So many posts about whether he's innocent or guilty...
There is a legal process to establish the fact of that. It will be decided by a jury or a panel of judges depending on the laws in Sweden.
This tirade of posts declaring his obvious guilt or innocence is just opinionated pandering to the government spin doctors who are trying to detract interest away from the substance of the leaks.
Its not our job to decide Julian Assange's fate. In trying to do so, we are reducing the chance that he will have any kind of fair trial.
Shouldn't we be more interested in our governments' lack of action regarding the crimes evidenced in the cablegate leaks?
If I were to arrange a thousand people to turn up at the corporate headquarters of Visa, and then simply sit down on the ground outside the main doors, would it be a crime?
So, how can it be a crime if I achieve the same thing in cyberspace?
So, what happens when (if) WikiLeaks reveals that the source was an American Military CyberWarfare Lab?
Will it then be considered an act of war?
Will the Iranians be justified in seeking compensation and damages via the UN?
Is America prepared to pay such a price? Or will the international community bend at the knees once again? All hail the American Greenback! Without which, we shall not prosper.
It seems to me that Wikipedia is representative of our first steps into significantly digitalising our intelligence. Wikipedia is becoming a part of our brain, external to our body, but powerfully linked by fingers and eyes (for now).
Arguably, using Wikipedia makes us less intelligent, as we don't need to learn the things we can search for. But the average intelligence of a 'linked human' increases.
Wikiversity is simply a furthering of the concept. It is not a question of whether we do it...
Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to the Wiki.
It seems to me that modern society has a fascination with 'end of the world' scenarios. Whether they be zombie apocalypse, meteor strike or climate change, there seems to be some inherent human comprehension that the planet is overpopulated.
Perhaps this is driven by our biological desire to kill off the competition (literally), or perhaps it is that we have a real internal comprehension that there are too many people on the planet.
Interestingly, our fascination is with a massive reduction in world population due to some external factor. This is very typical of a natural human tendency to avoid taking responsibility. 'Wouldn't it be nice if a meteor came and wiped out 90% of the population? Then, I wouldn't have to do it. And of course, I'd be one of the survivors...'
What concerns me is that human-controlled population growth is very unpopular. Which I find fascinating when there are so many attractive opportunities. Imagine the elimination of every genetic disease and human abnormality. Reduce pre-disposition to alcohol addiction, violent crime, Polio, MS... perhaps even nail some nasty diseases like Herpes. Whilst I don't believe in the Aryan ideals, I fully expect to be labelled as such. One more way in which we are refusing to accept responsibility.
It occurs to me that most/. readers would not fall for the Apple hype. Gauging by the comments, that appears to be correct.
I've been testing an iPad as a work tool for the last day or so.
The findings have been not overlly surprising.
Pros:
The battery life is awesome
3G inside is handy
Cons:
The unit is completely non-ergonomic. My neck was hurting after writing one e-mail
When you supplement the unit with an external keyboard (for example), you lose the very thing that makes it so appealing. Its portability.
The adage 'there's an app for that' is damning. Aside from the sentiment in this article, I'd like my OS to let me copy files. You know? Like over the sexy 3G network? And I don't want to have to buy an app to do it.
Sadly, I won't be recommending the iPad as a work tool.
My neck hurts. I accidentally deleted a file on a workstation I was controlling via VNC due to the klunky touchpad interface. And I had to re-purchase a BLu-ray I already own because Apple wouldn't let me mount it without buying yet_another_app.
Oh dear. Is that really your.SIG?
The catch-cry of the tyrant? The dictator?
No. It is not my job to prove you wrong.
It is your job. You have the responsibility to critically review and re-appraise your own position every time new evidence comes to light
Each new piece of evidence needs to be assessed for validity and then factored into your world view
Let me guess... you're religious, right? That level of pompous, self serving statement is usually only ever reserved for the fanatic.
Why am I wasting my fingerprints on this? It is very difficult to convince someone who isn't thinking straight that they aren't thinking straight.
Good luck with that whole god complex thing.
Oh, btw, did you have a point to make in your post? I never got to read it.
I mis-read the first line to be from Epileptic Labs. I was aghast that a company could somehow associate epilepsy with some sort of gesture based interface.
OK. This is all about Risk Management. There are four strategies to Risk Management (check out the ISO on Wikipedia - 31000 I think?): 1. Mitigate the chance, 2. Mitigate the damage, 3. Insure it, 4. Accept it.
It sounds like you're not too keen on Accepting it, so lets consider the other three options. The magic here is to budget for it. Don't spend $1M to protect your $1000 stereo.
Chance mitigation is all about making it less likely for you to be invaded. This is about taking away temptation (eg tint your windows, good curtains), making entry harder (locks, security screens), and discouraging attackers (those cool stickers that threaten trunk monkey attack)
Damage mitigation is about reducing the damage once they're in. Alarm system. Connected to local security firm. Be prepared to pay $1 per day for monitoring.
Insure it. Nuff said.
There is nothing in this about video-ing the perps. There is nothing in it about having a gun, or traps or anything weird. When you assess the possible outcomes, those things don't reduce your loss, and likely increase your trauma.
Sort of... you have to remember that this disaster will cost BP billions. They need to recover that money somehow. Their shareholders won't suck it up. So... you can reasonable expect the price of crude from BPO to rise.
Mobil, Shell, Caltex, etc will see this as a golden opportunity to do some profiteering.
Cue the rise in oil prices. Justified by this disaster, and the need for more conscientious (eg expensive) procedures in the future.
We will pay for this. One way or another, we'll all pay for it.
Current intellectual property laws really only serve to expand the gap between the rich and the poor.
Sensible IP laws will always be fought by the people who gain the most from the current regime - and sadly, who are the people most financially equipped to undermine any potential change.
The bad news for Brazil is that its just a matter of time before the USA appoints another _very rich_ person to the controlling chair, and another war will be waged against imaginary WMDs - only this time it will occur in South America instead of middle east.
Truth is the first casualty of war. Honour, the second.
In the meantime, observe the experts, and learn from them... our politicians. They are the masters of seizing the moral high ground. They lie, they cheat, they steal. Of all the people in the world who should be able to learn and adapt to this new battleground, our scientists should be the best.
The article does not name the software company. Two of our main competitors timebomb their software - though it is written into the contracts, so its essentially above board. Still, I'd like to get a company name so that we can publish something to our customer base about this...
Apart from the whole 'I don't want to hear your stream of consciousness' argument, I think the fundamental problem with Twitter is that it is a push of information. Engineers are familiar with pushing information, but are (by nature) inclined to only push information that has been carefully scrutinized, distilled and reviewed. Doesn't sound like a tweet to me.
The greatest advance of the Internet is that it allows people to pull information. It creates a more capitalist supply/demand environment. If you don't like it, don't surf there.
I don't buy McDonalds food, but you won't catch me bagging them or giving them a hard time. I don't like what they have on offer, so I shall go elsewhere. Same goes for Twitter. If I ever hear of a tweet worth hearing, I'll reconsider.
We use GN 9120's exclusively. Have several of them in close proximity. The microphone pickup is spectacularly good. The only downside is that the ear-hook can be a bit painful after an hour or so.
Lemme sell it, you idjit. Step right up, folks, and witness the magnificent medicinal miracle of Simpson & Son's patented revitalizing tonic. Put some ardor in your larder with our energizing, moisturizing, tantalizing, romanticizing, surprising, her prizing, revitalizing tonic.
So, if we accept the approximations that the human brain stores around 500-1000 Tb of data, we're getting close. However, with the recent problems Seagate has experienced with poor reliability figures on their smaller 500Gb and 1Tb drives, I think we still have a long way to go.
Its a rapidly evolving guerilla war occuring in virtual space. And we know how well the authorities fare in those situations. They are going to have a hard time stamping it out.
IMHO, their best bet is to suspend our constitutional rights in the same way that they have done with speeding and traffic infringements. Permit the authorities to write you a ticket - for which you are presumed guilty, and must prove your innocence. Send them out electronically. Millions in revenue for the government, and a powerful disincentive for the perps.
All they need to do is slide it through the senate very delicately - the same way they did for the traffic laws.
It is problematic to calculate how many. We've had a recent situation in Aus where a dam was rejected by government because there is a unique species of frog in the region. Now, this type of frog is seen all over the world, but the particular sub-species is unique to an area of about 10 square kms.
I guess the point is that this event is hyped by the media when similarly damaging events are concealed - because deforestation in South America is 'business as usual'.
We have managed a few? We kill off about 800 species each day. I'd call that more than a few. Wiping out every species that is unique to that part of the gulf only roughly equates to what we're already doing in the South American rainforests.
Slashdot Mirror
So many posts about whether he's innocent or guilty...
There is a legal process to establish the fact of that. It will be decided by a jury or a panel of judges depending on the laws in Sweden.
This tirade of posts declaring his obvious guilt or innocence is just opinionated pandering to the government spin doctors who are trying to detract interest away from the substance of the leaks.
Its not our job to decide Julian Assange's fate. In trying to do so, we are reducing the chance that he will have any kind of fair trial.
Shouldn't we be more interested in our governments' lack of action regarding the crimes evidenced in the cablegate leaks?
She said that the first she realised she'd been raped was when the cheque bounced.
If I were to arrange a thousand people to turn up at the corporate headquarters of Visa, and then simply sit down on the ground outside the main doors, would it be a crime?
So, how can it be a crime if I achieve the same thing in cyberspace?
So, what happens when (if) WikiLeaks reveals that the source was an American Military CyberWarfare Lab?
Will it then be considered an act of war?
Will the Iranians be justified in seeking compensation and damages via the UN?
Is America prepared to pay such a price? Or will the international community bend at the knees once again? All hail the American Greenback! Without which, we shall not prosper.
Workstation rebuild every couple of months. Its a great way to scrub out those nasty zero day trade viruses too.
It seems to me that Wikipedia is representative of our first steps into significantly digitalising our intelligence. Wikipedia is becoming a part of our brain, external to our body, but powerfully linked by fingers and eyes (for now).
Arguably, using Wikipedia makes us less intelligent, as we don't need to learn the things we can search for. But the average intelligence of a 'linked human' increases.
Wikiversity is simply a furthering of the concept. It is not a question of whether we do it...
Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to the Wiki.
It seems to me that modern society has a fascination with 'end of the world' scenarios. Whether they be zombie apocalypse, meteor strike or climate change, there seems to be some inherent human comprehension that the planet is overpopulated.
Perhaps this is driven by our biological desire to kill off the competition (literally), or perhaps it is that we have a real internal comprehension that there are too many people on the planet.
Interestingly, our fascination is with a massive reduction in world population due to some external factor. This is very typical of a natural human tendency to avoid taking responsibility. 'Wouldn't it be nice if a meteor came and wiped out 90% of the population? Then, I wouldn't have to do it. And of course, I'd be one of the survivors...'
What concerns me is that human-controlled population growth is very unpopular. Which I find fascinating when there are so many attractive opportunities. Imagine the elimination of every genetic disease and human abnormality. Reduce pre-disposition to alcohol addiction, violent crime, Polio, MS... perhaps even nail some nasty diseases like Herpes. Whilst I don't believe in the Aryan ideals, I fully expect to be labelled as such. One more way in which we are refusing to accept responsibility.
I've been testing an iPad as a work tool for the last day or so.
The findings have been not overlly surprising.
Pros:
Cons:
Sadly, I won't be recommending the iPad as a work tool.
My neck hurts. I accidentally deleted a file on a workstation I was controlling via VNC due to the klunky touchpad interface. And I had to re-purchase a BLu-ray I already own because Apple wouldn't let me mount it without buying yet_another_app.
This is not my definition of sexy.
Oh dear. Is that really your .SIG?
The catch-cry of the tyrant? The dictator?
No. It is not my job to prove you wrong.
It is your job. You have the responsibility to critically review and re-appraise your own position every time new evidence comes to light
Each new piece of evidence needs to be assessed for validity and then factored into your world view
Let me guess... you're religious, right? That level of pompous, self serving statement is usually only ever reserved for the fanatic.
Why am I wasting my fingerprints on this? It is very difficult to convince someone who isn't thinking straight that they aren't thinking straight.
Good luck with that whole god complex thing.
Oh, btw, did you have a point to make in your post? I never got to read it.
I mis-read the first line to be from Epileptic Labs. I was aghast that a company could somehow associate epilepsy with some sort of gesture based interface.
OK. This is all about Risk Management. There are four strategies to Risk Management (check out the ISO on Wikipedia - 31000 I think?): 1. Mitigate the chance, 2. Mitigate the damage, 3. Insure it, 4. Accept it.
It sounds like you're not too keen on Accepting it, so lets consider the other three options. The magic here is to budget for it. Don't spend $1M to protect your $1000 stereo.
Chance mitigation is all about making it less likely for you to be invaded. This is about taking away temptation (eg tint your windows, good curtains), making entry harder (locks, security screens), and discouraging attackers (those cool stickers that threaten trunk monkey attack)
Damage mitigation is about reducing the damage once they're in. Alarm system. Connected to local security firm. Be prepared to pay $1 per day for monitoring.
Insure it. Nuff said.
There is nothing in this about video-ing the perps. There is nothing in it about having a gun, or traps or anything weird. When you assess the possible outcomes, those things don't reduce your loss, and likely increase your trauma.
Good luck!
Tabs,shmabs;Spacing,shmacing;Readability is for losers!;Every C programmer knows this;Cheers;Me;Winner,Cryptic C Competition,1987;
So, you're telling me I should stop surfing /b/ at work?
Sort of... you have to remember that this disaster will cost BP billions. They need to recover that money somehow. Their shareholders won't suck it up. So... you can reasonable expect the price of crude from BPO to rise.
Mobil, Shell, Caltex, etc will see this as a golden opportunity to do some profiteering.
Cue the rise in oil prices. Justified by this disaster, and the need for more conscientious (eg expensive) procedures in the future.
We will pay for this. One way or another, we'll all pay for it.
Current intellectual property laws really only serve to expand the gap between the rich and the poor.
Sensible IP laws will always be fought by the people who gain the most from the current regime - and sadly, who are the people most financially equipped to undermine any potential change.
The bad news for Brazil is that its just a matter of time before the USA appoints another _very rich_ person to the controlling chair, and another war will be waged against imaginary WMDs - only this time it will occur in South America instead of middle east.
Viva la democracie
No battle is ever fought honestly. Read Sun-tzu.
Truth is the first casualty of war. Honour, the second.
In the meantime, observe the experts, and learn from them... our politicians. They are the masters of seizing the moral high ground. They lie, they cheat, they steal. Of all the people in the world who should be able to learn and adapt to this new battleground, our scientists should be the best.
Can you tell I'm a Darwinist?
The article does not name the software company. Two of our main competitors timebomb their software - though it is written into the contracts, so its essentially above board. Still, I'd like to get a company name so that we can publish something to our customer base about this...
Apart from the whole 'I don't want to hear your stream of consciousness' argument, I think the fundamental problem with Twitter is that it is a push of information. Engineers are familiar with pushing information, but are (by nature) inclined to only push information that has been carefully scrutinized, distilled and reviewed. Doesn't sound like a tweet to me.
The greatest advance of the Internet is that it allows people to pull information. It creates a more capitalist supply/demand environment. If you don't like it, don't surf there.
I don't buy McDonalds food, but you won't catch me bagging them or giving them a hard time. I don't like what they have on offer, so I shall go elsewhere. Same goes for Twitter. If I ever hear of a tweet worth hearing, I'll reconsider.
We use GN 9120's exclusively. Have several of them in close proximity. The microphone pickup is spectacularly good. The only downside is that the ear-hook can be a bit painful after an hour or so.
Lemme sell it, you idjit. Step right up, folks, and witness the magnificent medicinal miracle of Simpson & Son's patented revitalizing tonic. Put some ardor in your larder with our energizing, moisturizing, tantalizing, romanticizing, surprising, her prizing, revitalizing tonic.
This poster shows some real trolling talent.
The original doomsday post was quit original. We haven't seen an astronomical doomsday meme for a year or so.
But, if you're going to force a meme like this, what better way than to debunk it on Slashdot immediately.
So, if we accept the approximations that the human brain stores around 500-1000 Tb of data, we're getting close. However, with the recent problems Seagate has experienced with poor reliability figures on their smaller 500Gb and 1Tb drives, I think we still have a long way to go.
Its a rapidly evolving guerilla war occuring in virtual space. And we know how well the authorities fare in those situations. They are going to have a hard time stamping it out.
IMHO, their best bet is to suspend our constitutional rights in the same way that they have done with speeding and traffic infringements. Permit the authorities to write you a ticket - for which you are presumed guilty, and must prove your innocence. Send them out electronically. Millions in revenue for the government, and a powerful disincentive for the perps.
All they need to do is slide it through the senate very delicately - the same way they did for the traffic laws.
It is problematic to calculate how many. We've had a recent situation in Aus where a dam was rejected by government because there is a unique species of frog in the region. Now, this type of frog is seen all over the world, but the particular sub-species is unique to an area of about 10 square kms. I guess the point is that this event is hyped by the media when similarly damaging events are concealed - because deforestation in South America is 'business as usual'.
We have managed a few? We kill off about 800 species each day. I'd call that more than a few. Wiping out every species that is unique to that part of the gulf only roughly equates to what we're already doing in the South American rainforests.