Thank you, I appreciate it. You're right, no one wants to be harassed needlessly, but the bombs sent in packages on election day make it abundantly clear that al Qaeda is still looking for vulnerabilities in our system. It would be a huge mistake for us to become lax in our enforcement.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that slashdot moderators lean very heavily to the left. The way they mod down my comments simply because they don't agree with them borders on censorship. I'm not provoking anyone, I'm not saying things that devalue conversation, I'm simply expressing my opinion. Expressing ideas that you don't agree with do not amount to flaming and trolling.
We have policy discussions to find a balance between the two. Which protects us better and is more fair: electronically 'strip-searching' everybody or doing random checks? I would rather have everyone scanned and be able to have likely culprits scanned as well than pull aside the would-be offenders and have them scream civil liberties bloody murder.
I wonder how well this would've gone over in October 2001. We haven't had a genuine terror attack in a long time, so people start getting indignant about security again. Do we really need to have another international calamity for us to start respecting laws that were put in place to keep us safe?
The question we should ask ourselves is whether or not we should accept domain name registration as a commercial practice.
How about a resounding yes? The vast majority of sites on the internet are used for businesses. ".com" is short for "commercial," you know. If you want to talk about taking ".org" domains out of the commercial registration pool, there are practices that might be put in place to restrict their use in a way that ".edu" and ".gov" are used. I think you would be a little late to the party, though.
If you disagree with Godaddy's business practices, vote with your wallet and use other registrars and hosting services. What could possibly be gained by trying to force them back into defaulting to.com again? There's no guarantee that.com will stay the de facto standard for domain names in the future. My money is on.us domains, personally.
But I don't see it happening, sadly; people would rather spend hours whining at lawmakers to litigate other tech companies like Facebook and Google into shape than actually stop using their services...
May I in turn suggest ending your overseas military conflicts,
Whether our initial actions were right or wrong, we have a responsibility to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq to stabilize their countries and protect their people as long as necessary. So, no.
use the cash to repair your ruined infrastructure, thereby raising employment rates and getting the local economies going?
Yeah, cos our first 1.4 trillion worked so well. Don't see how another 150 billion a year's going to make a difference...
Oh, and fuck that "leader of the free world" thing. I am part of the free world, and I feel no desire whatsoever to have any leader at all, let alone the US.
Don't hate the playa, hate the game, son.
Compared to the money you guys are pissing into the wind for no return whatsoever,
As I said, we have a moral responsibility to finish what we started and not leave the people to death and oppression. Unless you're referring to social security and medicare...
And if you have any interest at all to get your exports going, developing your local high-tech talent with projects like this might be a first step...
You apparently think that no large research projects should be state funded because on a project that takes over a decade to plan and execute, it can't be left to the whims of the economy.
Not at all. I just question the timing. Get our finances in order and then I have no problem with its funding.
That doesn't sound like a semi-marginal improvement.
No, it doesn't. It sounds to me like the point of diminishing returns.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/telescopes/4299775
We own or jointly own all five of the top five telescopes in the world. What makes this one so much more beneficial that it's going to help pull our economy out?
"What do I know" was an earnest statement. But fine, you had to go pushing my buttons...
it is very small relative to the total debt or annual deficit.
A penny saved is a penny earned. You're better off shutting off your cable, cutting back your cell phone plan, and eating Ramen Noodles for a year if it's going to keep you from losing your house. And I didn't say that cutting this project was the only solution to the deficit; there are plenty of other common-sense cuts that could add up to hundreds of billions if congress had the nerve to pass them.
How does a high-tech project, employing highly-trained workers to the full extent of their abilities (and not incidentally keeping them in the United States, rather than seeing them move to other jurisdictions) hurt employment?
Because government employment does not provide true growth; it simply recycles tax money. Just ask Cuba.
How does a space telescope hurt U.S. exports?
Because it furthers our deficits and therefore weakens confidence in our currency, our bonds, and ultimately devalues our goods.
Yep, those damn Canadians keep getting in. Fortunately, the JWST is an infrared instrument, so in its off-hours it can be used to scan for illegal immigrants crossing the border under cover of darkness.
Go to El Paso, Mexicali, Moses Lake or Juarez and then tell me how funny you think the border situation is.
What the hell does "leader of the free world" mean, anyway? I really hope it's more "we're a shining example" and less "we're in charge because we're scariest"
Simply means we have the guts to stand up for our own interests and not let apologism or political correctness get in the way. Walk softly and carry a big stick.
The U.S. federal civil service has close to two million employees
Two million people taken out of the private sector when they could be employed by companies and promoting real growth. Even Obama would be willing to admit as much after last Tuesday.
Not nearly as much as you'd like to think, apparently.
This is waaay too much insight for being buried six-deep in a reply chain.
My only point is you don't remodel your bathroom when the house is on fire. Make short-term investments for now and postpone longer-term investments until we're back in Clinton-era shape.
I fail to recognize how a complete replacement of one of the world's most powerful telescopes to gain a semi-marginal improvement in its abilities counts as an investment in science. I don't know, maybe it would be, but the time to recoup our costs would be far in the future to say the least. Let's wait until the economy turns around and for now focus on things less abstractly beneficial...
I think sating our curiosity about the beginnings of the universe should take a back seat to our 13 trillion dollar deficit, our 9.6% unemployment rate, our sluggish exports market, our extended overseas military conflicts, our wide-open borders, and our faltering standing as the leader of the free world...but what do I know?
Yeah, and if someone does something nefarious with that connection, YOU are responsible for it. "Sometimes an open hand does more damage than a clenched fist..."
I was thinking something more along the lines of breaking into their home networks and lifting passwords, credit card numbers and social security numbers, as well as a way to obfuscate their location for an attack of some kind. But yeah...damn the man or whatever.
If you use Keepass or some other sort of ultra-encrypted password safe, you only need to remember one.
Besides, you'd be surprised how well your fingers remember $A45j00)&er]{ after a while, even if your brain doesn't. That may be a signal it's time to change your password, however...
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you, I appreciate it. You're right, no one wants to be harassed needlessly, but the bombs sent in packages on election day make it abundantly clear that al Qaeda is still looking for vulnerabilities in our system. It would be a huge mistake for us to become lax in our enforcement.
the faux conservatives that put "security" (read: invading the privacy of citizens to expand the power of the state) over liberty.
So where were you during the passage of the new healthcare policy last year?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that slashdot moderators lean very heavily to the left. The way they mod down my comments simply because they don't agree with them borders on censorship. I'm not provoking anyone, I'm not saying things that devalue conversation, I'm simply expressing my opinion. Expressing ideas that you don't agree with do not amount to flaming and trolling.
We have policy discussions to find a balance between the two. Which protects us better and is more fair: electronically 'strip-searching' everybody or doing random checks? I would rather have everyone scanned and be able to have likely culprits scanned as well than pull aside the would-be offenders and have them scream civil liberties bloody murder.
Not quite as much money as in liberal cynicism.
As soon as you provide a list of terrorists discouraged from boarding planes in the first place because of elevated security policies.
I wonder how well this would've gone over in October 2001. We haven't had a genuine terror attack in a long time, so people start getting indignant about security again. Do we really need to have another international calamity for us to start respecting laws that were put in place to keep us safe?
The question we should ask ourselves is whether or not we should accept domain name registration as a commercial practice.
How about a resounding yes? The vast majority of sites on the internet are used for businesses. ".com" is short for "commercial," you know. If you want to talk about taking ".org" domains out of the commercial registration pool, there are practices that might be put in place to restrict their use in a way that ".edu" and ".gov" are used. I think you would be a little late to the party, though.
If you disagree with Godaddy's business practices, vote with your wallet and use other registrars and hosting services. What could possibly be gained by trying to force them back into defaulting to .com again? There's no guarantee that .com will stay the de facto standard for domain names in the future. My money is on .us domains, personally.
But I don't see it happening, sadly; people would rather spend hours whining at lawmakers to litigate other tech companies like Facebook and Google into shape than actually stop using their services...
May I in turn suggest ending your overseas military conflicts,
Whether our initial actions were right or wrong, we have a responsibility to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq to stabilize their countries and protect their people as long as necessary. So, no.
use the cash to repair your ruined infrastructure, thereby raising employment rates and getting the local economies going?
Yeah, cos our first 1.4 trillion worked so well. Don't see how another 150 billion a year's going to make a difference...
Oh, and fuck that "leader of the free world" thing. I am part of the free world, and I feel no desire whatsoever to have any leader at all, let alone the US.
Don't hate the playa, hate the game, son.
Compared to the money you guys are pissing into the wind for no return whatsoever,
As I said, we have a moral responsibility to finish what we started and not leave the people to death and oppression. Unless you're referring to social security and medicare...
And if you have any interest at all to get your exports going, developing your local high-tech talent with projects like this might be a first step...
Maybe. But after we get our finances in order.
You apparently think that no large research projects should be state funded because on a project that takes over a decade to plan and execute, it can't be left to the whims of the economy.
Not at all. I just question the timing. Get our finances in order and then I have no problem with its funding.
That doesn't sound like a semi-marginal improvement.
No, it doesn't. It sounds to me like the point of diminishing returns. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/telescopes/4299775 We own or jointly own all five of the top five telescopes in the world. What makes this one so much more beneficial that it's going to help pull our economy out?
it is very small relative to the total debt or annual deficit.
A penny saved is a penny earned. You're better off shutting off your cable, cutting back your cell phone plan, and eating Ramen Noodles for a year if it's going to keep you from losing your house. And I didn't say that cutting this project was the only solution to the deficit; there are plenty of other common-sense cuts that could add up to hundreds of billions if congress had the nerve to pass them.
How does a high-tech project, employing highly-trained workers to the full extent of their abilities (and not incidentally keeping them in the United States, rather than seeing them move to other jurisdictions) hurt employment?
Because government employment does not provide true growth; it simply recycles tax money. Just ask Cuba.
How does a space telescope hurt U.S. exports?
Because it furthers our deficits and therefore weakens confidence in our currency, our bonds, and ultimately devalues our goods.
Yep, those damn Canadians keep getting in. Fortunately, the JWST is an infrared instrument, so in its off-hours it can be used to scan for illegal immigrants crossing the border under cover of darkness.
Go to El Paso, Mexicali, Moses Lake or Juarez and then tell me how funny you think the border situation is.
What the hell does "leader of the free world" mean, anyway? I really hope it's more "we're a shining example" and less "we're in charge because we're scariest"
Simply means we have the guts to stand up for our own interests and not let apologism or political correctness get in the way. Walk softly and carry a big stick.
The U.S. federal civil service has close to two million employees
Two million people taken out of the private sector when they could be employed by companies and promoting real growth. Even Obama would be willing to admit as much after last Tuesday.
Not nearly as much as you'd like to think, apparently.
Pretentious prick...
This is waaay too much insight for being buried six-deep in a reply chain. My only point is you don't remodel your bathroom when the house is on fire. Make short-term investments for now and postpone longer-term investments until we're back in Clinton-era shape.
A small part of the R&D money goes to the researchers, who then spend it on rent and food etc, i.e. boosting the local economy and creating jobs.
Oh, I see; it's a stimulus package. Not a selling point for someone on my side of the aisle...
I fail to recognize how a complete replacement of one of the world's most powerful telescopes to gain a semi-marginal improvement in its abilities counts as an investment in science. I don't know, maybe it would be, but the time to recoup our costs would be far in the future to say the least. Let's wait until the economy turns around and for now focus on things less abstractly beneficial...
Gee, I wasn't aware that presenting conflicting opinions counted as "trolling..."
I think sating our curiosity about the beginnings of the universe should take a back seat to our 13 trillion dollar deficit, our 9.6% unemployment rate, our sluggish exports market, our extended overseas military conflicts, our wide-open borders, and our faltering standing as the leader of the free world...but what do I know?
Oh yeah, and uh...FIRESHEEP.
Yeah, and if someone does something nefarious with that connection, YOU are responsible for it. "Sometimes an open hand does more damage than a clenched fist..."
I was thinking something more along the lines of breaking into their home networks and lifting passwords, credit card numbers and social security numbers, as well as a way to obfuscate their location for an attack of some kind. But yeah...damn the man or whatever.
Yeah, I can see the use for that...as a veritable 'hit list' for people who want to use unencrypted domestic Wi-Fi in illegal acts.
If by "work with them" you mean "pay them off," sure.
any 8 character all lowercase can be cracked overnight.
What are you using, a 386? Anybody using a GPU-enabled instance of hashcat can break that in seconds.
If you use Keepass or some other sort of ultra-encrypted password safe, you only need to remember one. Besides, you'd be surprised how well your fingers remember $A45j00)&er]{ after a while, even if your brain doesn't. That may be a signal it's time to change your password, however...