"maybe i should extend my tin-foil hat to a tin-foil facemask and a pair of shiny gloves... that way they'll never recognise me!"
That's true, they mightn't recognize you, but if you're planning to venture into public you had best practice your dance moves and your falsetto singing voice, Mr. Jackson.
>>Scientists also said that transporting hydrogen from fossil fuel plants to automobile filling stations will be more difficult than anyone has anticipated.
Why, indeed! * There doesn't seem to be a problem with distributing natural gas supplies to nearly every suburban home in my city of 1,000,000 people.
* There isn't a problem transporting liquid propane from the refinement ceneter to the distribution points. From there, the fuel-trucks deliver LP to folks in the countryside, who use it to fuel their furnaces.
* The local welding supply shop has, literally, hundreds of canisters of gases -- some noble (in the Chemistry 101 sense), some flammable (Acetylene). They have a dry ice storage tank, so refrigeration clearly isn't an issue.
I don't get it. Why is the transportation of hydrogen any different from the above examples? Or is the writer just making careless statements?
>>Could it be the beginnings of Senator Hatche's p2p Destroying scheme?
Doubtful we could prove it, unless those 1000 "random" IP address can be found to map to porn servers. Still not proof that it's Hatch's work, but at least it would demonstrate a consistent pattern of behaviour!
Call me a soft hearted old-fashioned traditionalist if you must, but an electronic umpire will ruin the game! The obvious "bad calls" are often the highlights of the games! Well, maybe not the call itself, but what follows. C'mon, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that it's not as much fun for a player to kick dirt on a CCD camera as a middle-age guy in funny clothes. Plus, if the camera can't spin it's cap around backwards and shout during the spit-flying-in-your-face confrontations that follows, what's the point?
>>it's just a case of plugging it into every unit you check out at the store, and you can ignore the sales guy's rants.
Better yet, purchase the product with a credit card. If there's a problem, challenge the payment with your CC company, citing misadvertisement/fraud as the reason. The CC will issue a chargeback, the store gets *nothing* in terms of payment + they must deal with a returned item that can no longer be sold at full price. After a few of these such transactions, the stock manager will get the hint and drop the brand.
>>The Europeans do not have a bill of rights. They do not have a constitution granting them freedoms like we have.
One small correction, friend. The BOR doesn't grant us rights in America -- God does that. The Constitution, and its Amendments guarantees us that our government will not interfere in these inalienable rights. [Practically speaking, though, we're drifting far from the ideals of freedom upon which this country was founded. It is a sad truth of humanity, that rights of freedom begin to erode almost immediately after they are gained, and are usually only reclaimed by the exercise of violence. Proof? When was the last time a Congressman was heard to say "We can't do that -- it's not in the Constitution" ?]
Cheap? Easy for you to say, AC, when slashdot is paying for the traffic and web hosting for your pithy comment.
If, however, *you* were required to pay for the servers, bandwidth, and hosting to publish the views of people with whom you disagree, then possibly you'd understand that this is really a tax on speech.
It is essential to understand that whether speech is published via ink on dead trees or bits across a wire there are costs that *someone* must bear.
This law isn't merely "silly," it's evil and should not be dismissed casually, as you have done.
"...most of them will spend their lives working as strippers or grocery store clerks or, even worse, journalists. They will die alone, unloved and unknown in a run-down apartment with 47 cats, to the end clinging to the pathetic hope that they can write the Great American Novel if only someone will pay attention to them."
I must admit that it sounds tempting. What are the disadvantages?
You need to remember that Walmart's customer base isn't the elite boutique-shoppers of either coast or the big-city masses -- it's the salt-of-the-earth types who live in flyover country. (I refer you to the "red" zones on the infamous USAToday Red&Blue map from the last presidental election.) e.g., small-town folks. These people, as a group, have traditional families, Christian beliefs, and conservative viewpoints.
I am confident that WalMart will make available what their customer base demands. Whether or not you agree with their decisions doesn't matter as, judging from your condesending tone, you are obviously much too self-important to shop at a Walmart store.
Not good for the consumer? Rubbish. You act as though aggressive competition guarantees an irrevocable market dominance. It doesn't! As soon as your theoretical future-walmart doesn't meet the consumer's desire for quality+low prices+convenience (something it currently does quite well, mind you) another business can rise up to meet that need.
Give the consumer due credit -- when a company takes it's customer base for granted and acts like a "dinosaur" it loses market share to smaller, more nimble companies that give the customer what they want. The business history books are full of examples (see Sears & Roebuck, K-Mark, IBM, etc.)
Result? Problem solved, unless you simply don't believe that capitalism works.
I disagree. The answer isn't one or the other -- the answer is NEITHER. Don't support the 'AAs, OR the artists. They're in this together; Pimps and whores. Drug makers and drug dealers. You're the addicted customer they can count on to come back time and time again to lay down your money for a temporary distraction.
Don't you see? By supporting one, you support both. The only way to fix this situation is to support artists who completely refuse to associate with the major labels or just attempt to live without all the stupid noise. Before recording technology existed, people lived their lives just fine without being subjected to never-ending soundtracks.
Or are you afraid to admit that you're addicted to their silly noise?
One last parting thought. As recently as 30 years ago, music was created by adults for adults; the "bandstand" programs were popular, middle-age adults routinely listened to music in social settings (danced to it, even!). But these consumers are a picky bunch -- they demand high quality which is difficult and expensive to produce, so the music industry has given up on adults as a lost-cause and today they're selling music by kids, for kids because children are easier to control, tempt, and addict. Think about it.
"If the robber knows that the cash will be deactivated before he can spend it and/or traced to him or whoever he uses it to, it makes it not very worthwhile for him to kill you to take your wallet."
The above scenario is precisely the reason why there's an incentive for the robber to turn murderous -- so that you can't report the crime and thus, deactivate the money! If he lets you walk away, the money will be worthless before it can be spent. If you're dead however...
Unfortunately, many thieves value your wallet more than they value your life. Don't ask them to choose.
"...the net could report that you've been mugged immediately and 'deactivate' all those notes..."
and no doubt make an appropriate entry into your Total Information Awareness database file.
Or, to look at it from the other angle, if you are engaged in any "suspicious" behavior, what's to stop the TIA/Dept of Homeland Security system from deactivating your money?
"The worst fad has been these stupid little professors stuck in their ways. Why did anyone listen to them back then?" --one Sony Aibo speaking to another, circa 2015.
That's all there is to it. Minski is just sore that his theories from 30 years ago aren't proving themselves, and the decentralized models being implemented by his rivals at MIT (e.g. Rod Brooks and his graduate students) are demonstrating remarkably sophisticated behaviors and advancing the state of the art.
"In any case, 2 crashes in 20 years is a very very good record. You'd be hard pressed to make the airline industry perform so well."
Not if the airlines flew less than a dozen flights per year! At any point in time, there are thousands of aircraft in the air over America but a shuttle launch happens, what, once every few months at best?
In general, I agree with your post. Well said, and I agree that American's have gotten soft -- expecting complete safety and surety in every aspect of their lives. It's sad, really, because a life without risk is a life not lived.
"Once this gets widescale usage, the spammers will simply start responding to the challenges..."
No, they won't, unless there are some breakthroughs in machine vision. You see, the challenge "key" is more than just plain text that needs to be repeated, parrot-fashion, back to the server. In its best form, it would be encoded as an unusual font with a curving baseline on an image with lots of "noise" in the background.
People are extremely good at picking out text like this but it's a very difficult problem for machines.
Ack! You beat me to the punch on the Diatom fossils.
Don't forget Asbestos, and fiberglass. Both of these substances are extremely common, but relatively inert and harmless UNLESS dust particles are inhaled. Once in your lungs, the microscopic fibers embed themselves into your lung tissue causing scarring and, with the former lung cancer, the latter, silicon fibrosis; either of which is a terrible way to die.
Now, imagine inhaling a microscopic machine designed to do who-knows-what! If a simple strand of glassfibre can form a deadly dust, imagine swarms of machines (along with their power supplies, etc.) chewing their way into your lungs.
I've gotta come down on the side of the cautious on this one. Until you can control it, don't deploy it.
"Take a look at the decision to build the national highway system... The government should focus more on things like this"
You seem to be unaware that the federal highway system was a MILITARY project designed to improve the movement of men and material during the cold war. Would you like to choose another example; perhaps one that helps your argument, rather than destroys it?
The RIAA claims Joseph Nievelt offered 652,000 songs. Assuming 4MB each, that's more than 2,600 GIGABYTES of data! Or, to look at it another way, assuming 12 songs per album, the RIAA is claiming this guy had equivilent of 54,333 albums online. I doubt that even a FYE/Sam Goody's/Musicland/etc music store has 54,333 albums in one of their retail stores, and we're asked to believe this college kid had that many? Rediculous.
Remember, too, these are the same folks that claim a fast CD burner is really equal to four "regular" burners.
Slashdot Mirror
"maybe i should extend my tin-foil hat to a tin-foil facemask and a pair of shiny gloves... that way they'll never recognise me!"
That's true, they mightn't recognize you, but if you're planning to venture into public you had best practice your dance moves and your falsetto singing voice, Mr. Jackson.
Thank you for your thorough response; it was very informative.
>>Scientists also said that transporting hydrogen from fossil fuel plants to automobile filling stations will be more difficult than anyone has anticipated.
Why, indeed!
* There doesn't seem to be a problem with distributing natural gas supplies to nearly every suburban home in my city of 1,000,000 people.
* There isn't a problem transporting liquid propane from the refinement ceneter to the distribution points. From there, the fuel-trucks deliver LP to folks in the countryside, who use it to fuel their furnaces.
* The local welding supply shop has, literally, hundreds of canisters of gases -- some noble (in the Chemistry 101 sense), some flammable (Acetylene). They have a dry ice storage tank, so refrigeration clearly isn't an issue.
I don't get it. Why is the transportation of hydrogen any different from the above examples? Or is the writer just making careless statements?
>>we simply cannot rant against the RIAA unless we first confirm that they're doing anything wrong.
;)
You're new here, right?
Because nobody knows as many assholes as an attorney for the RIAA.
>>Could it be the beginnings of Senator Hatche's p2p Destroying scheme?
Doubtful we could prove it, unless those 1000 "random" IP address can be found to map to porn servers. Still not proof that it's Hatch's work, but at least it would demonstrate a consistent pattern of behaviour!
Call me a soft hearted old-fashioned traditionalist if you must, but an electronic umpire will ruin the game! The obvious "bad calls" are often the highlights of the games! Well, maybe not the call itself, but what follows. C'mon, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that it's not as much fun for a player to kick dirt on a CCD camera as a middle-age guy in funny clothes. Plus, if the camera can't spin it's cap around backwards and shout during the spit-flying-in-your-face confrontations that follows, what's the point?
>>it's just a case of plugging it into every unit you check out at the store, and you can ignore the sales guy's rants.
Better yet, purchase the product with a credit card. If there's a problem, challenge the payment with your CC company, citing misadvertisement/fraud as the reason. The CC will issue a chargeback, the store gets *nothing* in terms of payment + they must deal with a returned item that can no longer be sold at full price.
After a few of these such transactions, the stock manager will get the hint and drop the brand.
>>The Europeans do not have a bill of rights. They do not have a constitution granting them freedoms like we have.
One small correction, friend. The BOR doesn't grant us rights in America -- God does that. The Constitution, and its Amendments guarantees us that our government will not interfere in these inalienable rights. [Practically speaking, though, we're drifting far from the ideals of freedom upon which this country was founded. It is a sad truth of humanity, that rights of freedom begin to erode almost immediately after they are gained, and are usually only reclaimed by the exercise of violence. Proof? When was the last time a Congressman was heard to say "We can't do that -- it's not in the Constitution" ?]
Cheap? Easy for you to say, AC, when slashdot is paying for the traffic and web hosting for your pithy comment.
If, however, *you* were required to pay for the servers, bandwidth, and hosting to publish the views of people with whom you disagree, then possibly you'd understand that this is really a tax on speech.
It is essential to understand that whether speech is published via ink on dead trees or bits across a wire there are costs that *someone* must bear.
This law isn't merely "silly," it's evil and should not be dismissed casually, as you have done.
"...most of them will spend their lives working as strippers or grocery store clerks or, even worse, journalists. They will die alone, unloved and unknown in a run-down apartment with 47 cats, to the end clinging to the pathetic hope that they can write the Great American Novel if only someone will pay attention to them."
I must admit that it sounds tempting. What are the disadvantages?
You need to remember that Walmart's customer base isn't the elite boutique-shoppers of either coast or the big-city masses -- it's the salt-of-the-earth types who live in flyover country. (I refer you to the "red" zones on the infamous USAToday Red&Blue map from the last presidental election.) e.g., small-town folks. These people, as a group, have traditional families, Christian beliefs, and conservative viewpoints.
I am confident that WalMart will make available what their customer base demands. Whether or not you agree with their decisions doesn't matter as, judging from your condesending tone, you are obviously much too self-important to shop at a Walmart store.
Not good for the consumer? Rubbish. You act as though aggressive competition guarantees an irrevocable market dominance. It doesn't! As soon as your theoretical future-walmart doesn't meet the consumer's desire for quality+low prices+convenience (something it currently does quite well, mind you) another business can rise up to meet that need.
Give the consumer due credit -- when a company takes it's customer base for granted and acts like a "dinosaur" it loses market share to smaller, more nimble companies that give the customer what they want. The business history books are full of examples (see Sears & Roebuck, K-Mark, IBM, etc.)
Result? Problem solved, unless you simply don't believe that capitalism works.
I disagree. The answer isn't one or the other -- the answer is NEITHER. Don't support the 'AAs, OR the artists. They're in this together; Pimps and whores. Drug makers and drug dealers. You're the addicted customer they can count on to come back time and time again to lay down your money for a temporary distraction.
Don't you see? By supporting one, you support both. The only way to fix this situation is to support artists who completely refuse to associate with the major labels or just attempt to live without all the stupid noise. Before recording technology existed, people lived their lives just fine without being subjected to never-ending soundtracks.
Or are you afraid to admit that you're addicted to their silly noise?
One last parting thought. As recently as 30 years ago, music was created by adults for adults; the "bandstand" programs were popular, middle-age adults routinely listened to music in social settings (danced to it, even!). But these consumers are a picky bunch -- they demand high quality which is difficult and expensive to produce, so the music industry has given up on adults as a lost-cause and today they're selling music by kids, for kids because children are easier to control, tempt, and addict. Think about it.
"If the robber knows that the cash will be deactivated before he can spend it and/or traced to him or whoever he uses it to, it makes it not very worthwhile for him to kill you to take your wallet."
The above scenario is precisely the reason why there's an incentive for the robber to turn murderous -- so that you can't report the crime and thus, deactivate the money! If he lets you walk away, the money will be worthless before it can be spent. If you're dead however...
Unfortunately, many thieves value your wallet more than they value your life. Don't ask them to choose.
"...the net could report that you've been mugged immediately and 'deactivate' all those notes..."
and no doubt make an appropriate entry into your Total Information Awareness database file.
Or, to look at it from the other angle, if you are engaged in any "suspicious" behavior, what's to stop the TIA/Dept of Homeland Security system from deactivating your money?
I don't like this one bit. Nosir.
"The worst fad has been these stupid little professors stuck in their ways. Why did anyone listen to them back then?"
--one Sony Aibo speaking to another, circa 2015.
That's all there is to it. Minski is just sore that his theories from 30 years ago aren't proving themselves, and the decentralized models being implemented by his rivals at MIT (e.g. Rod Brooks and his graduate students) are demonstrating remarkably sophisticated behaviors and advancing the state of the art.
"In any case, 2 crashes in 20 years is a very very good record. You'd be hard pressed to make the airline industry perform so well."
Not if the airlines flew less than a dozen flights per year! At any point in time, there are thousands of aircraft in the air over America but a shuttle launch happens, what, once every few months at best?
In general, I agree with your post. Well said, and I agree that American's have gotten soft -- expecting complete safety and surety in every aspect of their lives. It's sad, really, because a life without risk is a life not lived.
"Once this gets widescale usage, the spammers will simply start responding to the challenges..."
No, they won't, unless there are some breakthroughs in machine vision. You see, the challenge "key" is more than just plain text that needs to be repeated, parrot-fashion, back to the server. In its best form, it would be encoded as an unusual font with a curving baseline on an image with lots of "noise" in the background.
People are extremely good at picking out text like this but it's a very difficult problem for machines.
Ack! You beat me to the punch on the Diatom fossils.
Don't forget Asbestos, and fiberglass. Both of these substances are extremely common, but relatively inert and harmless UNLESS dust particles are inhaled. Once in your lungs, the microscopic fibers embed themselves into your lung tissue causing scarring and, with the former lung cancer, the latter, silicon fibrosis; either of which is a terrible way to die.
Now, imagine inhaling a microscopic machine designed to do who-knows-what! If a simple strand of glassfibre can form a deadly dust, imagine swarms of machines (along with their power supplies, etc.) chewing their way into your lungs.
I've gotta come down on the side of the cautious on this one. Until you can control it, don't deploy it.
"Take a look at the decision to build the national highway system... The government should focus more on things like this"
You seem to be unaware that the federal highway system was a MILITARY project designed to improve the movement of men and material during the cold war. Would you like to choose another example; perhaps one that helps your argument, rather than destroys it?
OMG, now THAT was funny!!!
Somebody toss that AC a mod point or two.
>>It's almost like that's a joke, except it isn't funny and it doesn't even make any sense.
Jeopardy Answer: Who is CarrotTop?
The RIAA claims Joseph Nievelt offered 652,000 songs. Assuming 4MB each, that's more than 2,600 GIGABYTES of data! Or, to look at it another way, assuming 12 songs per album, the RIAA is claiming this guy had equivilent of 54,333 albums online. I doubt that even a FYE/Sam Goody's/Musicland/etc music store has 54,333 albums in one of their retail stores, and we're asked to believe this college kid had that many? Rediculous.
Remember, too, these are the same folks that claim a fast CD burner is really equal to four "regular" burners.
I call bullshit on this one.