is important, but so is presentation. Literature is not composed of books on HTML, Linux, Perl etc. etc. etc. For these topics, content may far outweigh presentation. But what about O'Reilly? Their cover images and postcards are innovative and interesting. They add nothing to the content per se but go a long way in creating O'Reilly's image.
For literature, it may also be argued that content outweighs presentation. This attitude, while entirely practical, ignores the esthetics of books in general. I possess two versions of the Hobbit and Lord of The Rings. One version is the standard paperback, great for reading on the bus etc. The other is a presentation bound, tooled cover, boxed set. The paper is of superior quality and the printing is crisp and clear. I do read the "superior" version usually in an armchair with a cup of tea. Same book same content, entirely different experience. note: I said different not necessarily better.
Finally, there is the rightly famous version of Farenheit 451 bound in asbestos. Physical form bound to content to create somthing more than either alone.
We already have a dtd. It's known as grammar. No nasty little tags to worry about either.
There was a handheld game taht allowed you to scan in your fighters techniques from standard commercial barcodes. I can see it now: "Oh no, battle bot 1 has just executed a Kraft Dinner reverse but got caught by the Jolt Cola flip!" ;)
I bit the bullet and asked them to send the ordering info to my hotmail. If I get any info I'll post it.
or Upper Canada Rebellion, ro Upper Canada Ale. dragon's breath however, tastes like its name. The best beer to feed to our American friends is Brador. ;) (6.5% alcohol)
Yeah I got carded in New York. I was 19 legal in Canada and drinking in the mess since I was 17 (not legally but tolerated). I showed the Waitress my mililtary ID and she brought me a beer. :)
Well I'm not a chimp, but I have an arts degree...
I can, however, spell Chimpanzee, and write a 30 page essay on how it relates to contemporary neo-feminist criticism. ;)
I know the effect of "|". After reading the article, I now understand what it does and why. That is the value of history. Just one of those damn now that makes sense! moments in life.
So it looks like someone is trying to make a quick buck. So what. The Idea is very intriguing especially if extended to a more flexible unit that could be used by user defined applications. From the obligatory Beowolf on a board to other more mundane uses, the idea has merit even if this particular implementation is fraudulent.
Admittedly, the set up costs for manufacturing such a beast are prohibitive, but the possibility of an old pc with all its slots loaded up with these boards each holding 6 $30 PI's or even $10 486's is just fun to contemplate.
The rail analogy can be taken further. Rail companies regularily share traffic over their lines. The in most cases, empty cars are sent back to their origin in the exact reverse order they travelled to reach the destination.
This results in empty cars travelling less than optimal routes back to their origin. The purpose of all this is to ensure that the companies who profitted from moving the loaded car, pay for moving the empty.
I believe a similar business model is being applied here. The backbone providers share their loads more or less equally. The little guys have little to contribute in terms of large scale inter-connectivity so are out of the game. But a packet is a still a packet, it is never empty or full like a boxcar, all packets cost something to send and receive no matter how large or small the connectivity provider is.
This leads to an interesting possibility. The smaller providers could charge the Backbone companies for access to their customer base. The big providers won't find the smaller markets profitable, but as a group, the smaller providers would represent a good piece of traffic. Podunk may not count for much, but 10,000 Podunks might make a Chicago.
Blessed Be.
As are most of the biotech patents. They didn't create anything, they just patented someone elses work they had found.
Test cases in United States courts have confirmed that a significant portion of the Microsoft software sold in retail stores is the product of a Monopoly.
The people of the United States have initiated an aggressive program to stop companies they believe may be using a monopoly to infringe on the distribution of competing product.
Consumers should be familiar with the warning signs of illegal software monopolies and practice safe O/S shopping to avoid being victimized when acquiring software from Monopolistic Corporations.
Nope, none at all.
Look at the whole biotech issue. Patents are given to agribusiness for developments brought about by countless generations of small farmers, very much a case of patenting "prior art". Afaik, the whole soyabean plant is pretty much sewn up with patents, you can't tell me some corporation invented it in the last couple of decades.....
Now as a bit of a hacker, (as in take a large, not quite blunt, object and batter less than optimal bits of code into a crude approximation of a program), "get" and "put" seem to be features of every coding language I have seen. They are in fact part of the grammar of programming independant of the language used by the programmer.
Patenting/copywriting "get" and "put" would be akin to trying to copyright "blue" or patent the concept of "verb". Further, since most (maybe all?) programming languages allow the creation of programmer defined methods or functions, patent restrictions on "get" and "put" are either pointless (the programmer uses a different name for a method that performs the same function) or insanely broadbased (all "get" and "put"-like methods are covered by the patent, for example all I/O would be covered by the patent). I don't think this would hold up even in the States.
Which raises the spectre of yet another anti-trust trial in which the court demands that the i/o functions, memory mangement functions, device control functions, etc, etc, are all spun off into separate companies..... No, let's not go there just yet....
The maker of a kitchen knife has no control over how it is used. The end user can slice bread or kill. Killing devices, (Firearms, combat knives etc) are a bit more problematic. However, if you don't want your code being applied to a certain task such as killing, don't write code that is useful for that purpose. Don't write targetting apps for cruise missiles, and your conscience will be clear. On the other hand, much software designed for peaceful or non-military purpose can be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. A database could be quite useful when compiling a list of those to be ethnicly cleansed. Similarily an image processing algortm can might be applied to a targetting system. In neither case can the developer be held responsible, nor should the developer feel responsible, for use of code outside its designed purpose.
That's because you didn't include the Field Unit Display or F.U.D.
As an ex-grunt, I'm a little iffy about so much tech. However, if the tech makes the killing more efficient, so much the better. More efficient killing means less collateral damage which means fewer civilian casualties. Given that my parents in the U.K., and my in-laws in Malta were subjected to the imprecision of Luftwaffe carpet bombing, I kinda like the idea of precision.
The potential for dna computing has long been realized. As noted in the article, the problem was trivial and easily solvable by inspection; by the human brain, a highly complex arrangement of DNA.
Storage of os's, data and aps that adapt are a function of life from amoeboids up. What is important here is molecular level switching, not DNA in and of itself.
Arts Rant on
- Linus Torvalds (and others) store entire os's in their heads.
- (pick your favourite musician) stores their whole repetoire in their head plus uncountable variations on those songs.
- My two kids grow and adapt bettter than any app or box I have seen or am likely to see any time soon
Arts rant offThat's was the intent of my post. A lot of scientific progress is made via people just poking around with out a defined goal. Grant money or other funding to allow people to poke around does hasten the process.
The whole grant writing process imho just serves to cripple science because the applicants have to justify their particular project. I would like to see a bunch of cash given out no strings attached.....
Given your astrology comment you must be trolling but what the hell....
The reason is called pure science. Research for the sake of research not for some tangible / marketable end. Sure astronomy may not affect your life right now but down the road, who knows.
Take say, Galvani, if he hadn't touched a frogs leg with a piece of metal and thought, "Cool the sucker jumped! I wonder why?" You would be scripting perl on an abacus. Astronomy may produce the basic research that will lead to any number of useful developments. See the warphole article from a few days back.
This has always been the problem with with pure research. No results, no funding, no funding, who knows what were missing.
Anybody notice that in the previous article on space warfare, most of the images were provided coutesy of Microsoft and now Microsoft is one of the major players bringing us these pics? Hmmmm.....
You're watching Buffy, Willow is about to hack into some database. The tracking software notes you are a linux head and suddenly she's using Redhat.... or you're a mac freak and she's on a Imac.... Similarily for soundtracks, product shots, guest stars, just about anything could be change to reflect your preferences.
Hmm... The Friends mob winds up as vamps on Buffy and get staked. Not so bad.
The problem is ultimately you will wind up watching targetted infomercials. Manufacturers will compete for viewership much more aggressively. In the example I gave above, which distribution of linux would be shown? ... The one with the most ad bucks to spend. I admit that linux may be a bad example so please consider beer.
If you get tracked as a beer drinker and say Coors wants your business, all you will see is Coors. Coors ads, Coors product shots, actors wearing Coors gear, a Coors delivery truck in the background.
As her Goebbels well knew, tell someone a lie often enough and long enough and they will believe it, no matter how outrageous. Now imagine if that lie was tailored to you exactly.