Just try shutting down your facebook account and then answer this question. My fingerprints are smeared all over the internet mainly because of Facebook alone. The cat is out of the bag and no matter what I do I can't get it back in. I don't really have much to hide, but man I shudder for those that do.
This is not really an answer to your question but.... Smart phones are here to stay. By avoiding them you need to be careful that you are not putting yourself behind in terms of keeping up with technological know-how. Over the years I have watched various friends and family decide that the world is perfect the way it is and refuse to adopt new technology. Until suddenly, say, the analog TV signal is turned off or they can no longer rent VHS casettes or their mobile phone no longer receives internet. Before long they have all become angry luddites.
I'm not suggesting you should adopt every technology that comes along, but if I were you I would consider a good second hand, unlocked smart phone (of any flavour) with a small data plan. It shouldn't cost you much more than the other options you're looking at and it may surprise you just how useful they are.
a. WTF do you think I keep in my house that is worth going through the trouble of disabling an alarm rather than robbing my neighbours who don't have one?
b. That would be sad. I like my dog. But again, why go to the trouble of killing my dog (after disabling the alarm of course) to steal what?
c. You seem like an angry individual with a loud dog living nearby. You probably don't believe me, but my dog is well behaved and well liked by all my neighbours.
I've been wandering around this earth for 36 years now and so far I haven't been wrongly arrested. Neither have any of my friends, and as far as I know neither have any of their friends. In fact, I don't think I even know of a 3rd hand connection who has been wrongly arrested. But if you believe everything you see in the media, as apparently you do, then it happens to everyone every day.
1. Determine that you're far away from home while they burglarize your house.
a. I have an alarm system
b. I have a dog
c. I have insurance
d. The same thing could be achieved by simply watching me go to work in the morning without the complexity of tracking my position
e. Just because I am away from home, doesn't mean no-one is there.
2. Determine that you were in the vicinity of a burglarized house and throw you behind bars without a warrant for 48 hours while they try to find evidence.
a. You watch too much TV.
b. I have no prior convictions of any such nature
c. Police don't lock people up because they were *near* a crime unless there is another reason to suspect them.
3. Determine you were someplace "unsavory" and use it as blackmail, or to deny you future employment, etc.
a. My life is already a pretty open book to those who know me. I have nothing to hide from those I don't know which could not be obtained much more simply.
b. I am not important enough to blackmail.
Like I said in my original post, it probably does matter to some people, but I'm not personally that bothered.
I'm trying to think of one thing someone could do to me armed with knowldege of my current location. Fly a drone missile into me? Fortunately I'm not that important. I'm sure it matters to some people, but I'm not going to lose any sleep.
I have nothing against open source, but if an open source product changes its API for some reason, we still have changes imposed from the top down. The only option we have is to then maintain our own version of the opensource project or provide some sort of adapter component. What a headache! I use open APIs all the time. Skype, VST, google, Gracenote being just some of them. Very occaisionally they change - usually for the better due to de-cluttering the API while adding new features. I change my projects and it is rarely a problem. The overhead for doing so is tiny compared to the potential hassle of having to maintain builds and adpaters to potentially dozens of projects just because I want the API to stay exactly the same forever.
So true. My father in law recently bought an HP. The hard drive subsequently went bung and he spent hours of pain on the phone being passed around the globe until they eventually agreed to send him a new hard drive, but he would need to install it himself. The drive turned up and it was half the capacity of the original. Since it was urgent he got me to install it anyway and then contacted HP to complain about the small than expected drive. They said they would send another drive out. They didn't. He called them back. They said sorry and they would send it straight away. Still nothing. Eventually after much yelling at call centre operators they did send the correct drive, but what a pain.
Unless you too are under age, then you just pretty much planted yourself in the 'creepy' category. The deliberate distribution of images of under age girls, in particular r/preteen_girls, is nothing short of despicable. If you get your kicks from looking at sexually and emotionally immature girls then you need to see someone. The effects on girls who suffer from this kind of exploitation are huge and can last a lifetime. Next time you are checking out some hot children for your own seedy satisfaction, I suggest you think about what events have preciptated their need to sexualise themselves for the predators amongst us.
It's always the learning curve that kills these things. Most people don't even bother to learn to type properly on the standard QWERTY keyboard let alone learn a whole new complex system of patterns. I use to work with a guy who was completely in love with Dvorak. The amusement of watching him changing keyboard layouts on every machine he went to and then changing back when he left just never got old. QWERTY may not be perfect, but we're all too invested to change now.
That's a pretty long distance grab for the rascist card there. Is it really not interesting to you to know where people come from? We do not all belong to one homogenous mass of humans. We come from different cultures and different countries with different priorities and backgrounds. I think it is interesting to know what research is being done in different parts of the globe - especially when it is such a positive story as this.
Are you being serious? If I was making money from Free software then of course I would want to get it distributed as widely as possible - that's the point of Free software. That is how it works. I would be fascinated to hear from a programmer who writes Free software and *doesn't* support file sharing.
So I don't get your point. Is that artificial constructs are bad and everything natural is good? Clothes are also an artifical construct. Do you wear clothes? Laws, language, money, social mores and on an on are all artificial constructs. The computer you used to post your comment is built on all sorts of artifical constructs. There are very few people who would consider downloading movies from a giant server to be a good example of human communication. I feel sorry for you if you feel that doing so satisfies your needs for human communication.
Just once I would like to hear from genuine copyright holders on slashdot who both make a living from their creative works *AND* support un-regulated torrenting and file sharing. Everytime you so much as hint that copyright should be respected on this site you get modded troll, or flamebait. Why? So, people can't enter into a debate about it, and you never have to have your perceptions challenged? For a community which seems so passionate and open about free communication, it certainly seems to shut down people who don't agree with the majority pretty quickly.
Re:Your right to what?
on
BTJunkie No More?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
A typically pedantic response from a typical pedant with no coherent argument for why copyright material should be shared to millions of other people without the copyright holder's consent.
I have certificate of participation I received for my recent attendance in an "Equality at Work" seminar. Still no job offers as yet, but I expect the big bucks to start rolling in anytime soon.
To respond in general to the comments defending the pirate bay: I write software for a living. I know there are many here who do. There is a crack on the net for almost every piece of software I've ever written. Can someone explain to me how that is not harmful to my business? Seriously, I would love to know. In order for me to make sure that I earn money I have to price my software based on units sold and time spent writing it. Otherwise I might as well go and work in a nice steady government job. If everyone using my software had paid for it then the price would be half what it is. Pirates hurt other consumers just as much as they hurt the businesses they steal from. Their activities are based purely on self interest and have nothing to do with free speech. If you think anything else then you are living in a dream world.
Slashdot Mirror
Spooky. We're talking about aliens here right?
Just try shutting down your facebook account and then answer this question. My fingerprints are smeared all over the internet mainly because of Facebook alone. The cat is out of the bag and no matter what I do I can't get it back in. I don't really have much to hide, but man I shudder for those that do.
This is not really an answer to your question but.... Smart phones are here to stay. By avoiding them you need to be careful that you are not putting yourself behind in terms of keeping up with technological know-how. Over the years I have watched various friends and family decide that the world is perfect the way it is and refuse to adopt new technology. Until suddenly, say, the analog TV signal is turned off or they can no longer rent VHS casettes or their mobile phone no longer receives internet. Before long they have all become angry luddites.
I'm not suggesting you should adopt every technology that comes along, but if I were you I would consider a good second hand, unlocked smart phone (of any flavour) with a small data plan. It shouldn't cost you much more than the other options you're looking at and it may surprise you just how useful they are.
a. WTF do you think I keep in my house that is worth going through the trouble of disabling an alarm rather than robbing my neighbours who don't have one?
b. That would be sad. I like my dog. But again, why go to the trouble of killing my dog (after disabling the alarm of course) to steal what?
c. You seem like an angry individual with a loud dog living nearby. You probably don't believe me, but my dog is well behaved and well liked by all my neighbours.
I've been wandering around this earth for 36 years now and so far I haven't been wrongly arrested. Neither have any of my friends, and as far as I know neither have any of their friends. In fact, I don't think I even know of a 3rd hand connection who has been wrongly arrested. But if you believe everything you see in the media, as apparently you do, then it happens to everyone every day.
1. Determine that you're far away from home while they burglarize your house.
a. I have an alarm system
b. I have a dog
c. I have insurance
d. The same thing could be achieved by simply watching me go to work in the morning without the complexity of tracking my position
e. Just because I am away from home, doesn't mean no-one is there.
2. Determine that you were in the vicinity of a burglarized house and throw you behind bars without a warrant for 48 hours while they try to find evidence.
a. You watch too much TV.
b. I have no prior convictions of any such nature
c. Police don't lock people up because they were *near* a crime unless there is another reason to suspect them.
3. Determine you were someplace "unsavory" and use it as blackmail, or to deny you future employment, etc.
a. My life is already a pretty open book to those who know me. I have nothing to hide from those I don't know which could not be obtained much more simply.
b. I am not important enough to blackmail.
Like I said in my original post, it probably does matter to some people, but I'm not personally that bothered.
I'm trying to think of one thing someone could do to me armed with knowldege of my current location. Fly a drone missile into me? Fortunately I'm not that important. I'm sure it matters to some people, but I'm not going to lose any sleep.
Next week, Joe plans to hold a conference with his star wars figurines to discuss possible reasons for his inability to attract a girl friend.
I have nothing against open source, but if an open source product changes its API for some reason, we still have changes imposed from the top down. The only option we have is to then maintain our own version of the opensource project or provide some sort of adapter component. What a headache! I use open APIs all the time. Skype, VST, google, Gracenote being just some of them. Very occaisionally they change - usually for the better due to de-cluttering the API while adding new features. I change my projects and it is rarely a problem. The overhead for doing so is tiny compared to the potential hassle of having to maintain builds and adpaters to potentially dozens of projects just because I want the API to stay exactly the same forever.
So true. My father in law recently bought an HP. The hard drive subsequently went bung and he spent hours of pain on the phone being passed around the globe until they eventually agreed to send him a new hard drive, but he would need to install it himself. The drive turned up and it was half the capacity of the original. Since it was urgent he got me to install it anyway and then contacted HP to complain about the small than expected drive. They said they would send another drive out. They didn't. He called them back. They said sorry and they would send it straight away. Still nothing. Eventually after much yelling at call centre operators they did send the correct drive, but what a pain.
The term pre-teen girls means 12 or under. Clearly that is what I'm talking about here. RTFA properly.
Unless you too are under age, then you just pretty much planted yourself in the 'creepy' category. The deliberate distribution of images of under age girls, in particular r/preteen_girls, is nothing short of despicable. If you get your kicks from looking at sexually and emotionally immature girls then you need to see someone. The effects on girls who suffer from this kind of exploitation are huge and can last a lifetime. Next time you are checking out some hot children for your own seedy satisfaction, I suggest you think about what events have preciptated their need to sexualise themselves for the predators amongst us.
It's always the learning curve that kills these things. Most people don't even bother to learn to type properly on the standard QWERTY keyboard let alone learn a whole new complex system of patterns. I use to work with a guy who was completely in love with Dvorak. The amusement of watching him changing keyboard layouts on every machine he went to and then changing back when he left just never got old. QWERTY may not be perfect, but we're all too invested to change now.
That's a pretty long distance grab for the rascist card there. Is it really not interesting to you to know where people come from? We do not all belong to one homogenous mass of humans. We come from different cultures and different countries with different priorities and backgrounds. I think it is interesting to know what research is being done in different parts of the globe - especially when it is such a positive story as this.
Well done to the team who worked on this project. I love hearing about positive contributions like this.
Nice work anonymous. Big tough internet bully. When you are ready to post with an id, then I will address your reply.
Are you being serious? If I was making money from Free software then of course I would want to get it distributed as widely as possible - that's the point of Free software. That is how it works. I would be fascinated to hear from a programmer who writes Free software and *doesn't* support file sharing.
So I don't get your point. Is that artificial constructs are bad and everything natural is good? Clothes are also an artifical construct. Do you wear clothes? Laws, language, money, social mores and on an on are all artificial constructs. The computer you used to post your comment is built on all sorts of artifical constructs. There are very few people who would consider downloading movies from a giant server to be a good example of human communication. I feel sorry for you if you feel that doing so satisfies your needs for human communication.
Just once I would like to hear from genuine copyright holders on slashdot who both make a living from their creative works *AND* support un-regulated torrenting and file sharing. Everytime you so much as hint that copyright should be respected on this site you get modded troll, or flamebait. Why? So, people can't enter into a debate about it, and you never have to have your perceptions challenged? For a community which seems so passionate and open about free communication, it certainly seems to shut down people who don't agree with the majority pretty quickly.
A typically pedantic response from a typical pedant with no coherent argument for why copyright material should be shared to millions of other people without the copyright holder's consent.
Communicate. Yes. That's what it was used for.
I have certificate of participation I received for my recent attendance in an "Equality at Work" seminar. Still no job offers as yet, but I expect the big bucks to start rolling in anytime soon.
There is one thing I hate about stuff like this. It makes everything I do look so mundane. Congrats to those of you working on that team!
See my other post: I write software for a living
To respond in general to the comments defending the pirate bay: I write software for a living. I know there are many here who do. There is a crack on the net for almost every piece of software I've ever written. Can someone explain to me how that is not harmful to my business? Seriously, I would love to know. In order for me to make sure that I earn money I have to price my software based on units sold and time spent writing it. Otherwise I might as well go and work in a nice steady government job. If everyone using my software had paid for it then the price would be half what it is. Pirates hurt other consumers just as much as they hurt the businesses they steal from. Their activities are based purely on self interest and have nothing to do with free speech. If you think anything else then you are living in a dream world.