The technology's great. The authoritarian complex that increasingly controls it isn't so desireable. I much prefer an army of script kiddies and a pack of spam to Carnivore, but guess what, I'm so lucky I get both!
Exactly. What he's talking about is what he would be doing with all these things, not what people calling the shots would do. That vision is a profoundly dystopian one, as many have already pointed out. Having said that, if we were to have these things, I'd vote for him. Assuming, of course, that we still hold elections by the time we get there.
I'm pretty sure echelon has this covered, either through straight decoding, a government "key" or whatever.
Well, what I've read about Echelon says they're key-word driven. If they automatically flag all encrypted communications, they can break them at their leisure, but then turnaround becomes a problem. Once you break it, you still have to index it. By the time you get that done, there might already be a big hole in the WTC. Useful for prosecution, if not prevention.
As to a backdoor, who knows? Europeans are very sensitive about this just now (and rightly so,) and they might embrace a non UK/USA(et. al.) solution even if they aren't German. I guess it comes down to the US' ability to compromise the design of whatever chip it is that does the heavy lifting.
Guess this means that all U.S. efforts to block encryption technology from leaving the country has failed. Surprise. Now that they have it in cell phones will U.Sam allow us to freely exchange web browsers?
That depends on whether they adopted an algorithm first conceived in the U.S. or whether they came up with one of their own. And to answer the question, no they won't. Anything that makes it harder to kep tabs on Americans is generally opposed by the feebs. And, if it's foreign software, the spectre of trojans can always be invoked, regardless of the facts or the availability of the source code. They know most users, even savvy ones, won't do a code review before plopping something on their system with no more guarantee than a 'word-of-mouth' recommendation. Just tell them it can't be trusted and it's verboten.
The German: Tausend Pentium-Computer müssten über zehn Jahre rechnen, um den Wortlaut eines zehnminütigen Telefonates zu
entschlüsseln
The babelfish English: Thousand Pentium computers would have to count over ten years, around the wording of a zehnminuetigen Telefonates to decode
Exactly what kind of pentium do they mean? A P-90 or a P4 1.7GHz? I think an 'around-the-clock' idiom got lost, but I still could use something more specific. I didn't Babel the entire page, just that selection. If I missed something, please fill me in.
No-relevance restriction?
on
Voyager Eulogy
·
· Score: 1
Which only goes to show that letting contemporary political issues seep into the framework of a science fiction series is a bad idea in the first place. Sci fi sucks when it doesn't bother to create interesting worlds
out of conjecture, but merely transplants the present into technicological drag.
Yeah, how dare Herbert write anything that even remotely touches upon the scarcity of oil. How dare Stephenson comment on the consequences of unchecked privatization, overpopulation, and natural disasters. How dare Vonnegut explore doomsday devices. How dare Heinlein comment on the militarization of society. PKD had no reason whatsoever to put his finger on the nexus of paranoia, technology, and cynical anti-drug attitudes shockingly similar to the spot we find ourselves in today.
Good God Almighty, even the internet hype surrounding the X-Men movie cast itself as an allegorical treatment of racism in this country. I'll probably get tagged as flamebait for going off at the handle like this, but extrapolating current social trends into some hypothetical future is one of, if not the most valuable function SF performs for mainstream society. It is a way for people to express their hopes, fears, and concerns for the future. If all they wanted to do was tell stories with no societal, political, or economic consequences, they could've gotten jobs writing for daytime TV. I'm glad they didn't.
neither of them are currently bent on world domination" Neither is the US. Anyone that thinks we are really trying to run the entire world hasn't been paying any attention to events since the end of the cold war. We have ignored many chances to dominate other countries. If we were after world domination we would have invaded iraq and installed a puppet government. It would have removed an annoyance while giving us the ability to undercut OPECs pricing. The government has an obligation to protect the interests of its citizens and the US is doing nothing more than that.
We did invade Iraq. I think we didn't take Saddam out because our allies didn't want us building a new, U.S.-controlled government in an oil-rich Arab nation. Or it could be that we decided an extended stalemate would give us an excuse for a decade-long military presence in Saudi Arabia. Besides, I'm talking about economic domination, not military domination. That's why I mentioned the possibility of an embargo before instead of the possibility of the EU invading the US. And, the EU report concludes that Echelon was not geared for intercepting military communications. The notion the the U.S. is some sort of "white hat" in the international arena is just not credible. Our actions in Central America in the 80's and in South America right now are more than enough to counter that assertion.
I wonder whether the EU getting on this is going to turn into threats of economic sanctions at some point down the road. As a bloc, they could really do some damage even by just embargoing for, say, one week. While Britain might bow out of any such action, others would happily participate. Look to the two UN commissions the U.S. lost seats on after secret votes if you don't believe other nations are too fearful of us to contemplate something like this. At the risk of getting branded as flamebait (or a troll,) this might be the beginning of a European consensus that says we can no longer have everything our way. When EU reps came here to discuss Echelon, they were sent away without having met with anyone IIRC. And yes, the conclusion does say that the French and/or Russians might be capable of pulling off a similar system, but as neither of them are currently bent on world domination, I wouldn't be too concerned even if they were.
All right. It's a troll, but I'll bite anyway. As both a geek and a member of a fraternity, I have to say that you're being far too general.
No. It's not a troll. Badmouthing greeks and jocks is not generally considered trolling here, as opposed to, say, bad-mouthing Linux or OSS. Did you go to your library and check a single source I cited? I thought not.
You're letting the experiences of a few bad apples spoil your conception of what fraternities are about.
What conception would that be? That the children (and YOU are a child if you're in a frat) of the privileged band together in the spirit of exclusivity? What is it about frats that WOULDN'T give me that impression?
Let me tell you about some of the things my fraternity does: We sponsor a buffolo wing
eating contest to benefit various charities.
At most schools, (public anyway,) THE ONLY REASON FRATS PERFORM PUBLIC SERVICE IS BECAUSE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO DO SO. Who else falls into this category? Petty criminals come to mind. Don't you even dare to pretend for a second that the overwhelming majority of frats' public service is anything other than compulsory. What's next? Would you like a medal for using your turn signal or not running a red light? How about the Nobel Peace prize for not cheating on your taxes? Hot wings? Give me a break.
We throw parties. But all of our parties are dry. No one has ever passed out at one of our parties.
Then those weren't parties. Not by a long shot.
Our basement doesn't smell like beer and vomit.
Hurrah for bleach!
We certianly don't include rapists amoung our brothers; we wouldn't allow anyone to join who is disrespectful to women, or disrespectful
in general.
Do you ask? I bet not.
In short, we take the concept of a fraternity as a brotherhood of men who care about each other and the community seriously.
More self-serving slop. Tell me again about your superior GPA's, but be sure to leave out the bit about the filing cabinet full of essays and exams.
Stop over generalizing, and go out and actually meet some fraternity members. Don't turn your nose up and greek letters. You might be surprised. I certainly was. -Aaron Hertz
Let me explain something to you. Listen very carefully. I am a native of a small city which is host to a large public university. I have taken out groceries for frats, attended classes with them, shot pinball with them, graded their essays and scored their tests, sold them music, rented them movies, given them a jump when their battery was dead, carded them in bars, etc. I can't know them any better than I do now. Here's my take: SOME are OK one-on-one. Get them in a pack, and common sense goes out the window. I will tell you right now that if every single one of them were wiped from the face of the earth right now, the collective IQ would skyrocket. Why don't you go out and meet some locals and ask them what they think of the frats where you are? Be sure to leave behind your woven leather belt, leave the ballcap at home, and for God's sake, tuck that goddamned shirt in ALL THE WAY AROUND.
Point taken. I would like to think there is a difference. If there is one, it is only in the level of acceptability of that sort of conduct. OTOH, HotGrits is a separate question; there is a world of difference between words and deeds, and here I'm talking only about deeds. I am not saying anything about any causal connection between the two. As for caring about women, I had the nauseating experience of helping a woman who'd been GHB'd. Seizures, vomiting, lack of pulse...she made it only because someone who knew her spotted her being dragged out of a bar and stepped in. Watching another human being in convulsions on someone's living room floor at five in the morning really gets across how easy it is to hurt someone. I helped her, and I still felt badly just for having witnessed what I did.
Any non-anecdotal evidence to back up that might broad brush you've got there?
Just 'cause you don't like jocks or fratboys doesn't mean they're rapists.
No, that's backwards. I don't like them because they're mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging rapists. Even though it's not my broad brush, I can't let this go, so try this:
Erhart and Sandler, Campus gang rape: Party Games?, Association of American Colleges, 1985. [Vast majority of campus gang rapes committed by fraternity members or athletes.]
From a sample of sorority, 24% had experienced an attempted rape, 17% were victims of a completed rape. Almost half of these rapes and attempted
rapes were perpetrated in a fraternity house. (Copenhaver, Grauerholz, Sex role, vol. 24, nos. 1,2, 1991.)
Found that one here. I don't think those girls were hanging out with the Physics club, do you? More?
Bernstein, Nina "Behind Some Fraternity Walls, Brothers in Crime." New York Times 6 May
1996, late ed. sec A 1+. Bernstein reports that nationally, fraternitites spend one-third of their budgets, "some $30 million dollars a year," to pay liability costs. Discusses specific aspects of
date and acquaintance rape in the University of Georgia's Greek community.
Boeringer, Scot B. "Influences of Fraternity Membership, Athletics, and Male Living
Arrangements on Sexual Aggression." Violence Against Women, 2(1996): 134-148.
Abstract: Investigates fraternal membership, intercollegiate athletic participation and
sex composition of living arrangements as possible correlates of sexual coercion.
Greater rape proclivity in athletes; More significant use of intoxicants and
nonphysical verbal coercion in obtaining sex by fraternity members.
Found those two here. Face it, those motherfuckers exhibit all the moral judgment and respect for others you'd witness with a pack of wild, snarling dogs. Defend them at your peril.
How strange, I too have tiles that look burnt and charred in my bathroom, but I can't recall having done a atmospheric reentry in my shower stall.
NASA uses a top-secret, super-duper cleanser, known only by its code-name, "Formula 409". If only there was a way you could get your hands on some, it might work on your shower. One can always hope that space program technology will eventually trickle down to us.
For example, legalizing drugs would happen by repealing the laws banning drug use, not by adding new laws permitting use.
OK, Here's an example:
Amendment XXI
(1933)
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
See, that's how you repeal a law, by passing another law. Therefore, I don't see any way to legalize anything without passing a law that does just that.
Before you go frothing about those evil, greedy Scientologists(like myself, I guess), think about what would have happened to the guy had he been saying this in relation to a Jewish Mosque.
If he said anything about a Jewish mosque, it'd be ignored as incomprehensible babble, as Jews worship in synagogues, and Muslims worship in mosques. Talking about a Jewish mosque makes about as much sense as talking about a "Church" that operates like a con game.
intending to obtain Slashdot's membership list, firebombing the building the servers are in and hunting down the staff and members one by one and killing them painfully
Hmm. Taken out of context, this sounds pretty frightening. If I'm on/.'s membership list, I think I could have YOU prosecuted under this law. And NO, you don't get a chance to explain the context of that remark. It's clear to all, as is your guilt. Turn yourself in now, you terrorist.
I don't know about now, but NSA paychecks and direct deposit paystubs used to be written by the Department of Agriculture, which confused many people. This was not because of any nefarious intent, but because USDA had a huge payroll system and did the payroll & checkwriting for a lot of other agencies in the DC area.
I don't know. It could have killed two birds with one stone. I sure the conspiracy crowd made major hay out of that one when it became known. OTOH, there's the whole Forest Service/CIA C-130 thing. Do a google on Gary Eitel if you're interested.
Your example is a different can of worms. The suggestion was about disabling execution of VB scripts via Outlook; the problem there is one of bad default settings, which can be fixed without access to the source code or fully-documented APIs. And yes, the "proseltyzing" remark was meant tongue-in-cheek.;)
Now if someone would only release something like this for Outlook that turns off VBScript...
Why would you want to do M$'s work for them? Besides, wouldn't linux zeal- uh, I mean, advocates no longer be able to wave that particular weakness around when proseltyzing? Just a thought.
Re:Interesting and SCARY
on
The DNA Bomb
·
· Score: 1
Just recently I read a story about a growing number of scientists demanding that journals make their contents freely available online for everyone to read/download. What is to stop a Kaczinski/unabomber-type individual working alone in his/her garage from using published data to concoct and unleash some life threatening biological agent into the world?
Wow, a web server has a bug which allows limited access dependent upon the way permissions are set? Yeah, that's definitely front page (no pun intended!) news, especially when it's over a year old. Face it, slashdot's credibility has hit rock bottom.
I thought/.'s credibility hit rock bottom over a year ago.
Scored higher on his SAT than former Senator Bill Bradley, and by some reports Al Gore as well...
Graduated Yale with a Bachlor's degree and a higher GPA than Al Gore's Harvard undergraduate GPA...
Neither Albert Einstein nor Rush Limbaugh finished high school. So we should think stepping through any 4-year program is a reliable indicator of someone's future intellectual contributions to civilization? For that matter, I can think of an Ivy-league dropout who is reviled on/. far more regularly than either Bush or Gore...
Graduated from the U.S. Air Force's Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and flew supersonic jet fighters...
Yes, defending Texas from Oklahoma, we know all about that. I suggest that learning to fly a plane is not all that difficult, and the skills required to do so are not the same as those needed to run a nation. Besides, pilots are becoming extraneous and unnecessary.
Graduated Harvard Business with an MBA (that's a Masters of Business Adminstration for you folks in Palm Beach County Florida)...
Remember, having an MBA just means that an accredited institution has confirmed what everyone knew all along: you (the MBA) are an idiot and a useless piece of shit to boot. In fact, the only people who sing the praises of the MBA are those who went through such a program and those who administer such a program. Everyone else knows they're worse than useless. MBA programs belong at trade schools, along with things like auto repair and industrial refrigeration.
As for Gore, I'm not claiming genius status for him, but I will say someone who didn't become a lawyer or a clergyman did society a favor.
What's your point here? Hitler was kind to puppies. McVeigh is a decorated Gulf War veteran. Bush is a King-Hell Fucking Moron. It's not enough your guy won, you have to pretend he's actually smart, too.
Slashdot Mirror
The technology's great. The authoritarian complex that increasingly controls it isn't so desireable. I much prefer an army of script kiddies and a pack of spam to Carnivore, but guess what, I'm so lucky I get both!
Exactly. What he's talking about is what he would be doing with all these things, not what people calling the shots would do. That vision is a profoundly dystopian one, as many have already pointed out. Having said that, if we were to have these things, I'd vote for him. Assuming, of course, that we still hold elections by the time we get there.
I'm pretty sure echelon has this covered, either through straight decoding, a government "key" or whatever.
Well, what I've read about Echelon says they're key-word driven. If they automatically flag all encrypted communications, they can break them at their leisure, but then turnaround becomes a problem. Once you break it, you still have to index it. By the time you get that done, there might already be a big hole in the WTC. Useful for prosecution, if not prevention.
As to a backdoor, who knows? Europeans are very sensitive about this just now (and rightly so,) and they might embrace a non UK/USA(et. al.) solution even if they aren't German. I guess it comes down to the US' ability to compromise the design of whatever chip it is that does the heavy lifting.
Guess this means that all U.S. efforts to block encryption technology from leaving the country has failed. Surprise. Now that they have it in cell phones will U.Sam allow us to freely exchange web browsers?
That depends on whether they adopted an algorithm first conceived in the U.S. or whether they came up with one of their own. And to answer the question, no they won't. Anything that makes it harder to kep tabs on Americans is generally opposed by the feebs. And, if it's foreign software, the spectre of trojans can always be invoked, regardless of the facts or the availability of the source code. They know most users, even savvy ones, won't do a code review before plopping something on their system with no more guarantee than a 'word-of-mouth' recommendation. Just tell them it can't be trusted and it's verboten.
The German: Tausend Pentium-Computer müssten über zehn Jahre rechnen, um den Wortlaut eines zehnminütigen Telefonates zu entschlüsseln
The babelfish English: Thousand Pentium computers would have to count over ten years, around the wording of a zehnminuetigen Telefonates to decode
Exactly what kind of pentium do they mean? A P-90 or a P4 1.7GHz? I think an 'around-the-clock' idiom got lost, but I still could use something more specific. I didn't Babel the entire page, just that selection. If I missed something, please fill me in.
Which only goes to show that letting contemporary political issues seep into the framework of a science fiction series is a bad idea in the first place. Sci fi sucks when it doesn't bother to create interesting worlds out of conjecture, but merely transplants the present into technicological drag.
Yeah, how dare Herbert write anything that even remotely touches upon the scarcity of oil. How dare Stephenson comment on the consequences of unchecked privatization, overpopulation, and natural disasters. How dare Vonnegut explore doomsday devices. How dare Heinlein comment on the militarization of society. PKD had no reason whatsoever to put his finger on the nexus of paranoia, technology, and cynical anti-drug attitudes shockingly similar to the spot we find ourselves in today.
Good God Almighty, even the internet hype surrounding the X-Men movie cast itself as an allegorical treatment of racism in this country. I'll probably get tagged as flamebait for going off at the handle like this, but extrapolating current social trends into some hypothetical future is one of, if not the most valuable function SF performs for mainstream society. It is a way for people to express their hopes, fears, and concerns for the future. If all they wanted to do was tell stories with no societal, political, or economic consequences, they could've gotten jobs writing for daytime TV. I'm glad they didn't.
What would you think if Texas was spying on the rest of the states of the USA?
I think I'd tell Texas to come up with their own damn barbeque sauce instead of stealing our recipes, thank you very much.
neither of them are currently bent on world domination" Neither is the US. Anyone that thinks we are really trying to run the entire world hasn't been paying any attention to events since the end of the cold war. We have ignored many chances to dominate other countries. If we were after world domination we would have invaded iraq and installed a puppet government. It would have removed an annoyance while giving us the ability to undercut OPECs pricing. The government has an obligation to protect the interests of its citizens and the US is doing nothing more than that.
We did invade Iraq. I think we didn't take Saddam out because our allies didn't want us building a new, U.S.-controlled government in an oil-rich Arab nation. Or it could be that we decided an extended stalemate would give us an excuse for a decade-long military presence in Saudi Arabia. Besides, I'm talking about economic domination, not military domination. That's why I mentioned the possibility of an embargo before instead of the possibility of the EU invading the US. And, the EU report concludes that Echelon was not geared for intercepting military communications.
The notion the the U.S. is some sort of "white hat" in the international arena is just not credible. Our actions in Central America in the 80's and in South America right now are more than enough to counter that assertion.
I wonder whether the EU getting on this is going to turn into threats of economic sanctions at some point down the road. As a bloc, they could really do some damage even by just embargoing for, say, one week. While Britain might bow out of any such action, others would happily participate. Look to the two UN commissions the U.S. lost seats on after secret votes if you don't believe other nations are too fearful of us to contemplate something like this. At the risk of getting branded as flamebait (or a troll,) this might be the beginning of a European consensus that says we can no longer have everything our way. When EU reps came here to discuss Echelon, they were sent away without having met with anyone IIRC. And yes, the conclusion does say that the French and/or Russians might be capable of pulling off a similar system, but as neither of them are currently bent on world domination, I wouldn't be too concerned even if they were.
All right. It's a troll, but I'll bite anyway. As both a geek and a member of a fraternity, I have to say that you're being far too general.
No. It's not a troll. Badmouthing greeks and jocks is not generally considered trolling here, as opposed to, say, bad-mouthing Linux or OSS. Did you go to your library and check a single source I cited? I thought not.
You're letting the experiences of a few bad apples spoil your conception of what fraternities are about.
What conception would that be? That the children (and YOU are a child if you're in a frat) of the privileged band together in the spirit of exclusivity? What is it about frats that WOULDN'T give me that impression?
Let me tell you about some of the things my fraternity does: We sponsor a buffolo wing eating contest to benefit various charities.
At most schools, (public anyway,) THE ONLY REASON FRATS PERFORM PUBLIC SERVICE IS BECAUSE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO DO SO. Who else falls into this category? Petty criminals come to mind. Don't you even dare to pretend for a second that the overwhelming majority of frats' public service is anything other than compulsory. What's next? Would you like a medal for using your turn signal or not running a red light? How about the Nobel Peace prize for not cheating on your taxes? Hot wings? Give me a break.
We throw parties. But all of our parties are dry. No one has ever passed out at one of our parties.
Then those weren't parties. Not by a long shot.
Our basement doesn't smell like beer and vomit.
Hurrah for bleach!
We certianly don't include rapists amoung our brothers; we wouldn't allow anyone to join who is disrespectful to women, or disrespectful in general.
Do you ask? I bet not.
In short, we take the concept of a fraternity as a brotherhood of men who care about each other and the community seriously.
More self-serving slop. Tell me again about your superior GPA's, but be sure to leave out the bit about the filing cabinet full of essays and exams.
Stop over generalizing, and go out and actually meet some fraternity members. Don't turn your nose up and greek letters. You might be surprised. I certainly was. -Aaron Hertz
Let me explain something to you. Listen very carefully. I am a native of a small city which is host to a large public university. I have taken out groceries for frats, attended classes with them, shot pinball with them, graded their essays and scored their tests, sold them music, rented them movies, given them a jump when their battery was dead, carded them in bars, etc. I can't know them any better than I do now. Here's my take: SOME are OK one-on-one. Get them in a pack, and common sense goes out the window. I will tell you right now that if every single one of them were wiped from the face of the earth right now, the collective IQ would skyrocket. Why don't you go out and meet some locals and ask them what they think of the frats where you are? Be sure to leave behind your woven leather belt, leave the ballcap at home, and for God's sake, tuck that goddamned shirt in ALL THE WAY AROUND.
Point taken. I would like to think there is a difference. If there is one, it is only in the level of acceptability of that sort of conduct. OTOH, HotGrits is a separate question; there is a world of difference between words and deeds, and here I'm talking only about deeds. I am not saying anything about any causal connection between the two. As for caring about women, I had the nauseating experience of helping a woman who'd been GHB'd. Seizures, vomiting, lack of pulse...she made it only because someone who knew her spotted her being dragged out of a bar and stepped in. Watching another human being in convulsions on someone's living room floor at five in the morning really gets across how easy it is to hurt someone. I helped her, and I still felt badly just for having witnessed what I did.
Any non-anecdotal evidence to back up that might broad brush you've got there?
Just 'cause you don't like jocks or fratboys doesn't mean they're rapists.
No, that's backwards. I don't like them because they're mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging rapists. Even though it's not my broad brush, I can't let this go, so try this:
Erhart and Sandler, Campus gang rape: Party Games?, Association of American Colleges, 1985.
[Vast majority of campus gang rapes committed by fraternity members or athletes.]
I found it here.
Or this:
From a sample of sorority, 24% had experienced an attempted rape, 17% were victims of a completed rape. Almost half of these rapes and attempted rapes were perpetrated in a fraternity house. (Copenhaver, Grauerholz, Sex role, vol. 24, nos. 1,2, 1991.)
Found that one here. I don't think those girls were hanging out with the Physics club, do you? More?
Bernstein, Nina "Behind Some Fraternity Walls, Brothers in Crime." New York Times 6 May 1996, late ed. sec A 1+. Bernstein reports that nationally, fraternitites spend one-third of their budgets, "some $30 million dollars a year," to pay liability costs. Discusses specific aspects of date and acquaintance rape in the University of Georgia's Greek community.
Boeringer, Scot B. "Influences of Fraternity Membership, Athletics, and Male Living Arrangements on Sexual Aggression." Violence Against Women, 2(1996): 134-148. Abstract: Investigates fraternal membership, intercollegiate athletic participation and sex composition of living arrangements as possible correlates of sexual coercion. Greater rape proclivity in athletes; More significant use of intoxicants and nonphysical verbal coercion in obtaining sex by fraternity members.
Found those two here. Face it, those motherfuckers exhibit all the moral judgment and respect for others you'd witness with a pack of wild, snarling dogs. Defend them at your peril.
No, if you'd done that, you would have implied that you really do believe that. Unless you do?
How strange, I too have tiles that look burnt and charred in my bathroom, but I can't recall having done a atmospheric reentry in my shower stall.
NASA uses a top-secret, super-duper cleanser, known only by its code-name, "Formula 409". If only there was a way you could get your hands on some, it might work on your shower. One can always hope that space program technology will eventually trickle down to us.
What does it take to make the Space Shuttle Fly?
A very, very, very, very, very, very large rubberband. Bringing an inanimate carbin rod along makes emergency repairs much easier, too.
We agree on the facts then. I wouldn't call that a law, but I guess you can, and if you do, your formulation is correct.
;)
Agreed
OK, Here's an example:
See, that's how you repeal a law, by passing another law. Therefore, I don't see any way to legalize anything without passing a law that does just that.
Before you go frothing about those evil, greedy Scientologists(like myself, I guess), think about what would have happened to the guy had he been saying this in relation to a Jewish Mosque.
/.'s membership list, I think I could have YOU prosecuted under this law. And NO, you don't get a chance to explain the context of that remark. It's clear to all, as is your guilt. Turn yourself in now, you terrorist.
If he said anything about a Jewish mosque, it'd be ignored as incomprehensible babble, as Jews worship in synagogues, and Muslims worship in mosques. Talking about a Jewish mosque makes about as much sense as talking about a "Church" that operates like a con game.
intending to obtain Slashdot's membership list, firebombing the building the servers are in and hunting down the staff and members one by one and killing them painfully
Hmm. Taken out of context, this sounds pretty frightening. If I'm on
I don't know about now, but NSA paychecks and direct deposit paystubs used to be written by the Department of Agriculture, which confused many people. This was not because of any nefarious intent, but because USDA had a huge payroll system and did the payroll & checkwriting for a lot of other agencies in the DC area.
I don't know. It could have killed two birds with one stone. I sure the conspiracy crowd made major hay out of that one when it became known. OTOH, there's the whole Forest Service/CIA C-130 thing. Do a google on Gary Eitel if you're interested.
Your example is a different can of worms. The suggestion was about disabling execution of VB scripts via Outlook; the problem there is one of bad default settings, which can be fixed without access to the source code or fully-documented APIs. And yes, the "proseltyzing" remark was meant tongue-in-cheek. ;)
If someone doesn't watch the show at all, the chance of them not skipping the commercials is 0%.
Is that because if they don't watch the show at all, the chance of their not seeing the commercials is 100%?
No.
The problem is too many laws and government acting as proxy for the highest paying industry. The solution isn't more laws, but less.
Legalize Freedom!
Bonus points for legalizing Freedom without using a law!
Now if someone would only release something like this for Outlook that turns off VBScript...
Why would you want to do M$'s work for them? Besides, wouldn't linux zeal- uh, I mean, advocates no longer be able to wave that particular weakness around when proseltyzing? Just a thought.
Just recently I read a story about a growing number of scientists demanding that journals make their contents freely available online for everyone to read/download. What is to stop a Kaczinski/unabomber-type individual working alone in his/her garage from using published data to concoct and unleash some life threatening biological agent into the world?
Ummm...his total loathing of modern technology?
Wow, a web server has a bug which allows limited access dependent upon the way permissions are set? Yeah, that's definitely front page (no pun intended!) news, especially when it's over a year old. Face it, slashdot's credibility has hit rock bottom.
/.'s credibility hit rock bottom over a year ago.
I thought
Scored higher on his SAT than former Senator Bill Bradley, and by some reports Al Gore as well ...
Graduated Yale with a Bachlor's degree and a higher GPA than Al Gore's Harvard undergraduate GPA ...
/. far more regularly than either Bush or Gore...
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Neither Albert Einstein nor Rush Limbaugh finished high school. So we should think stepping through any 4-year program is a reliable indicator of someone's future intellectual contributions to civilization? For that matter, I can think of an Ivy-league dropout who is reviled on
Graduated from the U.S. Air Force's Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and flew supersonic jet fighters
Yes, defending Texas from Oklahoma, we know all about that. I suggest that learning to fly a plane is not all that difficult, and the skills required to do so are not the same as those needed to run a nation. Besides, pilots are becoming extraneous and unnecessary.
Graduated Harvard Business with an MBA (that's a Masters of Business Adminstration for you folks in Palm Beach County Florida)
Remember, having an MBA just means that an accredited institution has confirmed what everyone knew all along: you (the MBA) are an idiot and a useless piece of shit to boot. In fact, the only people who sing the praises of the MBA are those who went through such a program and those who administer such a program. Everyone else knows they're worse than useless. MBA programs belong at trade schools, along with things like auto repair and industrial refrigeration.
As for Gore, I'm not claiming genius status for him, but I will say someone who didn't become a lawyer or a clergyman did society a favor.
What's your point here? Hitler was kind to puppies. McVeigh is a decorated Gulf War veteran. Bush is a King-Hell Fucking Moron. It's not enough your guy won, you have to pretend he's actually smart, too.