Do you think they'll look into helping you pull your head out of your ass?
Unfotunately there are no smileys to indicate the right level of subtlety, irony, sarcasm, and dry humor. but you have the right to be personally insulted, george.
It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004
Funding for work on New Orleans' flood prevention system slowed to a trickle in 2003, and many people (long before Monday) claimed that was due to the Iraq war. Did GW bet that he wouldn't need the money for New Orleans levees, and decided to shift it to the war instead?
Actually, this is done to some degree via reputation. On the other hand, some leaders whom you would think are moral sometimes fail to meet their own standards. (NB Pat Robertson controversy re: assasination)
Probably, a good test would be to see if they even have their own set of internally consistent rules. A good test would be to make each tech write down his or her version of the Geek Commandments. What are the guiding principles they follow when they do a job? Or does the fact of merely asking the question freak them out? Or do you see them standing there with the "Deer in Headlights" (TM) look?
Certification is an attempt to solve the problem of incompetent techs. Heck this past couple of weeks, I heard of a tech at Freak Squad wiping a drive to fix the virus or whatever problem, rather than
actually fixing the system, or
offering the service of backing up the drive first for the customer
or selling the cutomer a new hard drive so the the old one could be set up as a secondary, with all data intact
Certification is supposed to validate technical expertise. The system is obviously fawlty. Right now all it certifies is that the people who are certified know enough to be dangerous.
The solution is an internship program, or an apprenticeship program, where a person gains the experience to become trustworthy.
Note to BHO types, this might not install morals, but that is another situation entirely.
Since it would be impossible for Google (or anyone else for that matter) to tell that images on one site are copyrighted by another, short of banning the indexing of images, how can you stop this?
Sounds like there would have to be a scheme for metadata inside
the image that says something like "for use only on website xxx.xxx"
(Someone buy the domain quickly please)
Then google would be able to filter images that have such meta-data, especially if they are on domains other than "xxx.xxx"
of course, there are meta data editors out there, etc, but then the blame and curse falls on the people who hacked the metadata to say they owned the picture in the first place.
Excellent dry humor. Some people think it is actually a serious article. (why spoil the fun?)
I am reminded of the stickers that one district mandated on books. Now of course, if you had stickers that recommended questioning everything, including your politicians, etc. you would likely be raising a generation of subversives.
We can't have that kind of thing going on now, can we?
Virus Technology is going 'legitimate', making sure that consumers get the ads that they desperately need. This is one of the things driving spyware development.
Don't tell me you have never heard of Advertising Deficiency Syndrome.
And think of all of those poor advertisers, with starving children at home to feed.
I keep hearing authorities on public radio applying logic to who and what we are that, if applied to a TV set, might run as follows: Though tradition claims that there is life beyond this TV set, a life that continues after its demise --actual living beings who create these moving pictures, the TV set being only a means of presenting them to others --we know, scientifically, that this cannot be the case. Here is the evidence:
Obviously, nothing of the life you see on a TV set can survive the demise of the TV set. Proof: destroy a TV set. It contains no more life, nor ever will again.
Evidence is mounting that the TV set is the SOURCE of the pictures you see on its screen. They are all created within the "brain" of the TV set. For example, if you sever this wire, the pictures vanish. If you sever THIS one, the picture lose their vertical hold. If you cut THAT one, they lose horizontal hold. If you destroy that part, they fade. If you destroy THAT part, the sound vanishes. And so forth. By disabling one or another component to see what it controls, scientists, daily, are clarifying the ways in which the various parts of the TV set contribute to the creation of its pictures. (Tube or not tube?)
Where sets are faulty (electrical brain imbalances), we can't cure them, but we CAN keep them operating. For example, when we jolt this set by attaching a power line to this part here, we don't get the correct picture back, but notice how the screen flares up, all brilliant white? See? We can keep it happy.
Actually, the sneaky thing would be to aim a tiny comet or fragment thereof in such a way as to take out "accidently" an appropriate city of their political enemy. It would work as part of their secret warfare strategy.
In many cases, Beethoven IS modeling philosophical ideas in Music.
You really see this for the first time in the first movement of the Eroica, Symphony #3, but it is also evident in the Fifth, and is pretty obvious in the 9th. But being music, the ideas are more difficult to put into directly into words.
it is like abstract art that at first is non-comprehensible, until you spot the context that the piece was created from. An example from visual art can be seen here where a cool science fiction scene is created from a snapshot of some kitchen shelves.
Point being, there is another whole level going on there.
The fifth sysmphony shows that Beethoven can have a sense of humor, even if it is on a gigantic scale.
The story is that there was a review of the Fourth Symphony (by Hoffman [if I recall correctly], same guy as in 'Tales of Hoffman') who complained that the melodies were way too long and unwieldly, thrashing about like tortured snakes.
So Beethoven poked him in the eye, so to speak, by baseing many of the themes of the first section of the Fifth Symphony on the shortest of motifs, the famous "Da Da Da Duuuuum".
Of course, he still built extended melodies from the motif, but now it was so clear that even this reviewer could understand it.
Of course, I wonder if the probe is capable of picking up some of the effects decribed below, given the the design is aligned towards conventional theory, such as it is... The whole thunderbolts.info websight makes of interesting reading. At least they are making predictions that can be proven/disproven based on data.
Predictions on "Deep Impact"
With the imminent arrival of the "Deep Impact" spacecraft at the comet Tempel 1, it is time to test competing theories on the nature of comets. The predictions and lines of reasoning offered here will set the stage for future analysis of the "electric comet" model.
We are posting this document at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, July 3, with "Deep Impact" less than 24 hours away. [...]
At 10:52 p.m. PDT July 3, the Deep Impact spacecraft will fire an 800-pound copper projectile at the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. If all goes as planned the projectile will impact on the nucleus 24 hours later. The impact is expected to eject into space large volumes of subsurface material.
Cameras on the projectile will record its approach toward the nucleus, and instruments on the spacecraft will record the event across a broad spectrum. Dozens of telescopes will be trained on the comet. According to NASA scientists, the released material will provide a sample of the primordial water, gas and dust from which the Sun, planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system formed.
Though Deep Impact team members see this as a milestone event, advocates of the Electric Universe expect a "shock to the system" with revolutionary implications. They say that a comet is not a primordial object left over from the formation of the solar system. Fundamentally, it is distinguishable from a rocky asteroid only by its more elliptical orbit.
In the Electric Universe a comet is a negatively charged object moving through the extensive and constant radial electric field of the positively charged Sun. A comet becomes negatively charged during its long sojourn in the outer solar system. As it speeds into the inner solar system, the increasing voltage and charge density of the plasma (solar "wind") cause the nucleus to discharge electrically, producing the bright coma and tail.
If the electrical theorists are correct, the implications of the event will not be limited to comet theory alone. At issue is the assumption of an electrically neutral universe, upon which every conventional astronomical theory rests. An electric comet would forever change the picture of the solar system and force astronomers to consider the overwhelming evidence that electricity lights not only our Sun but also all the stars in the heavens. Moreover, the cosmic electricians insist that this would only be the beginning of a more sweeping revolution touching all of the theoretical sciences and in the end recasting our understanding of earth history and the human past.
The most appropriate test of a new theory is its predictive power (see predictions from October 2001 in Wallace Thornhill's "Comet Borrelly Rocks Core Scientific Beliefs"). Therefore, we wish to make as clear as possible, in advance of the projectile's impact, the distinctions between the electric model and the standard model. Where the issues grow complex, the primary reason is that the standard model, which failed to anticipate any of the major discoveries about comets over the past three decades or more, has fragmented into competing versions, forced upon the theorists by unsettling facts. Nevertheless a shared ideology continues to guide orthodox comet investigation while limiting scientific perception. For this reason advocates of the electric universe do not believe that a reconciliation of the current theoretical fragments is possible.
In related news, the Cable & Satellite Higher Subscription Fee Association released figures claiming that 72 percent of subscribers felt they were paying too little for their monthly programming. 18 percent said they'd gladly pay twice as much if the level of customer service could be lowered. Surprisingly, a full six percent indicated that they'd rather watch TV from cable or satellite than eat or have sex. (The margin of error for the survey is +/- 100 percent.)
There is so little worth while that I question the financial cost of becoming eith a cable addict, or getting a digital desktop receiver. I really watch that little TV.
That said, that will likely be 12% of the population that will not be constantly brainwashed. This could be politically dangerous.
Also, some people will want to do their own thing on their homecomputer but often have to print two or three pictures in order to get a good one. Many people are not skilled at getting the color, contrast and cropping right and they don't want the hassle. So for them getting prints the traditional way may be the best option.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you think they'll look into helping you pull your head out of your ass?
Unfotunately there are no smileys to indicate the right level of subtlety, irony, sarcasm, and dry humor. but you have the right to be personally insulted, george.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004
Let the Bush bashing begin, at least, according to some.
Funding for work on New Orleans' flood prevention system slowed to a trickle in 2003, and many people (long before Monday) claimed that was due to the Iraq war. Did GW bet that he wouldn't need the money for New Orleans levees, and decided to shift it to the war instead?
Looks like a bad bet.......
Wonder if Congress will look into this?
Actually, this is done to some degree via reputation. On the other hand, some leaders whom you would think are moral sometimes fail to meet their own standards. (NB Pat Robertson controversy re: assasination)
Probably, a good test would be to see if they even have their own set of internally consistent rules. A good test would be to make each tech write down his or her version of the Geek Commandments. What are the guiding principles they follow when they do a job? Or does the fact of merely asking the question freak them out? Or do you see them standing there with the "Deer in Headlights" (TM) look?
- actually fixing the system, or
- offering the service of backing up the drive first for the customer
- or selling the cutomer a new hard drive so the the old one could be set up as a secondary, with all data intact
Certification is supposed to validate technical expertise. The system is obviously fawlty. Right now all it certifies is that the people who are certified know enough to be dangerous.The solution is an internship program, or an apprenticeship program, where a person gains the experience to become trustworthy.
Note to BHO types, this might not install morals, but that is another situation entirely.
The porn company in question should spearhead this for their own purposes.
the problem is marrying copyrights to specific websites, but this is on the right track
Sounds like there would have to be a scheme for metadata inside the image that says something like "for use only on website xxx.xxx"
(Someone buy the domain quickly please)
Then google would be able to filter images that have such meta-data, especially if they are on domains other than "xxx.xxx"
of course, there are meta data editors out there, etc, but then the blame and curse falls on the people who hacked the metadata to say they owned the picture in the first place.
So why aren't they suing the image thieves?
that's right, google's got deep pockets.
the downloads are breaking up, captain.
Which means we need to get them all tested as soon as possible.
or does that occupation render them immune?
The problem is that most folks have a natural inclination to disbelieving that sort of thing, especially if it involves their own fearless leader.
The unbeleivability factor of it is perfect camoflage.
Excellent dry humor. Some people think it is actually a serious article. (why spoil the fun?)
I am reminded of the stickers that one district mandated on books. Now of course, if you had stickers that recommended questioning everything, including your politicians, etc. you would likely be raising a generation of subversives.
We can't have that kind of thing going on now, can we?
Not like we are going there any time soon.
It's basically the whole MIB scenario. They told us the truth by making it into a hit comedy.
Don't tell me you have never heard of Advertising Deficiency Syndrome.
And think of all of those poor advertisers, with starving children at home to feed.
living inside a computer is too cramped for me. I prefer something like the Hawaiin islands, for example.
I keep hearing authorities on public radio applying logic to who and what we are that, if applied to a TV set, might run as follows: Though tradition claims that there is life beyond this TV set, a life that continues after its demise --actual living beings who create these moving pictures, the TV set being only a means of presenting them to others --we know, scientifically, that this cannot be the case. Here is the evidence:
Now imagine this with a computer.
It IS possible you know. and it is not even in the 6 figure range.
Actually, the sneaky thing would be to aim a tiny comet or fragment thereof in such a way as to take out "accidently" an appropriate city of their political enemy. It would work as part of their secret warfare strategy.
You really see this for the first time in the first movement of the Eroica, Symphony #3, but it is also evident in the Fifth, and is pretty obvious in the 9th. But being music, the ideas are more difficult to put into directly into words.
it is like abstract art that at first is non-comprehensible, until you spot the context that the piece was created from. An example from visual art can be seen here where a cool science fiction scene is created from a snapshot of some kitchen shelves.
Point being, there is another whole level going on there.
The fifth sysmphony shows that Beethoven can have a sense of humor, even if it is on a gigantic scale.
The story is that there was a review of the Fourth Symphony (by Hoffman [if I recall correctly], same guy as in 'Tales of Hoffman') who complained that the melodies were way too long and unwieldly, thrashing about like tortured snakes.
So Beethoven poked him in the eye, so to speak, by baseing many of the themes of the first section of the Fifth Symphony on the shortest of motifs, the famous "Da Da Da Duuuuum".
Of course, he still built extended melodies from the motif, but now it was so clear that even this reviewer could understand it.
Of course, I wonder if the probe is capable of picking up some of the effects decribed below, given the the design is aligned towards conventional theory, such as it is ... The whole thunderbolts.info websight makes of interesting reading. At least they are making predictions that can be proven/disproven based on data.
Predictions on "Deep Impact"
With the imminent arrival of the "Deep Impact" spacecraft at the comet Tempel 1, it is time to test competing theories on the nature of comets. The predictions and lines of reasoning offered here will set the stage for future analysis of the "electric comet" model.
We are posting this document at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, July 3, with "Deep Impact" less than 24 hours away. [...]
At 10:52 p.m. PDT July 3, the Deep Impact spacecraft will fire an 800-pound copper projectile at the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. If all goes as planned the projectile will impact on the nucleus 24 hours later. The impact is expected to eject into space large volumes of subsurface material.
Cameras on the projectile will record its approach toward the nucleus, and instruments on the spacecraft will record the event across a broad spectrum. Dozens of telescopes will be trained on the comet. According to NASA scientists, the released material will provide a sample of the primordial water, gas and dust from which the Sun, planets, moons, and other bodies in the solar system formed.
Though Deep Impact team members see this as a milestone event, advocates of the Electric Universe expect a "shock to the system" with revolutionary implications. They say that a comet is not a primordial object left over from the formation of the solar system. Fundamentally, it is distinguishable from a rocky asteroid only by its more elliptical orbit.
In the Electric Universe a comet is a negatively charged object moving through the extensive and constant radial electric field of the positively charged Sun. A comet becomes negatively charged during its long sojourn in the outer solar system. As it speeds into the inner solar system, the increasing voltage and charge density of the plasma (solar "wind") cause the nucleus to discharge electrically, producing the bright coma and tail.
If the electrical theorists are correct, the implications of the event will not be limited to comet theory alone. At issue is the assumption of an electrically neutral universe, upon which every conventional astronomical theory rests. An electric comet would forever change the picture of the solar system and force astronomers to consider the overwhelming evidence that electricity lights not only our Sun but also all the stars in the heavens. Moreover, the cosmic electricians insist that this would only be the beginning of a more sweeping revolution touching all of the theoretical sciences and in the end recasting our understanding of earth history and the human past.
The most appropriate test of a new theory is its predictive power (see predictions from October 2001 in Wallace Thornhill's "Comet Borrelly Rocks Core Scientific Beliefs"). Therefore, we wish to make as clear as possible, in advance of the projectile's impact, the distinctions between the electric model and the standard model. Where the issues grow complex, the primary reason is that the standard model, which failed to anticipate any of the major discoveries about comets over the past three decades or more, has fragmented into competing versions, forced upon the theorists by unsettling facts. Nevertheless a shared ideology continues to guide orthodox comet investigation while limiting scientific perception. For this reason advocates of the electric universe do not believe that a reconciliation of the current theoretical fragments is possible.
Well, if you have enough deep pockets, that might be the way to get rid off spyware. buy their knowledge base and see how they do it.
Off course, this becomes the newest way to make money via a popup software. Get annoying enough so that Microsoft buys you.
I wonder which way this will effect the MS reputation?
That about covers it for me
That said, that will likely be 12% of the population that will not be constantly brainwashed. This could be politically dangerous.
It turned out to be in the 6 figure range per gallon. (Although this story says its up to 8 kbucks per gallon) and there was this story about a US woman suing Hewlett Packard, saying its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date.
Also, some people will want to do their own thing on their homecomputer but often have to print two or three pictures in order to get a good one. Many people are not skilled at getting the color, contrast and cropping right and they don't want the hassle. So for them getting prints the traditional way may be the best option.
Printer ink can be purchased by the gallon starting at about 100 bucks per gallon, depending on the usual factors
Other Comparisons (shamelessly stolen)
16 oz $1.29
16 oz $1.19
20 oz $1.59
16 oz $1.25 . $10.00 per gallon
12 oz $3.15 . $33.60 per gallon
6 oz $8.35
4 oz $3.85
7 oz $1.39
1.5 oz $0.99
9 oz $1.49..........$21.19 per gallon?!