Obviously, these toner cartridges were packed in some sort of suitcase. Imagine that, a closed case on a plane that a terrorist could use to put any kind of horrible device. The only logical reaction is to ban all suitcases. This should also apply to duffle bags, backpacks and other forms of closed containers. Travellers will be encouraged to carry their clothes in big piles to the check in area where they will be looked through (and any funny underwear will be lifted up high for everyone to laugh at). Then, the whole pile will be shovelled onto the airplane. Luggage pickup areas will now have a dump truck back up to them and dump the cargo bin's contents onto the ground for traveller's to fight through. Make sure you write your name and address in big letters all over every piece of clothing in permanent ink. And remember, it might be a minor inconvinience but this and other measures like the upcoming "automatic strip searching for hot passengers" rule help keep the skies safe from terrorists.
It's delicious is what it is. I remember growing up we would have it during Passover. Spread some of that rendered chicken fat on a piece of matzoh and sprinkle on a little salt. Delicious! (If you're thinking it sounds disgusting, it tastes kind of like a rich butter.) Yes, it is awful for you, but most things that taste really good are bad for you if you eat too much of them.
Bah! I believe that the Universe was created 30 seconds ago with the appearance of being billions of years old and with us having memories as if we had lived for decades already. Just try to prove me wrong! (Oh and if you're reading this 31 seconds or more after it's posted, then it's clear that God just posted this under my user account while setting up his fake universe theory.)
The best part of this view? I'm not responsible for anything done 30 seconds or more ago. "I'm sorry, but that thing you said I did a day ago wasn't really me. That was put there by God to fool the idiots who can't see the truth. Obviously, you're smart enough to see through the ruse, right?"
That might make an interesting short film (or series of short films). A view of the events of ANH, ESB and ROTJ through the Empire's media channel. "...and that's one Jawa that will think twice before trying to steal from an injured Trooper. In other news, a strike was made against a stronghold of the terrorist group, The Rebellion, on the ice planet Hoth. Unfortunately, many of the terrorists were able to escape capture. A statement released by Lord Vader's press agent, Darth Spinious, stated 'These Rebel scum can run but we will track them. Their former base is being analyzed for clues to other strongholds and the captured terrorists will be interrogated as well. Rest assured that these terrorists' days are numbered. They will not be a threat to the fine citizens of The Empire for much longer."
No, considering that the Big Bang is also called the Horrendous Space Kablooie (named by Dr. Calvin), this "mini-big bang" would be a "Pretty Bad Space Kablooie." If they get down to a micro-big bang, we'll be talking about a "Relatively Uncomfortable Space Kablooie."
the ISP's may finally have to pony up some dough and upgrade their infrastructure.
ha ha ha ha ha.... wait, were you serious?
Most ISPs are also content providers. Especially the cable companies. They don't like services like Netflix because it reduces demand for cable TV offerings. What they will really do is impose caps with overages or speed slowdowns. In the latter case, you can watch Netflix online, but after one or two movies, suddenly the video keeps buffering for a long time making it useless. In the former case, you watch a dozen movies during the month and then get a huge bill from your ISP because you're a "bandwidth hog." And if you don't like it? Tough, since you probably don't have many (if any) ISP choices where you live.
On one hand, ISPs have the option to pay to upgrade their networks which might bring them more revenue in the future or may help erode another of their money makers. On the other hand, ISPs could restrict your use of that "eroding service" and/or turn it into a money maker for them. Which choice do *you* think the ISP will make?
What? The solution is going to be complex and not a One-Magic-Bullet-To-Solve-All-Problems? That's heresy! Especially since I happen to own Magic Bullets Incorporated.
Of course, I'm one of the 40% who are holding off on HDTV. My old SDTV's still work fine and I see no immediate reason to go out and spend a ton of money on new televisions to replace them. When they do go, I will replace them with HDTV's (if only because that's all that's out there now), but until at least one of those TVs die, we'll be a HDTV-less household.
I think the point is that the powers requested to do something like get a news site to take an inaccurate story down (or correct it) already exist. You don't need a law saying "Anyone can tell an ISP to take down content based on an unproven claim that the content is inaccurate, illegal, etc." You can first call and talk with the ISP or content provider. If they're not reasonable, you can write a cease and desist letter (either assisted by a lawyer or not assisted by one). If that still doesn't work, you can explore whether you have a case (libel or any other existing law).
Of course, those things require time and money, but the time/money investment (not to mention the Judge involved) helps to prevent corruption of the system. You're not going to just fire off a million of these against everyone who disagrees with you because they have a dissenting opinion that you don't think is 100% accurate. If you make this a "free" process that doesn't involve any judge, you're not just inviting misuse, you're opening the door and laying out a red carpet. Anytime anyone disagrees with you, they can contact your ISP/Web Host/etc and tell them to take your site down for inaccurate content. (Of course, good luck if that content happens to be located on a host outside of the UK!)
If a person has no idea if the music comes from a commercial source and not a garage band sharing its own files, how can the law demand that person follow up on suspicions they may simply not have?
The RIAA's dream answer to this would be: "Any music online that we haven't approved for posting is illegal. Any garage bands that want to record music and put it online should first sign with one of our labels and *then* put their music online (if their contact allows it*)."
* The contract won't allow it.** ** The contract will, however, allow the label to upload the music to ITunes and other online purchase sites.*** *** The contract will be worded to give the artists a "fair share"**** of the sales. **** "Fair Share" is defined as "As little as we can possibly give them before they institute legal action and sometimes even less than that."
When I set up my first website (not counting a little "Hey, it's me" page I did while in college), I hosted it on GeoCities. Eventually, I outgrew them and moved to a paid hosting provider. Still, for all of the flack they get for bad design, GeoCities was to the Internet what free blog hosting sites are now: a place to put your stories, photos, etc without paying anything. If Information Wants To Be Free, then Geocities was an important part of making this happen.
Exactly. In the short term, I'd expect gas stations to survive both because they would support the legacy fleet of gas-powered cars and also because they would put up charging stations for electric cars. In fact, they would probably make more money on electric car drivers, even if the cost of recharging your car was less than a gas tank refill. Since you are stuck charging, you'd probably stop into the convience store and buy a couple of things.
I've already seen grocery stores which provide gas stations as well (sometimes at a reduced price for their shopping club members). I could see this being expanded to electric chargers. Park your car in a special "charger-enabled" section of the lot, swipe your credit card, plug in, and then get your groceries while your car slowly charges. Of course, as more shops add chargers to their parking lots (as it is relatively easy to do versus putting in a gas tank/pump system) and as less gas-powered cars are on the road, less people will need to stop at dedicated "gas stations" and those will slowly go out of business.
At some point, we'll tell our grandchildren stories of how we gassed up our cars and they'll ask if that's when the drive-through served dino-burgers.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't delete my photos. Even if they are blurry and completely not suitable for framing or even posting on a website, I keep them. I have a 1TB drive. That's plenty of space for all of the digital photos I've taken since 1999 (when I got my first digital camera). (My digital photos take up about 250GB.)
I often wonder if Iran would nuke Israel if they obtained/developed nuclear weapons. I'm sure they'd threaten it left and right and use it as a bargaining tool, but would they press the button? Remember that a lot of the sites in Israel that are holy to Christians and Jews are holy to Muslims as well. (One of the big reasons for the whole fighting over the land thing. If Muslims didn't care about that stretch of land, there would have been peace long ago.) If Iran nuked Jerusalem, they'd be destroying spots considered holy in Islam (e.g. Dome of the Rock). On one hand, the extremists would be happy that Israel was gone, but on the other hand, they'd blame Iran for desecrating the holy sites. Actually, I think all Muslims (whether extremist or moderate) would be upset over the loss of the sites (whether or not they mourned the deaths). Iran would find itself ostracized, if not outright attacked, by Christian and Muslim nations alike.
No, I think they'd love to have the bomb and would use it as a negotiating tactic and threat, but I don't think they'd actually launch it.
Re:This is the break through I've been waiting for
on
Programmable Magnets
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· Score: 1
An absolute law without hope of appeal? That's despotism! Somebody outta - Hey! That's it! I know what we're gonna do today! Hey! Where's Perry? (Obligatory Phineas and Ferb.)
Don't you know? It's all a test. He also planted fossils and arranged the laws of nature to simulate an approximately 14 billion year old Universe and approximately 4.5 billion year old Earth. In short, everything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and think is a lie. Only if you ignore all evidence that comes your way and believe everything that some guy tells you about a book that has been re-translated and re-interpreted a million times over the past two thousand or so years can you find the real truth!
Well, if you've spent 10 years making an awesome program, no company can just sweep in, declare that the name is theirs and lock you out. However, if you've sold the name to Company A and they then sell it to Company B, you can't complain that Company B is making money off of your program's name. (This coming from someone who uses OO.org all the time and is eager to try LibreOffice as well.)
Which leads me to imagine a modern recreation of the Terminator movies. The T800 comes back in time, walks into a Starbucks, accesses their free WiFi (pushing aside a guy drinking a half-caf low-fat milk latte), accesses Sarah Connor's Twitter feed, sees her latest Foursquare check-in location and then goes there to find her. Somehow, it doesn't seem as compelling as the original, though.
Suppose you have 3 numbers, a, b and c such that c = b - a.
Multiply each side by (b - a) to get:
c(b - a) = (b - a)(b - a) => Or.... cb - ca = b^2 - 2ba + a^2 => Now add (ab - a^2 - cb) to both sides ab - ca - a^2 = b^2 - cb - ba => Or.... a(b - c - a) = b(b - c - a) => Divide both sides by (b - c - a) and..... a = b
There you go! Proof that any two numbers (such as 0 and 1) are equal.
(Yes, I know there's a flaw in there. Let's see who'll spot it first.)
I find it ironic that we have two extremes that seem clueless about how much they have in common. At one extreme are the pirates who wouldn't pay for music if it were offered to them at a penny per song*. They don't seem to see why they should pay for what they are getting (music).
At the other extreme is the music/movie industry that seems to want Google/ISPs/Government/etc to do their job of finding and prosecuting pirated content for them free of charge (to the music/movie industry). They don't seem to comprehend why they should pay someone to provide them with a service (finding the copyrighted content being shared online).
Both sides want to get something for nothing. (Meanwhile, most of the general public just wants to get good content for reasonable prices without being treated like they are criminals for wanting the content at all.)
* This isn't everyone who pirates, mind you, just the extreme edge of the pirating community.
Wait. So that Nigerian president's widow wasn't going to give me $10 million? Oh well, luckily I won the Internet Lottery! Five times, already. I'm just *that* lucky!
Well, it would be the same type of data collection as when we use rats only with the upside of not hurting any cute rats (or having PETA on your case).
Re:Israel is an interesting exercise in Game Theor
on
Gambling On Bacteria
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· Score: 1
Even functioning democracies can have different subgroups within them. The USA is a democracy and pretty much every issue has a range of differing opinions. In Israel, there are people who want to stay at the peace talks until an agreement is arrived at and there are people who think the only "agreement" should be achieved with military might. Then there are those (the settlers, for example) who think that the "agreement" will be enforced by God when he restores Israel to its Biblical borders. With their help, of course.
In the West Bank/Gaza, there are people who wouldn't mind peace with the Israelis because they just want to live their lives. There are also people who think the only peace with Israelis should come when the last Israeli is driven into the sea. The former will sit down at the negotiating table and hash out differences. The latter will do everything they can to stop the negotiating table from even existing.
The main problem, in both instances, is that the population supports the fringe groups too much and fears the other side (with some reason given their past). The governments can't act too harshly on their fringe groups or the populace says "you're going against us and supporting them!" Then the government is replaced with people less likely to "support them" or "go against us" and the peace process tumbles backwards a bit more. Unfortunately, I don't have any solution to overcome this fear. (If I did, I wouldn't be posting it on Slashdot. I'd be using it to achieve peace and win the Nobel Peace Prize.)
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, these toner cartridges were packed in some sort of suitcase. Imagine that, a closed case on a plane that a terrorist could use to put any kind of horrible device. The only logical reaction is to ban all suitcases. This should also apply to duffle bags, backpacks and other forms of closed containers. Travellers will be encouraged to carry their clothes in big piles to the check in area where they will be looked through (and any funny underwear will be lifted up high for everyone to laugh at). Then, the whole pile will be shovelled onto the airplane. Luggage pickup areas will now have a dump truck back up to them and dump the cargo bin's contents onto the ground for traveller's to fight through. Make sure you write your name and address in big letters all over every piece of clothing in permanent ink. And remember, it might be a minor inconvinience but this and other measures like the upcoming "automatic strip searching for hot passengers" rule help keep the skies safe from terrorists.
It's delicious is what it is. I remember growing up we would have it during Passover. Spread some of that rendered chicken fat on a piece of matzoh and sprinkle on a little salt. Delicious! (If you're thinking it sounds disgusting, it tastes kind of like a rich butter.) Yes, it is awful for you, but most things that taste really good are bad for you if you eat too much of them.
Bah! I believe that the Universe was created 30 seconds ago with the appearance of being billions of years old and with us having memories as if we had lived for decades already. Just try to prove me wrong! (Oh and if you're reading this 31 seconds or more after it's posted, then it's clear that God just posted this under my user account while setting up his fake universe theory.)
The best part of this view? I'm not responsible for anything done 30 seconds or more ago. "I'm sorry, but that thing you said I did a day ago wasn't really me. That was put there by God to fool the idiots who can't see the truth. Obviously, you're smart enough to see through the ruse, right?"
That might make an interesting short film (or series of short films). A view of the events of ANH, ESB and ROTJ through the Empire's media channel. "...and that's one Jawa that will think twice before trying to steal from an injured Trooper. In other news, a strike was made against a stronghold of the terrorist group, The Rebellion, on the ice planet Hoth. Unfortunately, many of the terrorists were able to escape capture. A statement released by Lord Vader's press agent, Darth Spinious, stated 'These Rebel scum can run but we will track them. Their former base is being analyzed for clues to other strongholds and the captured terrorists will be interrogated as well. Rest assured that these terrorists' days are numbered. They will not be a threat to the fine citizens of The Empire for much longer."
No, considering that the Big Bang is also called the Horrendous Space Kablooie (named by Dr. Calvin), this "mini-big bang" would be a "Pretty Bad Space Kablooie." If they get down to a micro-big bang, we'll be talking about a "Relatively Uncomfortable Space Kablooie."
Since Netscape is dead, what's a step up from dead? Undead? Run for your lives! Rockmelt is a Zombie Web Browser!
ha ha ha ha ha.... wait, were you serious?
Most ISPs are also content providers. Especially the cable companies. They don't like services like Netflix because it reduces demand for cable TV offerings. What they will really do is impose caps with overages or speed slowdowns. In the latter case, you can watch Netflix online, but after one or two movies, suddenly the video keeps buffering for a long time making it useless. In the former case, you watch a dozen movies during the month and then get a huge bill from your ISP because you're a "bandwidth hog." And if you don't like it? Tough, since you probably don't have many (if any) ISP choices where you live.
On one hand, ISPs have the option to pay to upgrade their networks which might bring them more revenue in the future or may help erode another of their money makers. On the other hand, ISPs could restrict your use of that "eroding service" and/or turn it into a money maker for them. Which choice do *you* think the ISP will make?
What? The solution is going to be complex and not a One-Magic-Bullet-To-Solve-All-Problems? That's heresy! Especially since I happen to own Magic Bullets Incorporated.
Apparently, that "46% at the end o 2009" estimate is now a 60% have a HDTV set reality.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/457915-Nielsen_Tech_Survey_Finds_More_HDTVs_DVRs.php
Of course, I'm one of the 40% who are holding off on HDTV. My old SDTV's still work fine and I see no immediate reason to go out and spend a ton of money on new televisions to replace them. When they do go, I will replace them with HDTV's (if only because that's all that's out there now), but until at least one of those TVs die, we'll be a HDTV-less household.
I think the point is that the powers requested to do something like get a news site to take an inaccurate story down (or correct it) already exist. You don't need a law saying "Anyone can tell an ISP to take down content based on an unproven claim that the content is inaccurate, illegal, etc." You can first call and talk with the ISP or content provider. If they're not reasonable, you can write a cease and desist letter (either assisted by a lawyer or not assisted by one). If that still doesn't work, you can explore whether you have a case (libel or any other existing law).
Of course, those things require time and money, but the time/money investment (not to mention the Judge involved) helps to prevent corruption of the system. You're not going to just fire off a million of these against everyone who disagrees with you because they have a dissenting opinion that you don't think is 100% accurate. If you make this a "free" process that doesn't involve any judge, you're not just inviting misuse, you're opening the door and laying out a red carpet. Anytime anyone disagrees with you, they can contact your ISP/Web Host/etc and tell them to take your site down for inaccurate content. (Of course, good luck if that content happens to be located on a host outside of the UK!)
The RIAA's dream answer to this would be: "Any music online that we haven't approved for posting is illegal. Any garage bands that want to record music and put it online should first sign with one of our labels and *then* put their music online (if their contact allows it*)."
* The contract won't allow it.**
** The contract will, however, allow the label to upload the music to ITunes and other online purchase sites.***
*** The contract will be worded to give the artists a "fair share"**** of the sales.
**** "Fair Share" is defined as "As little as we can possibly give them before they institute legal action and sometimes even less than that."
When I set up my first website (not counting a little "Hey, it's me" page I did while in college), I hosted it on GeoCities. Eventually, I outgrew them and moved to a paid hosting provider. Still, for all of the flack they get for bad design, GeoCities was to the Internet what free blog hosting sites are now: a place to put your stories, photos, etc without paying anything. If Information Wants To Be Free, then Geocities was an important part of making this happen.
Exactly. In the short term, I'd expect gas stations to survive both because they would support the legacy fleet of gas-powered cars and also because they would put up charging stations for electric cars. In fact, they would probably make more money on electric car drivers, even if the cost of recharging your car was less than a gas tank refill. Since you are stuck charging, you'd probably stop into the convience store and buy a couple of things.
I've already seen grocery stores which provide gas stations as well (sometimes at a reduced price for their shopping club members). I could see this being expanded to electric chargers. Park your car in a special "charger-enabled" section of the lot, swipe your credit card, plug in, and then get your groceries while your car slowly charges. Of course, as more shops add chargers to their parking lots (as it is relatively easy to do versus putting in a gas tank/pump system) and as less gas-powered cars are on the road, less people will need to stop at dedicated "gas stations" and those will slowly go out of business.
At some point, we'll tell our grandchildren stories of how we gassed up our cars and they'll ask if that's when the drive-through served dino-burgers.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't delete my photos. Even if they are blurry and completely not suitable for framing or even posting on a website, I keep them. I have a 1TB drive. That's plenty of space for all of the digital photos I've taken since 1999 (when I got my first digital camera). (My digital photos take up about 250GB.)
I often wonder if Iran would nuke Israel if they obtained/developed nuclear weapons. I'm sure they'd threaten it left and right and use it as a bargaining tool, but would they press the button? Remember that a lot of the sites in Israel that are holy to Christians and Jews are holy to Muslims as well. (One of the big reasons for the whole fighting over the land thing. If Muslims didn't care about that stretch of land, there would have been peace long ago.) If Iran nuked Jerusalem, they'd be destroying spots considered holy in Islam (e.g. Dome of the Rock). On one hand, the extremists would be happy that Israel was gone, but on the other hand, they'd blame Iran for desecrating the holy sites. Actually, I think all Muslims (whether extremist or moderate) would be upset over the loss of the sites (whether or not they mourned the deaths). Iran would find itself ostracized, if not outright attacked, by Christian and Muslim nations alike.
No, I think they'd love to have the bomb and would use it as a negotiating tactic and threat, but I don't think they'd actually launch it.
An absolute law without hope of appeal? That's despotism! Somebody outta - Hey! That's it! I know what we're gonna do today! Hey! Where's Perry? (Obligatory Phineas and Ferb.)
Don't you know? It's all a test. He also planted fossils and arranged the laws of nature to simulate an approximately 14 billion year old Universe and approximately 4.5 billion year old Earth. In short, everything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and think is a lie. Only if you ignore all evidence that comes your way and believe everything that some guy tells you about a book that has been re-translated and re-interpreted a million times over the past two thousand or so years can you find the real truth!
Well, if you've spent 10 years making an awesome program, no company can just sweep in, declare that the name is theirs and lock you out. However, if you've sold the name to Company A and they then sell it to Company B, you can't complain that Company B is making money off of your program's name. (This coming from someone who uses OO.org all the time and is eager to try LibreOffice as well.)
It should really just Google for her.
Which leads me to imagine a modern recreation of the Terminator movies. The T800 comes back in time, walks into a Starbucks, accesses their free WiFi (pushing aside a guy drinking a half-caf low-fat milk latte), accesses Sarah Connor's Twitter feed, sees her latest Foursquare check-in location and then goes there to find her. Somehow, it doesn't seem as compelling as the original, though.
Suppose you have 3 numbers, a, b and c such that c = b - a.
Multiply each side by (b - a) to get:
c(b - a) = (b - a)(b - a) => Or....
cb - ca = b^2 - 2ba + a^2 => Now add (ab - a^2 - cb) to both sides
ab - ca - a^2 = b^2 - cb - ba => Or....
a(b - c - a) = b(b - c - a) => Divide both sides by (b - c - a) and.....
a = b
There you go! Proof that any two numbers (such as 0 and 1) are equal.
(Yes, I know there's a flaw in there. Let's see who'll spot it first.)
I find it ironic that we have two extremes that seem clueless about how much they have in common. At one extreme are the pirates who wouldn't pay for music if it were offered to them at a penny per song*. They don't seem to see why they should pay for what they are getting (music).
At the other extreme is the music/movie industry that seems to want Google/ISPs/Government/etc to do their job of finding and prosecuting pirated content for them free of charge (to the music/movie industry). They don't seem to comprehend why they should pay someone to provide them with a service (finding the copyrighted content being shared online).
Both sides want to get something for nothing. (Meanwhile, most of the general public just wants to get good content for reasonable prices without being treated like they are criminals for wanting the content at all.)
* This isn't everyone who pirates, mind you, just the extreme edge of the pirating community.
Wait. So that Nigerian president's widow wasn't going to give me $10 million? Oh well, luckily I won the Internet Lottery! Five times, already. I'm just *that* lucky!
1,200 feet = 365.76 meters, so......
256 meters should be enough for anyone (to drop a lawyer from)!
Well, it would be the same type of data collection as when we use rats only with the upside of not hurting any cute rats (or having PETA on your case).
Even functioning democracies can have different subgroups within them. The USA is a democracy and pretty much every issue has a range of differing opinions. In Israel, there are people who want to stay at the peace talks until an agreement is arrived at and there are people who think the only "agreement" should be achieved with military might. Then there are those (the settlers, for example) who think that the "agreement" will be enforced by God when he restores Israel to its Biblical borders. With their help, of course.
In the West Bank/Gaza, there are people who wouldn't mind peace with the Israelis because they just want to live their lives. There are also people who think the only peace with Israelis should come when the last Israeli is driven into the sea. The former will sit down at the negotiating table and hash out differences. The latter will do everything they can to stop the negotiating table from even existing.
The main problem, in both instances, is that the population supports the fringe groups too much and fears the other side (with some reason given their past). The governments can't act too harshly on their fringe groups or the populace says "you're going against us and supporting them!" Then the government is replaced with people less likely to "support them" or "go against us" and the peace process tumbles backwards a bit more. Unfortunately, I don't have any solution to overcome this fear. (If I did, I wouldn't be posting it on Slashdot. I'd be using it to achieve peace and win the Nobel Peace Prize.)