When you own Intellectual Property that others depend upon, you're enjoying a sunny day. When you depend upon someone else's IP, you worry. Those with an abundance of Intellectual Property can bargain with their peers and exclude certain potential competitors.
Our world is interdependent in amazingly complex ways. You and I are at the mercy of the producers of the software and operating systems we use, and the evolving hardware platforms. Even mighty Apple is at the mercy of Intel and many other unique suppliers of hardware and software. Qualcomm is a prime example for cellphone tech, but others include the makers of Gorilla Glass and many more.
It makes excellent sense for all of us to be aware of and where possible to avoid excessive dependency on key suppliers.
In the Western World there is a moral imperative to denounce cigarets, alcohol, drugs and anything that smacks of fun. It is our proud Christian heritage. Right or wrong, we are emotionally dedicated to this cause and will not be deterred by inconvenient facts. Proper taxing and licensing of these corrupt activities can make them technically legal, but never morally acceptable.
The 'inconvenient facts' are that there is an element in each of these activities that benefits society and individuals. In the case of tobacco, one immense benefit is nicotine.
Nicotine is closely related to choline which millions take for mental benefits. It helps students learn and remember. It helps stressed workers and others to feel calm. And nicotine does the same.
Subversive scientists are learning about benefits in alcoholic beverages and illicit drugs despite pressure from legislators and moral dictators and timid journalists who are afraid to publish the findings. Medicine, the law and the church (superstition) are keeping us in the dark ages.
Wyoming is 'America's Smokestack' - a proud title to compete with India and Northern China for honors. Sure, tourism might take a hit, but the coal dollars will continue to roll in. Another slogan they like- Coal=Jobs; well how many jobs? You've seen those huge machines digging, transporting, processing the coal... how many humans are actually working there? In almost every case, the employers bragging about jobs or potential jobs are lying and thinking about profits and potential profits for themselves.
"Rats must chew or their teeth grow through their heads!" - Hemlock Stones in Firesign Theater's - The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra
These growing rodent teeth, just like a dog or cat's claws are relentless. Imagine yourself a rodent with a need to chew- what would you choose? A rock? A discarded piece of fruit? It happens that the insulation used in much wiring is preferred.
I experienced this problem when rodents chose to chew the wiring in my new car at the place I was required to park overnight. It happens that a low tech solution was ideal. I acquired some spongy insulation that is normally used to insulate hot water pipes, and wrapped it around parts of my wiring harness.
The soft foam did not satisfy the chewing urge so the rodents never bothered my car again.
Whether animals or humans create some sort of threat, we should understand their motivations in order to form an ideal response. OFF TOPIC: and when we treat humans badly and expect them to be nice in return we are both blind and stupid.
It's winter! Why is China covered with smog in winter and not summer? Warm and fuzzy environmental types would like to blame Big Business and Government, but is there another explanation?
The primary reason is that high sulfur coal is used to heat homes in winter. "Homes and small businesses that burn coal in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei contribute up to half of the air pollution in the region every winter, said Zhao Yingmin, chief engineer at the Ministry of Environmental Protection." http://english.caixin.com/2016... - but note that burning coal is generally outlawed in cities. The bulk of home consumption is in rural areas, and in the North where it is cold.
"In rural areas coal is still permitted to be used by Chinese households, commonly burned raw in unvented stoves. This fills houses with high levels of toxic metals leading to bad Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). In addition, people eat food cooked over coal fires which contains toxic substances." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Linfen, a city in northern China's Shanxi province has suffered greatly from unbreathable air. Citizens were told by the local environmental minister that "70 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions comes from citizens' coal use." There is skepticism, yet it is clear that industrial pollution is not entirely responsible. http://www.sixthtone.com/news/...
The seasonal differences in air pollution cannot be explained by the rather constant industrial use of coal. Large scale power plants are able to mitigate the offensive emissions somewhat. The difference that we see right now is due to millions of individual homes producing the worst kind of pollution.
"5.7 million adults in the United States have heart failure each year "
You'd think these people would be proactive so that they don't have yet another heart failure next year. But let's question another statement in TFS:
"As the organ gains strength, the device can be adjusted." I've learned, and seen from my own experience, that tissues can atrophy if not fully exercised. Muscles and even tree trunks gain strength by flexing, applying and/or resisting force. Dependence on this 'sleeve' seems counterproductive to gaining strength.
Let's have more study in THIS area: "Researchers in the US and China have developed a durable 'synthetic stem cell' that can repair tissue damaged by a heart attack." - in the news this month from http://www.bionews.org.uk/page... and elsewhere.
My grandparents' radio was a cabinet four feet high and two feet wide. It had a face that showed the names & frequencies of ~30 AM stations across the country. There were eleven knobs to adjust. When you turned it on it took a full minute to warm up and produce the pleasant background hum. A skilled operator could tune in stations from far and wide.
Modern radios often have no knobs, no fine adjustments for the skilled operator to fiddle with. They are common appliances that just work without any effort from the user. Likewise, the early automobiles had buttons, levers, knobs in an endless variety of arrangements. Today you have two pedals on the floor and a steering wheel and tomorrow you won't even need that. My first computer was controlled by a hex keypad in assembly language, and of course things are much simpler now.
For most people, computers will go the same way. Voice control, no knobs, no keyboard. Looking ahead, even voice control will be eliminated by direct neural connection. If you want to feel in control you'll have to look elsewhere. Knobs are a thing of the past. Being in control is a thing of the past.
And if you look at the original comment referring to corporate profits, you might consider that any product or substance that competes with a patented product is frowned upon. Corporations fought against vitamin and other natural nutritional supplements for decades to protect their drug profits - and what was their primary weapon: Government, bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists.
Be wary of anything the NIH or FDA promotes, such as the 'food pyramid' etc. (I confess NIH supports some valuable research, but even that taxpayer sponsored research will be turned into corporate profits in the end.)
"You, sir or madam, are a lying sack of dangerous shit." - Really classy reply !
I gave a direct quote from WebMD. Don't like it- too bad.
There are lots of quacks with opinions about silver. Just like about pot. Do you believe all of them? Then please don't smoke pot because it will make you insane and then kill you.
The reality is that silver works and has worked for hundreds of years. I'm not aware of anyone who died. I am aware of some very silly people who overdosed continuously for years and turned space-alien grey (yet were quite healthy). Perhaps it was those photos that got your emotional juices to overcome a basic sense of logic and acceptance of reality.
"Ted Epperly, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians." - hmm, doesn't seem to be a scientist. I wonder who funded his extensive study and how many subjects were involved. Was it a double-blind study? Where was this study published? What? He was just a family doctor? So how does he become an expert on a subject that he has never likely seen?
Please list the death statistics and compare with the stats for people whose lives were saved by silver. And save your foul language for some other venue.
Thanks for noticing my advanced seniority. My education has continued despite the modern school system thanks to the invention of ebooks and the internet. If I live another 120 years, I hope to be a well rounded person who is worthy of slashdot commentary.
Dear boys and girl; when I was young a college education was a broad preparation for participation in worldly affairs. One learned languages- Greek, Latin, German, possibly French. One learned geography, history, literature, art, music and philosophy. There was extensive, though informal, focus upon social behavior (which is sorely missed in these days). One might opt for some training in business, accounting, law, medicine, etc if there was a need for earned income.
College education today is job training. And as jobs vary ever more widely and specialties form in ever narrower fields, that training is extremely vertical such that any change in the job market sends you back to square one. Today's programmers, lawyers, doctors and auto mechanics are required to continually update their training as knowledge and technology change. Because machines will adapt to those changes more effectively than humans, there will be fewer opportunities for humans.
There are fields that remain relatively stable and somewhat immune to automation. Management, sales, teaching, the arts, mattress tester... The kind of science we associate with Einstein; imaginative and inspired is a bright possibility. Inventors (real inventors, not the corporate kind) can also take leaps beyond logic. And while computers can compete, ultimately the best work in the arts will be done by humans. Young people might want to explore such areas rather than those of rapid change.
A stream of sounds is difficult to parse. Converting it via various codecs won't change that or make it more useful. Converting the analog wave sounds into meaningful digital data (in the form of words as text, musical notation, specific fart parameters, a database of whale or bird calls, etc) is more helpful and efficient. Meaning can be extracted and/or analyzed. As someone else suggests, those can be converted back to a semblance of the original sequential stream of sounds (but why?).
If you are communicating with a person who has a particularly melodious voice, you may want to preserve the analog, but not the 88Bps version.
So the ACs are saying "Little Snitch" is a software firewall. Windows has had a firewall built-in for ages..."
It's a reasonable bet that they are hackers who can work a firewall... like all Windows users! But is that true? Does the average Windows user know how to manage a firewall? My experience with Mac users is that they don't have a clue. Little Snitch is not perfect but a big improvement in their ability to control their computer.
Not being a Windows user, I don't know how the user can get a prompt when something in their computer is trying to connect to the outside. That firewall must be really impressive if it does that. Please take a few minutes to explain to me how this happens. Don't worry, you don't have to use your pseudonym, feel free to be an AC.
For many years Mac users have purchased the affordable utility program 'Little Snitch' to control spyware.
Nearly every program you install wants to 'phone home' and report to the source. Dozens of System processes also report to Apple and others. In an eight hour workday you can expect 212 attempts by your system and software to connect to outside servers. (If you have better stats, please reply.) Little Snitch can stop all that by reporting every single attempt, and offering to allow it or prevent it; once or forever. It keeps a database of your responses so that you can change any choice at any time. It can sometimes offer helpful hints about a particular connection request. Some connections are necessary for certain basic System functions and they are protected by default but can be overridden if you insist.
'Hands Off!' is a similar program. I believe both can also stop incoming requests from various sources- I have other software for that.
The trick is to know what is being sent and where it's going (you don't always have a human readable URL). I doubt most Mac users understand the finer points. If it was available for Windows, it would be even more confusing.
Even if you aren't normally concerned about privacy you may be concerned about software that you haven't properly licensed. Theoretically, the developers could discover your oversight when the software reports back to them. Little Snitch is presumably used by pirates for this reason. Interestingly, it's very difficult to get a pirate copy of Little Snitch to work. So the pirates have to pay for it!
The first month with Little Snitch can be annoying. Dealing with scores of decisions about whether xyz process should be allowed to connect to nnn.nn.nn.nnn server. You'll never see many of these again after you decide to Always or Never allow some of those connections.
This would be an ideal utility for Microsoft to offer if it cared about users. It would have to be offered in tiers for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. Some of the decisions required are very difficult. No, you can't just decide to stop all of these connections- your computer would be far less functional.
"You're not going to convince an idiot by providing evidence that he doesn't understand."
- It would be more correct to say that 'he chooses not to understand'.
There are Believers and there are Skeptics. Scientists are almost entirely Skeptics. They test and test and test their theories, and if they can't prove them wrong they publish and invite others to prove them wrong. If nobody can prove a theory wrong, they tend to accept it as true (for the moment). Always doubt, uncertainty. Not everyone can live with that.
Believers instinctively 'know' what is wrong or right. They require no evidence, tests or reassurance from unBelievers. Their lives are much easier, partly because they have no shades of grey to muddy their thoughts- things are either good or bad; black or white; up or down; etc. Such people are capable of powerful rhetoric that wraps their simplistic beliefs into a convincing model for other Believers. They can win elections, even as far as the White House.
"an operation completely in the control of Erdogan's government"
Exactly. That's what I thought from the moment the story came out. I don't understand why no media is considering this. They love to quote Erdogan (and any politician's lies) but are they just afraid to confront what seems an obvious truth?
Erdogan was conveniently away when the 'coup' occurred. He walked right back in and effortlessly took control by arresting and killing many 'offenders'. Certainly the local press has suffered its share and I appreciate the fear that they are under, but why hasn't the world press stood up for truth?
Turkey was trying to join the EU and it seemed possible for a while. Now it seems completely hopeless as they seek any excuse to slaughter the Kurds and their own people. As they suppress freedoms of any consequence and advance the dictatorship. I'm or Armenian descent, BTW, and I would add that genocidal history to the ongoing oppression in Turkey.
This is hard for me to comprehend. Most towns I'm aware of have only one mayor. Yours appears to be Lord Mayor Frank Mentrup. A lovely city, thank you for mentioning it.
I would suggest that all citizenship issues, including voting, are a matter of community. Community begins at home with our family and expands to include relatives, neighbors, co-workers, etc. As we mature we begin to understand that our city, county, parish are important also and deserve some of our attention. Finally, if we reach a certain state of unselfishness, we begin to grasp our responsibility to ever larger spans of humanity including the strange concept of a nation.
I doubt it is possible to care about our nation if we don't care about our local community. That would be like a fireplace that warms distant areas but not near. I recall a once popular slogan: "Think globally, act locally."
The artificial/political boundaries of nations are rarely worthy of our attention because when we expand our consciousness sufficiently we see that it is humanity, in all its flavors and forms, and the earth itself that call for our attention. We have the resources to make a difference, however small, to all of humanity. With power comes responsibility.
Our country was founded by land owners. They wrote the Constitution for themselves. There was no intention for common folk to meddle with the running of the country (Thomas Paine being an exception- poor, but well educated.). Things have changed. The Founding Fathers are gone and now we have President Trump by the vote of the common folk. Let's hope his leadership will reflect positively upon their example.
"... institute 'tests' to disqualify citizens from voting... "
So you are suggesting that only people with money and power know the Constitution? And since you are against them, you are admitting that you don't know the Constitution. Do you know the mayor of your town? Can you name the capital city of Africa or the Secretary of State? Do you VOTE? That's what I thought. (at least one of those is a trick question) Please join the illiterates at some other venue..
Teens shouldn't vote. We already have an excess of emotion and hormones at the voting booth including some aging slashdotters. Voting should be based upon rational evaluation of verifiable facts. Anyone who gets their information from sources biased in only one direction should be disqualified.
Teens are capable of rational thought. You can find them at science fairs and other exceptional events. It's just that the masses of teens are up to their elbows in Twitter, Fecebook, etc, and drift in the winds of public opinion.
There are many who quietly believe that the General Public should not vote. Most are ignorant, superstitious and many are just plain dumb. Voters should take a qualifying test before being allowed to vote. Every voter should have read and understood the US Constitution (It's not that hard- even immigrants and fifth graders can do it). If they can't find their state on a map of the USA- no vote. If they can't name the mayor of their town or city- no vote. If they think Africa is a country or Rush Limbaugh is a Supreme Court Justice- fuggedaboudit... etc.
You may recall some of the ploys used by Captain Kirk when dealing with a wayward computer. Mr. Spock found his approach puzzling. Basically, Kirk would ask the computer a question that had no logical reply. (darn, I can't think of one at the moment, but how 'bout "Everything I say is a lie..." followed by "I love you!", etc.) At any rate, the computer would stutter confusedly and always end in a satisfying cloud of smoke.
An excellent question to ask Alexa would be "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?" Google's brain has already seen this question but hasn't found the answer.
We've seen this before. Not Alexa, but the paranoia that new tech brings.
When telephones began to intrude into ordinary homes there was panic. My father was an insurance salesman (think 'Death of a Salesman') and had to install a telephone so customers could reach him. I clearly remember being at the dinner table when the phone would ring. Everyone froze in place, fork halfway to mouth. Dad would nod his head toward Mom, indicating that she should get it. Mom indicated 'No way! That's your customer.' - both were afraid of the phone. This was common in most homes.
Later, the same thing happened with the invention of the Answering Machine. Many a macho gentleman proudly proclaimed 'I'm not gonna talk to a machine!', while covering the fact that they were actually afraid of it.
The graphical interface and mouse introduced with the Mac caused howls of scorn from true macho geeks. No respectable hacker would stoop so low. A few still quiver in fear of new approaches, new modalities.
Let this be the model for your transition to ubiquitous microphones. Pretend to hate them. If you do this with enough vigor, nobody will realize that you are actually afraid of them.
"Encrypted Messaging App Signal Uses Google To Bypass Censorship"
When every word is capitalized, capitals have no meaning. Wake up Slashdot, headlines don't need this hype and I don't have time to try to decipher them. The English language works- use it!
Slashdot Mirror
When you own Intellectual Property that others depend upon, you're enjoying a sunny day. When you depend upon someone else's IP, you worry. Those with an abundance of Intellectual Property can bargain with their peers and exclude certain potential competitors.
Our world is interdependent in amazingly complex ways. You and I are at the mercy of the producers of the software and operating systems we use, and the evolving hardware platforms. Even mighty Apple is at the mercy of Intel and many other unique suppliers of hardware and software. Qualcomm is a prime example for cellphone tech, but others include the makers of Gorilla Glass and many more.
It makes excellent sense for all of us to be aware of and where possible to avoid excessive dependency on key suppliers.
In the Western World there is a moral imperative to denounce cigarets, alcohol, drugs and anything that smacks of fun. It is our proud Christian heritage. Right or wrong, we are emotionally dedicated to this cause and will not be deterred by inconvenient facts. Proper taxing and licensing of these corrupt activities can make them technically legal, but never morally acceptable.
The 'inconvenient facts' are that there is an element in each of these activities that benefits society and individuals. In the case of tobacco, one immense benefit is nicotine.
Nicotine is closely related to choline which millions take for mental benefits. It helps students learn and remember. It helps stressed workers and others to feel calm. And nicotine does the same.
Subversive scientists are learning about benefits in alcoholic beverages and illicit drugs despite pressure from legislators and moral dictators and timid journalists who are afraid to publish the findings. Medicine, the law and the church (superstition) are keeping us in the dark ages.
Wyoming is 'America's Smokestack' - a proud title to compete with India and Northern China for honors. Sure, tourism might take a hit, but the coal dollars will continue to roll in. Another slogan they like- Coal=Jobs; well how many jobs? You've seen those huge machines digging, transporting, processing the coal ... how many humans are actually working there? In almost every case, the employers bragging about jobs or potential jobs are lying and thinking about profits and potential profits for themselves.
"Rats must chew or their teeth grow through their heads!" - Hemlock Stones in Firesign Theater's - The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra
These growing rodent teeth, just like a dog or cat's claws are relentless. Imagine yourself a rodent with a need to chew- what would you choose? A rock? A discarded piece of fruit? It happens that the insulation used in much wiring is preferred.
I experienced this problem when rodents chose to chew the wiring in my new car at the place I was required to park overnight. It happens that a low tech solution was ideal. I acquired some spongy insulation that is normally used to insulate hot water pipes, and wrapped it around parts of my wiring harness.
The soft foam did not satisfy the chewing urge so the rodents never bothered my car again.
Whether animals or humans create some sort of threat, we should understand their motivations in order to form an ideal response. OFF TOPIC: and when we treat humans badly and expect them to be nice in return we are both blind and stupid.
It's winter! Why is China covered with smog in winter and not summer? Warm and fuzzy environmental types would like to blame Big Business and Government, but is there another explanation?
The primary reason is that high sulfur coal is used to heat homes in winter. "Homes and small businesses that burn coal in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei contribute up to half of the air pollution in the region every winter, said Zhao Yingmin, chief engineer at the Ministry of Environmental Protection." http://english.caixin.com/2016... - but note that burning coal is generally outlawed in cities. The bulk of home consumption is in rural areas, and in the North where it is cold.
"In rural areas coal is still permitted to be used by Chinese households, commonly burned raw in unvented stoves. This fills houses with high levels of toxic metals leading to bad Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). In addition, people eat food cooked over coal fires which contains toxic substances." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Linfen, a city in northern China's Shanxi province has suffered greatly from unbreathable air. Citizens were told by the local environmental minister that "70 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions comes from citizens' coal use." There is skepticism, yet it is clear that industrial pollution is not entirely responsible. http://www.sixthtone.com/news/...
The seasonal differences in air pollution cannot be explained by the rather constant industrial use of coal. Large scale power plants are able to mitigate the offensive emissions somewhat. The difference that we see right now is due to millions of individual homes producing the worst kind of pollution.
"5.7 million adults in the United States have heart failure each year "
You'd think these people would be proactive so that they don't have yet another heart failure next year. But let's question another statement in TFS:
"As the organ gains strength, the device can be adjusted." I've learned, and seen from my own experience, that tissues can atrophy if not fully exercised. Muscles and even tree trunks gain strength by flexing, applying and/or resisting force. Dependence on this 'sleeve' seems counterproductive to gaining strength.
Let's have more study in THIS area: "Researchers in the US and China have developed a durable 'synthetic stem cell' that can repair tissue damaged by a heart attack." - in the news this month from http://www.bionews.org.uk/page... and elsewhere.
It's good to feel that you are in control.
My grandparents' radio was a cabinet four feet high and two feet wide. It had a face that showed the names & frequencies of ~30 AM stations across the country. There were eleven knobs to adjust. When you turned it on it took a full minute to warm up and produce the pleasant background hum. A skilled operator could tune in stations from far and wide.
Modern radios often have no knobs, no fine adjustments for the skilled operator to fiddle with. They are common appliances that just work without any effort from the user. Likewise, the early automobiles had buttons, levers, knobs in an endless variety of arrangements. Today you have two pedals on the floor and a steering wheel and tomorrow you won't even need that. My first computer was controlled by a hex keypad in assembly language, and of course things are much simpler now.
For most people, computers will go the same way. Voice control, no knobs, no keyboard. Looking ahead, even voice control will be eliminated by direct neural connection. If you want to feel in control you'll have to look elsewhere. Knobs are a thing of the past. Being in control is a thing of the past.
Good point.
And if you look at the original comment referring to corporate profits, you might consider that any product or substance that competes with a patented product is frowned upon. Corporations fought against vitamin and other natural nutritional supplements for decades to protect their drug profits - and what was their primary weapon: Government, bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists.
Be wary of anything the NIH or FDA promotes, such as the 'food pyramid' etc. (I confess NIH supports some valuable research, but even that taxpayer sponsored research will be turned into corporate profits in the end.)
"You, sir or madam, are a lying sack of dangerous shit." - Really classy reply !
I gave a direct quote from WebMD. Don't like it- too bad.
There are lots of quacks with opinions about silver. Just like about pot. Do you believe all of them? Then please don't smoke pot because it will make you insane and then kill you.
The reality is that silver works and has worked for hundreds of years. I'm not aware of anyone who died. I am aware of some very silly people who overdosed continuously for years and turned space-alien grey (yet were quite healthy). Perhaps it was those photos that got your emotional juices to overcome a basic sense of logic and acceptance of reality.
"Ted Epperly, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians." - hmm, doesn't seem to be a scientist. I wonder who funded his extensive study and how many subjects were involved. Was it a double-blind study? Where was this study published? What? He was just a family doctor? So how does he become an expert on a subject that he has never likely seen?
Please list the death statistics and compare with the stats for people whose lives were saved by silver. And save your foul language for some other venue.
And silver colloids!
From webmd: "Colloidal silver is used to treat infections due to yeast; bacteria (tuberculosis, Lyme disease, bubonic plague, pneumonia, leprosy, gonorrhea, syphilis, scarlet fever, stomach ulcers, cholera); parasites (ringworm, malaria); and viruses (HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, herpes, shingles, warts)."
Forgotten since antibiotics were discovered. Why? You can't patent silver. It is useless for raking in huge corporate profits.
Thanks for noticing my advanced seniority. My education has continued despite the modern school system thanks to the invention of ebooks and the internet. If I live another 120 years, I hope to be a well rounded person who is worthy of slashdot commentary.
Dear boys and girl; when I was young a college education was a broad preparation for participation in worldly affairs. One learned languages- Greek, Latin, German, possibly French. One learned geography, history, literature, art, music and philosophy. There was extensive, though informal, focus upon social behavior (which is sorely missed in these days). One might opt for some training in business, accounting, law, medicine, etc if there was a need for earned income.
College education today is job training. And as jobs vary ever more widely and specialties form in ever narrower fields, that training is extremely vertical such that any change in the job market sends you back to square one. Today's programmers, lawyers, doctors and auto mechanics are required to continually update their training as knowledge and technology change. Because machines will adapt to those changes more effectively than humans, there will be fewer opportunities for humans.
There are fields that remain relatively stable and somewhat immune to automation. Management, sales, teaching, the arts, mattress tester... The kind of science we associate with Einstein; imaginative and inspired is a bright possibility. Inventors (real inventors, not the corporate kind) can also take leaps beyond logic. And while computers can compete, ultimately the best work in the arts will be done by humans. Young people might want to explore such areas rather than those of rapid change.
A stream of sounds is difficult to parse. Converting it via various codecs won't change that or make it more useful. Converting the analog wave sounds into meaningful digital data (in the form of words as text, musical notation, specific fart parameters, a database of whale or bird calls, etc) is more helpful and efficient. Meaning can be extracted and/or analyzed. As someone else suggests, those can be converted back to a semblance of the original sequential stream of sounds (but why?).
If you are communicating with a person who has a particularly melodious voice, you may want to preserve the analog, but not the 88Bps version.
So the ACs are saying ..."
"Little Snitch" is a software firewall. Windows has had a firewall built-in for ages
It's a reasonable bet that they are hackers who can work a firewall ... like all Windows users! But is that true? Does the average Windows user know how to manage a firewall? My experience with Mac users is that they don't have a clue. Little Snitch is not perfect but a big improvement in their ability to control their computer.
Not being a Windows user, I don't know how the user can get a prompt when something in their computer is trying to connect to the outside. That firewall must be really impressive if it does that. Please take a few minutes to explain to me how this happens. Don't worry, you don't have to use your pseudonym, feel free to be an AC.
For many years Mac users have purchased the affordable utility program 'Little Snitch' to control spyware.
Nearly every program you install wants to 'phone home' and report to the source. Dozens of System processes also report to Apple and others. In an eight hour workday you can expect 212 attempts by your system and software to connect to outside servers. (If you have better stats, please reply.) Little Snitch can stop all that by reporting every single attempt, and offering to allow it or prevent it; once or forever. It keeps a database of your responses so that you can change any choice at any time. It can sometimes offer helpful hints about a particular connection request. Some connections are necessary for certain basic System functions and they are protected by default but can be overridden if you insist.
'Hands Off!' is a similar program. I believe both can also stop incoming requests from various sources- I have other software for that.
The trick is to know what is being sent and where it's going (you don't always have a human readable URL). I doubt most Mac users understand the finer points. If it was available for Windows, it would be even more confusing.
Even if you aren't normally concerned about privacy you may be concerned about software that you haven't properly licensed. Theoretically, the developers could discover your oversight when the software reports back to them. Little Snitch is presumably used by pirates for this reason. Interestingly, it's very difficult to get a pirate copy of Little Snitch to work. So the pirates have to pay for it!
The first month with Little Snitch can be annoying. Dealing with scores of decisions about whether xyz process should be allowed to connect to nnn.nn.nn.nnn server. You'll never see many of these again after you decide to Always or Never allow some of those connections.
This would be an ideal utility for Microsoft to offer if it cared about users. It would have to be offered in tiers for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. Some of the decisions required are very difficult. No, you can't just decide to stop all of these connections- your computer would be far less functional.
"You're not going to convince an idiot by providing evidence that he doesn't understand."
- It would be more correct to say that 'he chooses not to understand'.
There are Believers and there are Skeptics. Scientists are almost entirely Skeptics. They test and test and test their theories, and if they can't prove them wrong they publish and invite others to prove them wrong. If nobody can prove a theory wrong, they tend to accept it as true (for the moment). Always doubt, uncertainty. Not everyone can live with that.
Believers instinctively 'know' what is wrong or right. They require no evidence, tests or reassurance from unBelievers. Their lives are much easier, partly because they have no shades of grey to muddy their thoughts- things are either good or bad; black or white; up or down; etc. Such people are capable of powerful rhetoric that wraps their simplistic beliefs into a convincing model for other Believers. They can win elections, even as far as the White House.
The word 'track' appears several times in TFS. Readers here know where that leads.
We can expect that M$, Google, Apple & Fecebook will soon have maps of our homes, our workplace and our dungeon and all the goodies inside.
"an operation completely in the control of Erdogan's government"
Exactly. That's what I thought from the moment the story came out. I don't understand why no media is considering this. They love to quote Erdogan (and any politician's lies) but are they just afraid to confront what seems an obvious truth?
Erdogan was conveniently away when the 'coup' occurred. He walked right back in and effortlessly took control by arresting and killing many 'offenders'. Certainly the local press has suffered its share and I appreciate the fear that they are under, but why hasn't the world press stood up for truth?
Turkey was trying to join the EU and it seemed possible for a while. Now it seems completely hopeless as they seek any excuse to slaughter the Kurds and their own people. As they suppress freedoms of any consequence and advance the dictatorship. I'm or Armenian descent, BTW, and I would add that genocidal history to the ongoing oppression in Turkey.
" names of my roughly 25 mayors of my town "
This is hard for me to comprehend. Most towns I'm aware of have only one mayor. Yours appears to be Lord Mayor Frank Mentrup. A lovely city, thank you for mentioning it.
I would suggest that all citizenship issues, including voting, are a matter of community. Community begins at home with our family and expands to include relatives, neighbors, co-workers, etc. As we mature we begin to understand that our city, county, parish are important also and deserve some of our attention. Finally, if we reach a certain state of unselfishness, we begin to grasp our responsibility to ever larger spans of humanity including the strange concept of a nation.
I doubt it is possible to care about our nation if we don't care about our local community. That would be like a fireplace that warms distant areas but not near. I recall a once popular slogan: "Think globally, act locally."
The artificial/political boundaries of nations are rarely worthy of our attention because when we expand our consciousness sufficiently we see that it is humanity, in all its flavors and forms, and the earth itself that call for our attention. We have the resources to make a difference, however small, to all of humanity. With power comes responsibility.
Our country was founded by land owners. They wrote the Constitution for themselves. There was no intention for common folk to meddle with the running of the country (Thomas Paine being an exception- poor, but well educated.). Things have changed. The Founding Fathers are gone and now we have President Trump by the vote of the common folk. Let's hope his leadership will reflect positively upon their example.
" ... institute 'tests' to disqualify citizens from voting ... "
So you are suggesting that only people with money and power know the Constitution? And since you are against them, you are admitting that you don't know the Constitution. Do you know the mayor of your town? Can you name the capital city of Africa or the Secretary of State? Do you VOTE? That's what I thought. (at least one of those is a trick question) Please join the illiterates at some other venue..
Teens shouldn't vote. We already have an excess of emotion and hormones at the voting booth including some aging slashdotters. Voting should be based upon rational evaluation of verifiable facts. Anyone who gets their information from sources biased in only one direction should be disqualified.
Teens are capable of rational thought. You can find them at science fairs and other exceptional events. It's just that the masses of teens are up to their elbows in Twitter, Fecebook, etc, and drift in the winds of public opinion.
There are many who quietly believe that the General Public should not vote. Most are ignorant, superstitious and many are just plain dumb. Voters should take a qualifying test before being allowed to vote. Every voter should have read and understood the US Constitution (It's not that hard- even immigrants and fifth graders can do it). If they can't find their state on a map of the USA- no vote. If they can't name the mayor of their town or city- no vote. If they think Africa is a country or Rush Limbaugh is a Supreme Court Justice- fuggedaboudit ... etc.
You may recall some of the ploys used by Captain Kirk when dealing with a wayward computer. Mr. Spock found his approach puzzling. Basically, Kirk would ask the computer a question that had no logical reply. (darn, I can't think of one at the moment, but how 'bout "Everything I say is a lie..." followed by "I love you!", etc.) At any rate, the computer would stutter confusedly and always end in a satisfying cloud of smoke.
An excellent question to ask Alexa would be "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?" Google's brain has already seen this question but hasn't found the answer.
We've seen this before. Not Alexa, but the paranoia that new tech brings.
When telephones began to intrude into ordinary homes there was panic. My father was an insurance salesman (think 'Death of a Salesman') and had to install a telephone so customers could reach him. I clearly remember being at the dinner table when the phone would ring. Everyone froze in place, fork halfway to mouth. Dad would nod his head toward Mom, indicating that she should get it. Mom indicated 'No way! That's your customer.' - both were afraid of the phone. This was common in most homes.
Later, the same thing happened with the invention of the Answering Machine. Many a macho gentleman proudly proclaimed 'I'm not gonna talk to a machine!', while covering the fact that they were actually afraid of it.
The graphical interface and mouse introduced with the Mac caused howls of scorn from true macho geeks. No respectable hacker would stoop so low. A few still quiver in fear of new approaches, new modalities.
Let this be the model for your transition to ubiquitous microphones. Pretend to hate them. If you do this with enough vigor, nobody will realize that you are actually afraid of them.
"Encrypted Messaging App Signal Uses Google To Bypass Censorship"
When every word is capitalized, capitals have no meaning. Wake up Slashdot, headlines don't need this hype and I don't have time to try to decipher them. The English language works- use it!