The other problem is having a very short phone, so the microphone ends up being nearer your ear than the front of your mouth.
This makes people think THEY HAVE TO SHOUT LOUDER on their phone to be heard. Man, that drives me mad! I have to fight off the impulse to explain that the recipient of the call is also using a phone, and shouting really isn't necessary.
Before people ask (as they always seem to) why/. doesn't just post this in the story, could it be because they can be held responsible for the stories, but refuse responsibility for comments. That is, should the NYT see a link (such as the one above) in a comment,/. can denounce the poster (if it gets that serious), but should they see it in a story, then/. might find themselves liable. Liable for what, I don't know, but I'm sure a "good" lawyer would find something.
Their engineering is indeed lovely. Just look inside one of their Unix servers. Mmmm... clean, tidy internals. I also love the flashing LED 'heartbeat' on the box. Kind of reassuring.....
The Trade Descriptions Act in the UK should mean yes, you can do this. The product isn't what it says it is, i.e. a CD by the whatever-they-are standards. If it was, you'd be able to play it on a CD player. QED.
I have to say, I agree with them. What this could easily mean is that the average terrorist organisation will merely ensure that its operatives don't have records on file. Or that they'll wear heavily rimmed glasses and a goatee (although I doubt that would really get past face recognition software - if it's any good).
I know it's very sad to reply to your own posting, but.....
There's a Register article which sums up my thoughrs quite nicely, this tilme on the subject of face-recognition software. The main story is about Visionics capitalising on the WTC attack. Excerpt below:
The danger of face recognition technology is not so much how it might be used today, but how, one day in the future, it could be exploited to search for just about any sort of unfashionable person.
We simply don't know what sort of government we'll have in 20 - 50 - 70 years' time. If today we should permit these tools to catalogue our faces because we trust the government we have at the moment, our descendants may well curse us if a Fascist regime ever comes to power.
It's a mistake to put the basic tools of mass oppression into the hands of any government simply because we have, at the moment, laws protecting us from its abuse.
Laws change; governments rise and fall. If we should hold fast now, a repressive future regime would have a hard time making a sudden power play for this sort of technology. However, if, thanks to our current state of doubt and insecurity, we allow it to become an everyday feature, we may not even notice its abuse until it's too late to stop without mass civil commotion.
We owe our children and grandchildren better. We owe them the right to be free men and women, to accept the risks of living in an essentially and eternally dangerous world, to come and go as they please without justifying themselves to underpaid nitwits and without submitting to a biometric scan to enter a restaurant, attend the cinema, watch a ball game, or meet friends at the airport.
Yep, I read the Register article too.... but I've also looked at a previous MORI poll, which sadly says nmuch the same thing. Yes, it would be nice to think that this was indeed just a blip, but I'm not so sure.
I do see your point about people who give information to cold callers no necessarily being the sort who care about privacy. Having said that, MORI aren't really supposed to let the survey sponsor make a difference.
One of my problems is that I do believe that the "average" person doesn't give a toss about ID cards, they sincerely think that "Only people who have something to hide" should be worried. The best things to do are educate and fight.
My problem is that even though I (mostly) trust my current government (UK), I can't guarantee that the next one will be trustworthy. I have nothing I should need to hide, but what if a future government decides that my religeous group is one that needs to be monitored in some way?
A Dutch collegue mentioned that in Holland all people are required to register with the authorities wen they move into a new area. Now, this is all very good when trying to cut down on benefits fruad and all that, but it didn't do the Jewish communities much good when the German forces marched in....
No, I'm not suggesting that this is liely to happen, but I think we should think about how much ionformation we want other people to have about us. Remember, the phrase "knowledge is power"? How much power do you want the next government to have over you?
Given the recent MORI opinion poll where an alarming number of (UK) people were not only pro ID cards, but also saw nothing wrong with having Religeon and DNA data (!!) on these cards, this is certainly a hot topic. And yes, an ID card is just the first step....
Okay, here's a karma whoring link - it's the official news release from Apple. I find it a bit odd that the cnet article doesn't appear to contain a link to them...
It appears that Demon told this company they were infected, and they patched the box they thought was the problem. It appears that that was the wrong box....
Ah well, the latest word is that they've pulled the cable on the actual box with the problem, and hey presto the packets have stopped arriving.
My firwall logs quadrupled in size when Nimda hit, and there are still loads of people in the 194.217.0.0 range infected. My router's set up to block many of these, to save to load on the firewall, which happens to be the webserver too.
I've been contacting Demon Internet (UK ISP), trying to get them to shut down the people responsible. So far, no joy.
If there's anyone out there with an interest in languages, they really should look at JRRT's work (in that area). http://www.elvish.org is a good place to start. There's a very good book "An Introduction To Elvish" (Ed. Jim Allen), that I used to borrow from my University library....
Really, JRRT started the Silmarillion very early on - remember that it's essentially the early mythology of Middle Earth. The reason it was never finished is that he was never happy with it.
In a way, however, you're right, in that the majority of the work on the Silmarillion was produced between The Hobbit and LOTR.
Slashdot Mirror
This makes people think THEY HAVE TO SHOUT LOUDER on their phone to be heard. Man, that drives me mad! I have to fight off the impulse to explain that the recipient of the call is also using a phone, and shouting really isn't necessary.
Tom.
Before people ask (as they always seem to) why /. doesn't just post this in the story, could it be because they can be held responsible for the stories, but refuse responsibility for comments. That is, should the NYT see a link (such as the one above) in a comment, /. can denounce the poster (if it gets that serious), but should they see it in a story, then /. might find themselves liable. Liable for what, I don't know, but I'm sure a "good" lawyer would find something.
Tom
Tom.
Tom.
Here are the results of the Facial Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) 2000, commissioned by the DoD.
Tom.
But they're okay to fly as pilots?
Tom.
Tom.
;-)
Tom.
There's a Register article which sums up my thoughrs quite nicely, this tilme on the subject of face-recognition software. The main story is about Visionics capitalising on the WTC attack. Excerpt below:
The danger of face recognition technology is not so much how it might be used today, but how, one day in the future, it could be exploited to search for just about any sort of unfashionable person.
We simply don't know what sort of government we'll have in 20 - 50 - 70 years' time. If today we should permit these tools to catalogue our faces because we trust the government we have at the moment, our descendants may well curse us if a Fascist regime ever comes to power.
It's a mistake to put the basic tools of mass oppression into the hands of any government simply because we have, at the moment, laws protecting us from its abuse.
Laws change; governments rise and fall. If we should hold fast now, a repressive future regime would have a hard time making a sudden power play for this sort of technology. However, if, thanks to our current state of doubt and insecurity, we allow it to become an everyday feature, we may not even notice its abuse until it's too late to stop without mass civil commotion.
We owe our children and grandchildren better. We owe them the right to be free men and women, to accept the risks of living in an essentially and eternally dangerous world, to come and go as they please without justifying themselves to underpaid nitwits and without submitting to a biometric scan to enter a restaurant, attend the cinema, watch a ball game, or meet friends at the airport.
We owe them their essential humanity.
Tom.
I do see your point about people who give information to cold callers no necessarily being the sort who care about privacy. Having said that, MORI aren't really supposed to let the survey sponsor make a difference.
One of my problems is that I do believe that the "average" person doesn't give a toss about ID cards, they sincerely think that "Only people who have something to hide" should be worried. The best things to do are educate and fight.
Tom.
A Dutch collegue mentioned that in Holland all people are required to register with the authorities wen they move into a new area. Now, this is all very good when trying to cut down on benefits fruad and all that, but it didn't do the Jewish communities much good when the German forces marched in....
No, I'm not suggesting that this is liely to happen, but I think we should think about how much ionformation we want other people to have about us. Remember, the phrase "knowledge is power"? How much power do you want the next government to have over you?
Given the recent MORI opinion poll where an alarming number of (UK) people were not only pro ID cards, but also saw nothing wrong with having Religeon and DNA data (!!) on these cards, this is certainly a hot topic. And yes, an ID card is just the first step....
Tom
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/
Tom.
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/010917.Ch ang.quantum.html
Tom.
And who the hell gave that +1 Interesting?????
Tom.
Are you sure you've understood the problem here?
Tom.
Ah well, the latest word is that they've pulled the cable on the actual box with the problem, and hey presto the packets have stopped arriving.
Tom.
My firwall logs quadrupled in size when Nimda hit, and there are still loads of people in the 194.217.0.0 range infected. My router's set up to block many of these, to save to load on the firewall, which happens to be the webserver too.
I've been contacting Demon Internet (UK ISP), trying to get them to shut down the people responsible. So far, no joy.
Tom.
You're not really suggesting that most /. posters actually manage to think for themselves, surely?
Tom.
Tom.
Tom.
Has anyone out there actually managed to read the web page? I know that as this is Slashdot, it's hardly liklely
Tom.
--
There's a very good book "An Introduction To Elvish" (Ed. Jim Allen), that I used to borrow from my University library....
Tom.
In a way, however, you're right, in that the majority of the work on the Silmarillion was produced between The Hobbit and LOTR.
Tom.
Finally a use for all the hot air my PHB produces.....
Tom.