> Because this seems like an ad for the dvd, not a story.
Yeah, it's too bad Slashdot lowered its standards. 'Cause they never post headliners abut new game consoles or forthcoming software releases or anything else that someone might interpret as an ad.
> The troubling side-issue no one wants to talk about here is that in our modern world of super-specialization it has become increasingly impossible to fact-check our experts.
The same is true in every other field of scientific enquiry. Are you also dragging your feet on superconductors, the expanding universe, evolution, and the heliocentric solar system?
> If you read Section J of the agreement (Limitation of Liability), you'll note that while Oracle offers unlimited indemnification for consequential damages related to an infringement claim (and that only for the one package, the Linux kernel), it caps all other damages at the amount you pay to Oracle.
Then I have exactly the amount of indemnification I need.
> Or, put another way, it's simply harder to disprove long-term claims by the global-warming crowd since their scare tactic is based on something that even they say won't happen for a long time.
On the contrary, it has already been going on long enough for us to observe the consequences.
> When you program a computer model to raise the temp when you increase CO2, the computer program will tell you the temp will go up when you raise CO2.
So, what part of the physics of greenhouse gasses do you reject?
> We can't predict weather 5 days out with our current computer models, how could they possibly predict these other trends?
For a lot of phenomena it's far easier to predict the longer-term trends than the shorter-term details.
> The problem with that theory is that "everyone else" doesn't uniformly come to the [near term] "doom-and-gloom" conclusion that Peak Oil advocates do. Estimates vary (wildly) as to exactly how much oil remains that is extractable economically at current prices - and even more wildly when it comes to the amounts economically extractable as prices rise.
Perhaps I've been sleeping in class, but I thought the whole "peak oil" thing we've been hearing about had to do with refining facilities rather than extraction efforts.
I also thought it was uncontroversial that there are huge reservoirs that will become economically feasible for exploitation if the price goes up enough. Something about Canada... IIRC.
> Only about half of all medical research is privately funded, yet most new medicines end up being patented and owned by private companies. Shouldn't the people (US! the public!) who pay for the research be the ones who decide how it is used? In a democratic society, the people would actually own what they pay for and would choose to use it for the good of the worlds population. Too bad we live in a corporate oligarchy. We subsidize (or socialize if that's your bad word) the costs and risks of research, but we privatize the benefits so that only a few rich shareholders can profit while millions die of preventable diseases.
The US government is as much the lapdog of the pharmaceuticals as it is of the energy companies.
> We need a revolution.
No, we just need a citizenry that will cast civic-minded votes rather than voting for whatever politician promises them the best deal.
> > Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history that didn't allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission. If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to this list.
> Do you think the greatest threat of an e-voting system being hijacked is during the voting itself, with one or more people influencing things at the polling place, during the processing, with untrained, nonaccountable poll workers and supervisors, or do you think a greater threat would be someone maliciously attacking an electronic vote counting reposiotory/database?
Or by pre-rigging the machines before delivering them to the state, to misrecord, mistransmit, or miscount the votes, or simply misreport the totals.
Of course, the USA has problems that don't rely on electronic voting machines, such as using the telephone system to try to keep people from voting. In the past few years we've had DoS attacks against get-out-the-vote calls, "reminders" to vote on the wrong date, and "legal warnings" intended to scare legal voters away from the polls.
And that's just the telephone abuses. When the political parties who govern us are more interested in winning than in getting a complete and accurate vote, there are going to be problems with any voting technology they select.
> I noticed in the documentary that the Diebold machine tested in Tallahassee prints "Diebold Memroy Card" on its little grocery-store-quality tape. Is this kind of slipshod programming reflected throughout the Diebold system?
Don't fret -- the typo is evidence that they hire real programmers!
> What confuses me about electronic voting is that we constantly do commerce daily through electronic means (ATMs, credit cards online, etc) yet we cannot hammer down a viable scheme for voting.
Who says we've got a reliable system for electronic commerce?
> How do you prove that foul play (hacking) has been involved?
Obviously we should apply the Intelligent Design movement's latest algorithm for proving that God (or some other unnamed being with supernatural powers) tampered with biology.
> What, exactly, is the argument against pen-and-paper voting? It seems to me that everybody wants to migrate to voting machines - electronic or mechanical - but so far nobody has explained to me what's wrong with good old-fashioned "put an X next to your candidate's name" voting.
The "problem" is that it doesn't shuffle enough of your tax money into corporate pockets.
> Hatch is among the more conservative politicians on the issues of 'digital privacy' and 'fair use'
Is that good or bad? I.e., what is the writer's notion of what makes a 'conservative' position on those policies? (Is protecting fair use conservative or progressive?)
> Seems to me that threatening a reviews site is a bad move. Rather than give into the threat, they may as well right an account of it. The scandal will draw peoples attention to the review site. Review site wins, Alienware grumbles.
That's what I would do. Start the page with the regular sort of title and photo of the product, then just say that you can't review the product because the vendor didn't approve of your honesty in the last review.
> Diebold which is held by a right wing company is not subjected to this scrutiny.
Our country has a long history of the FBI keeping an eye on people for no reason other than liberal views, while jumping in bed with the most extreme sort of right-wingers in South America.
Slashdot Mirror
> Because this seems like an ad for the dvd, not a story.
Yeah, it's too bad Slashdot lowered its standards. 'Cause they never post headliners abut new game consoles or forthcoming software releases or anything else that someone might interpret as an ad.
> The troubling side-issue no one wants to talk about here is that in our modern world of super-specialization it has become increasingly impossible to fact-check our experts.
The same is true in every other field of scientific enquiry. Are you also dragging your feet on superconductors, the expanding universe, evolution, and the heliocentric solar system?
> If you read Section J of the agreement (Limitation of Liability), you'll note that while Oracle offers unlimited indemnification for consequential damages related to an infringement claim (and that only for the one package, the Linux kernel), it caps all other damages at the amount you pay to Oracle.
Then I have exactly the amount of indemnification I need.
> Or, put another way, it's simply harder to disprove long-term claims by the global-warming crowd since their scare tactic is based on something that even they say won't happen for a long time.
On the contrary, it has already been going on long enough for us to observe the consequences.
> When you program a computer model to raise the temp when you increase CO2, the computer program will tell you the temp will go up when you raise CO2.
So, what part of the physics of greenhouse gasses do you reject?
> We can't predict weather 5 days out with our current computer models, how could they possibly predict these other trends?
For a lot of phenomena it's far easier to predict the longer-term trends than the shorter-term details.
> If you follow the link in the old Slashdot story, you'll find out that it's indeed about Paul Crutzen's idea as well.
Hell, we won't even read the current Slashdot story.
Thanks.
> The problem with that theory is that "everyone else" doesn't uniformly come to the [near term] "doom-and-gloom" conclusion that Peak Oil advocates do. Estimates vary (wildly) as to exactly how much oil remains that is extractable economically at current prices - and even more wildly when it comes to the amounts economically extractable as prices rise.
Perhaps I've been sleeping in class, but I thought the whole "peak oil" thing we've been hearing about had to do with refining facilities rather than extraction efforts.
I also thought it was uncontroversial that there are huge reservoirs that will become economically feasible for exploitation if the price goes up enough. Something about Canada... IIRC.
> Only about half of all medical research is privately funded, yet most new medicines end up being patented and owned by private companies. Shouldn't the people (US! the public!) who pay for the research be the ones who decide how it is used? In a democratic society, the people would actually own what they pay for and would choose to use it for the good of the worlds population. Too bad we live in a corporate oligarchy. We subsidize (or socialize if that's your bad word) the costs and risks of research, but we privatize the benefits so that only a few rich shareholders can profit while millions die of preventable diseases.
The US government is as much the lapdog of the pharmaceuticals as it is of the energy companies.
> We need a revolution.
No, we just need a citizenry that will cast civic-minded votes rather than voting for whatever politician promises them the best deal.
LoL!
> Isn't the GPL just a "Click Through EULA", except for the fact that you don't "Click Through" it?
IIRC, FSF actually recommends a click-through.
How many people do you know who have an operating system named after them?
> > Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history that didn't allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission. If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to this list.
> They left out North Korea.
Ba'athist Iraq?
Keeping terrorists out is too hard, so they've decided on another mission.
> Do you think the greatest threat of an e-voting system being hijacked is during the voting itself, with one or more people influencing things at the polling place, during the processing, with untrained, nonaccountable poll workers and supervisors, or do you think a greater threat would be someone maliciously attacking an electronic vote counting reposiotory/database?
Or by pre-rigging the machines before delivering them to the state, to misrecord, mistransmit, or miscount the votes, or simply misreport the totals.
Of course, the USA has problems that don't rely on electronic voting machines, such as using the telephone system to try to keep people from voting. In the past few years we've had DoS attacks against get-out-the-vote calls, "reminders" to vote on the wrong date, and "legal warnings" intended to scare legal voters away from the polls.
And that's just the telephone abuses. When the political parties who govern us are more interested in winning than in getting a complete and accurate vote, there are going to be problems with any voting technology they select.
> I noticed in the documentary that the Diebold machine tested in Tallahassee prints "Diebold Memroy Card" on its little grocery-store-quality tape. Is this kind of slipshod programming reflected throughout the Diebold system?
Don't fret -- the typo is evidence that they hire real programmers!
> What confuses me about electronic voting is that we constantly do commerce daily through electronic means (ATMs, credit cards online, etc) yet we cannot hammer down a viable scheme for voting.
Who says we've got a reliable system for electronic commerce?
> How do you prove that foul play (hacking) has been involved?
Obviously we should apply the Intelligent Design movement's latest algorithm for proving that God (or some other unnamed being with supernatural powers) tampered with biology.
> What, exactly, is the argument against pen-and-paper voting? It seems to me that everybody wants to migrate to voting machines - electronic or mechanical - but so far nobody has explained to me what's wrong with good old-fashioned "put an X next to your candidate's name" voting.
The "problem" is that it doesn't shuffle enough of your tax money into corporate pockets.
can expect one of these for Christmas.
You should see what my dongle does!
> Hatch is among the more conservative politicians on the issues of 'digital privacy' and 'fair use'
Is that good or bad? I.e., what is the writer's notion of what makes a 'conservative' position on those policies? (Is protecting fair use conservative or progressive?)
> Seems to me that threatening a reviews site is a bad move. Rather than give into the threat, they may as well right an account of it. The scandal will draw peoples attention to the review site. Review site wins, Alienware grumbles.
That's what I would do. Start the page with the regular sort of title and photo of the product, then just say that you can't review the product because the vendor didn't approve of your honesty in the last review.
> Diebold which is held by a right wing company is not subjected to this scrutiny.
Our country has a long history of the FBI keeping an eye on people for no reason other than liberal views, while jumping in bed with the most extreme sort of right-wingers in South America.
Let's take care of the known threats to fair elections at home before we get too wrapped up in hypothetical foreign conspiracies.
Though a move to open systems would help with either.