Le dude, I happen to live in America, where the government has contracts with ALL the major commercial databases and therefore now enjoys almost complete and total access to all information on the majority of Americans (exception: those who still live in caves). We have reason here to be paranoid....
In terms of paranoïa, I failed to mention that we have:
- mandatory electronic ID cards with a chip containing birthdate, birthplace, sex, address, marital status, national number, name of spouse, etc.
- centralized medical information. My medical history is available to any physician I authorize or emergency services. This is a service I actually signed up for, not mandatory.
On the other hand, we have 5 major parties (green, socialist, christian, liberal, extreme-right) and several dozens of smaller parties. None of which continuously have more than 25% of the votes, meaning they have to ally with another party EVERYTIME. It is worthwile to note that the most liberal parties in belgium would be considered extreme socialist in the US.
You have a right to be worried and paranoiac in the US. Then again, no disrespect but my personal opinion is that the government of the US is a fine representative of the majority of the people living in the US, including the apatic ones. (Not that I like the idea, but hey, there's not much I can do about it...)
What you failed to mention is that Chaudfontaine has a population of 21,012, so applying this kind of project isn't too hard. In case somebody comes and throws stuff in your bin you just need to call up the authorities and tell'em that Jean-Pierre from down the street threw his junk in your garbage can.
Well, 2 things prevent Jean-Pierre from dumping his trash in my can.
First one is that my trashcan is, except during the pickup day, in my courtyard behind a door
Second one is that the trashcans come with KEYS
The population argument doesn't hold either. Equiping 5 pickup trucks and 5000 trashcans with RFID capable stuff is more expensive than 10 or 100 times that. Economies of scale...
So no, my argument isn't misleading, although I am willing to admit it was incomplete.
In Belgium, at least in the city of Chaudfontaine (link in french), we've been having RFIDs on our trashbins for several years already (4? 5?).
While the paranoïac among you see this as a potential invasion of privacy, I see this as an easy way for the city to have me pay taxes only on what I put in the bin.
The process is simple. The trucks come over, put the container on a scale, scan the RFID automagically, empty the bin, voila. If it's empty, I don't pay.
The net result for me is that I get to pay:
32 € per year
+11 € for the container rent per year.
+1.60 € for each time my bin is not empty
+0.16 €/kg
Which is way less than I used to pay before.
Plus, I get to dispose of my glass stuff in containers accessible all around the city for free.
I get to dispose of my plastic and metallic (soda cans, tins, etc.) in special bags for free.
I get to dispose of 3 cubic meters (106 cubic feet) of other stuff (grass, leaves, dirt, sofa, planks, etc.) for free
The RFID on my trashbins are thus an easy way for the city to make those who dispose of more stuff pay more, which is as it should be.
I have yet to see the trash guys peek inside my stuff...
The PFG linked to in the summary does not contain the report of the expert.
Rather it is the answer to the judge and mentions (2 or 3 times, shortly) the report of the expert.
All the meat that is to be found in the PDF is that the report is conclusive that Google does all it can reasonably to combat click fraud.
The PDF is interesting only if you're interested in legal stuff...
Probably because of the language barrier. Anyone can enter a combination of letters and numbers they see, but a lot of people wouldn't know how to spell (or even call) some random object in a foreign language (eg. english).
Then simply put another animal/object captcha and have them match 2 rabbits or 2 spoons...
Instead of bothering users with junmbled letters. How about they show pictures of rabbits, dogs, knives, spoons, cars, trucks, trees, glasses, lakes, etc.
There's quite a few advantages to the approach:
- There are tons of pictures of these things floating around
- they're easy to modify (blur, detour, cell-shade, rotate, mirror,...) to fool the databanking approach to deciphering them.
- Getting computers to guess the difference between a dog and cat, while feasable (don't care to fish the link to the program that does just that) is not easy and guessing that a spoon is a spoon (with reflexions in it), is not going to be easy either.
I thus wonder why they haven't implemented that...
While it may seem an excellent idea, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
The reason is simple, it alienates the very community they're trying to build!
People make efforts to try and build something interesting that adds to the gaming experience, they're proud of the things they build, especially if they're popular.
The popularity of these things pushes them either to better them or to create other mods, potentially interesting ones.
Including their ideas in official patches deprives them of justified popularity and will cause them to quit developing things altogether, I think.
That is the same reason, IMNSHO, that you don't see popular WoW mods included in patches (ArmorCraft, bag thingies, etc. )
all the information is the following:
- 21 years Old
- Lives in Roland, OK
- Smokes cigarettes. Article mentions Marlboros but that's not what fills his ashtray (cigarettes with a white butt)
- blond hair (at least blond looking hairs on his arms)
- hair that covers his eyebrows
- lives with his parents in a "brick rambler"
- Mother is "really Christian"
- has a dog ("A small dog with matted fur")
- "accent a slurry of heavy Southern drawl and Midwestern nasality"
- is skinny ( "wiry frame", "tall and lanky", sez the article )
- high school dropout
- was an AOL customer 7 years ago
Roland has pop ~3000. Easy as hell
The guy really wants to get caught if he leaves that much information be published...
Anyone feels like saying him "hello", couldn't take more than 2 days to find him;-)
Ok, the info:
- 21 years Old
- Lives in Roland, OK
- Smokes cigarettes. Article mentions Marlboros but that's not what fills his ashtray (cigarettes with a white butt)
- blond hair (at least blond looking hairs on his arms)
- hair that covers his eyebrows
- lives with his parents in a "brick rambler"
- Mother is "really Christian"
- has a dog ("A small dog with matted fur")
- "accent a slurry of heavy Southern drawl and Midwestern nasality"
- is skinny ( "wiry frame", "tall and lanky", sez the article )
- high school dropout
- was an AOL customer 7 years ago
Roland has pop ~3000. Easy as hell
The guy really wants to get caught if he leaves that much information be published...
Anyone feels like saying him "hello";-)
just as a majority of French and German citizens support their governments' suppression of Nazi propaganda and Holocaust denial
Dude, I don't want to be rude, but what have you been smoking? Holocaust denial??? If any countries in the world claim it happened and teach it in schools (I remember seeing quite "impressive" movies about it in school when I was around 16), it is France and Germany!
As far as Nazi propangada goes though, it's just the same as these "speeches with the goal to induce racial hatred" laws that exist in numerous countries.
No, they're more like people who prefer shelling out a flat fee (equivalent to the retail cost of a game like WoW) and keep playing as much as they want without paying an extra dime.
For instance, Guild Wars...
It's an article talking about how easy it is to implant memories that never existed into peoples minds. In fact, not only do people end up remembering things they've never seen, but they also end up adding additional information to the stories. It's a bit scary actually, but it's a good thought on how one might "break" the system.
Implanting memories is not the hard part, the hard part is that these false memories do not exhibit the same phenomenological characteristics as real memories.
For instance, scores on standardized tests (such as the DES [Dissociative Experience Scale], with all its shortcomings) show that subjects with false memories score way lower with regards to contextual memories than, say, associated thoughts or feelings.
As such, even people who believe their own lies could be detected by the presence or absence of certain phenomenological characteristics in the lies they "recall". Obviously these things require the full cooperation of the subject...
Strange, I was under the impression that it's purpose was to enrich the public domain. Silly me.
The goal is indeed to enrich the public domain, but the means to do so is by offering "protection" to the inventor for the disclosure of his invention...
As CTO of a company, I was thinking that I'd send them my position on the matter...
It looks like they're making this consultation as difficult to contribute to as they can get away with...
The thing is a PDF, you read it, write your answers separately and send them all to an email address.
I just read the damn thing and it's basically HEAVILY BIASED towards companies... Seeing that, I'm not sure my answer would do anything, but I'll do it anyway... take for instance this introductory exert from from the PDF:
The idea behind the patent system is that it should be used by businesses and research organisations to promote innovation.
Strange, I was under the impression that patents were there to protect INVENTORS, not businesses.
Pisses me off (pardon my french)
The fish is better than Google for translation
on
Yahoo IM Translator
·
· Score: 1
I'm a french speaking person, french is my mother tongue.
I'm quite good with english though I am far from perfect.
I recently started learning (trying to learn, actually) spanish.
I found someone who has interests in common with mine online and started chatting. I can tell you that google translations are FAR INFERIOR to that provided by the fish.
Moreover, the fish has the advantage (for me) of being able to translate to/from french in addition to english.
My only problem with the fish is that it sometimes (quite frequently actually) refuses to offer me translation and just provides a standard error message "couldn't translate" blah blah...
Another resource I found useful is yahoo's online en/es dictionary. It is provided by Houghton Mifflin, their stand alone product (which I bought) is the exact same content, except that the interface for it sucks and the data is password protected. So no real advantage except speed over using the online service.
what interests me is what norton/symantec is going to do, now that (one of) their biggest competitors is in such a position.
Norton/Symantec are now going to do what every good corporation does nowadays.... try and find another method to cook their own books since this method seems to be flawed...
'Interface nazis' [snip] brought consistency to the Mac platform and the Windows platform,
I don't know what you've been smoking pal, but I'd sure want to give it a try.
Windows platform consistent???
Where the 'Human Interface Guidelines' for Windows for a start?
Might want to take a look at this hall of shame or maybe that one. Note while laughing to your heart's content that upwards of 90% of the problems reported are for the windows platform...
Would have been a way better world had there been such a thing as interface nazis for windows...
The ones whose long painful deaths the public pays for?
I don't know what it's like in the US, but at least here in belgium smokers bring way more money to the state than they cost for their "long painful deaths". And that, without counting the fact that dying young means less retirement to pay to them...
Once you reach level 20 in guild wars (which is about halfway through the game, actually), the game continues to be interesting. When you beat the game, the game even then still is interesting...
I like both PvE and PvP, so I'm doing both and that may be the reason for my enjoying it, but there's also the fact that there are so many ways to combine 8 skills out of the 150 your two classes get you that you have lots to experiment.
Then there is the fissure of woes and the underworld, both of which can be quite challenging to even a good group.
Guild Wars is definately the best game I've played, both in terms of gameplay, absence of farming, tactics, balance of economy and LACK OF BUGS.
Now if only these koreans could leave the favor of the gods to europe...
Slashdot Mirror
- mandatory electronic ID cards with a chip containing birthdate, birthplace, sex, address, marital status, national number, name of spouse, etc.
- centralized medical information. My medical history is available to any physician I authorize or emergency services. This is a service I actually signed up for, not mandatory.
On the other hand, we have 5 major parties (green, socialist, christian, liberal, extreme-right) and several dozens of smaller parties. None of which continuously have more than 25% of the votes, meaning they have to ally with another party EVERYTIME. It is worthwile to note that the most liberal parties in belgium would be considered extreme socialist in the US.
You have a right to be worried and paranoiac in the US. Then again, no disrespect but my personal opinion is that the government of the US is a fine representative of the majority of the people living in the US, including the apatic ones. (Not that I like the idea, but hey, there's not much I can do about it...)
Well, 2 things prevent Jean-Pierre from dumping his trash in my can.
First one is that my trashcan is, except during the pickup day, in my courtyard behind a door
Second one is that the trashcans come with KEYS
The population argument doesn't hold either. Equiping 5 pickup trucks and 5000 trashcans with RFID capable stuff is more expensive than 10 or 100 times that. Economies of scale...
So no, my argument isn't misleading, although I am willing to admit it was incomplete.
While the paranoïac among you see this as a potential invasion of privacy, I see this as an easy way for the city to have me pay taxes only on what I put in the bin.
The process is simple. The trucks come over, put the container on a scale, scan the RFID automagically, empty the bin, voila. If it's empty, I don't pay. /kg
The net result for me is that I get to pay:
32 € per year
+11 € for the container rent per year.
+1.60 € for each time my bin is not empty
+0.16 €
Which is way less than I used to pay before.
Plus, I get to dispose of my glass stuff in containers accessible all around the city for free.
I get to dispose of my plastic and metallic (soda cans, tins, etc.) in special bags for free.
I get to dispose of 3 cubic meters (106 cubic feet) of other stuff (grass, leaves, dirt, sofa, planks, etc.) for free
The RFID on my trashbins are thus an easy way for the city to make those who dispose of more stuff pay more, which is as it should be.
I have yet to see the trash guys peek inside my stuff...
Cool system IMO...
Rather it is the answer to the judge and mentions (2 or 3 times, shortly) the report of the expert. All the meat that is to be found in the PDF is that the report is conclusive that Google does all it can reasonably to combat click fraud.
The PDF is interesting only if you're interested in legal stuff...
My 0.02
- put enough of them, say, 12
- always produce a different set upon error.
- There are tons of pictures of these things floating around
- they're easy to modify (blur, detour, cell-shade, rotate, mirror,
- Getting computers to guess the difference between a dog and cat, while feasable (don't care to fish the link to the program that does just that) is not easy and guessing that a spoon is a spoon (with reflexions in it), is not going to be easy either.
I thus wonder why they haven't implemented that...
My 0,02
While it may seem an excellent idea, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
The reason is simple, it alienates the very community they're trying to build!
People make efforts to try and build something interesting that adds to the gaming experience, they're proud of the things they build, especially if they're popular.
The popularity of these things pushes them either to better them or to create other mods, potentially interesting ones.
Including their ideas in official patches deprives them of justified popularity and will cause them to quit developing things altogether, I think.
That is the same reason, IMNSHO, that you don't see popular WoW mods included in patches (ArmorCraft, bag thingies, etc. )
But you're right, the real blunder is to leave the name of the town in the meta-tags...
- 21 years Old
- Lives in Roland, OK
- Smokes cigarettes. Article mentions Marlboros but that's not what fills his ashtray (cigarettes with a white butt)
- blond hair (at least blond looking hairs on his arms)
- hair that covers his eyebrows
- lives with his parents in a "brick rambler"
- Mother is "really Christian"
- has a dog ("A small dog with matted fur")
- "accent a slurry of heavy Southern drawl and Midwestern nasality"
- is skinny ( "wiry frame", "tall and lanky", sez the article )
- high school dropout
- was an AOL customer 7 years ago
Roland has pop ~3000. Easy as hell
The guy really wants to get caught if he leaves that much information be published...
Anyone feels like saying him "hello", couldn't take more than 2 days to find him ;-)
Ok, the info: - 21 years Old - Lives in Roland, OK - Smokes cigarettes. Article mentions Marlboros but that's not what fills his ashtray (cigarettes with a white butt) - blond hair (at least blond looking hairs on his arms) - hair that covers his eyebrows - lives with his parents in a "brick rambler" - Mother is "really Christian" - has a dog ("A small dog with matted fur") - "accent a slurry of heavy Southern drawl and Midwestern nasality" - is skinny ( "wiry frame", "tall and lanky", sez the article ) - high school dropout - was an AOL customer 7 years ago Roland has pop ~3000. Easy as hell The guy really wants to get caught if he leaves that much information be published... Anyone feels like saying him "hello" ;-)
As far as Nazi propangada goes though, it's just the same as these "speeches with the goal to induce racial hatred" laws that exist in numerous countries.
Just my .02
No, they're more like people who prefer shelling out a flat fee (equivalent to the retail cost of a game like WoW) and keep playing as much as they want without paying an extra dime.
For instance, Guild Wars...
For instance, scores on standardized tests (such as the DES [Dissociative Experience Scale], with all its shortcomings) show that subjects with false memories score way lower with regards to contextual memories than, say, associated thoughts or feelings.
As such, even people who believe their own lies could be detected by the presence or absence of certain phenomenological characteristics in the lies they "recall". Obviously these things require the full cooperation of the subject...
The thing is a PDF, you read it, write your answers separately and send them all to an email address.
I just read the damn thing and it's basically HEAVILY BIASED towards companies... Seeing that, I'm not sure my answer would do anything, but I'll do it anyway... take for instance this introductory exert from from the PDF:
Strange, I was under the impression that patents were there to protect INVENTORS, not businesses.
Pisses me off (pardon my french)
I'm a french speaking person, french is my mother tongue.
I'm quite good with english though I am far from perfect.
I recently started learning (trying to learn, actually) spanish.
I found someone who has interests in common with mine online and started chatting. I can tell you that google translations are FAR INFERIOR to that provided by the fish.
Moreover, the fish has the advantage (for me) of being able to translate to/from french in addition to english.
My only problem with the fish is that it sometimes (quite frequently actually) refuses to offer me translation and just provides a standard error message "couldn't translate" blah blah...
Another resource I found useful is yahoo's online en/es dictionary. It is provided by Houghton Mifflin, their stand alone product (which I bought) is the exact same content, except that the interface for it sucks and the data is password protected. So no real advantage except speed over using the online service.
Just my 2 cents
Me, cynically...
Yep, always remember this quote:
"Never understimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway"
Andrew Tannenbaum
Where the 'Human Interface Guidelines' for Windows for a start?
Might want to take a look at this hall of shame or maybe that one. Note while laughing to your heart's content that upwards of 90% of the problems reported are for the windows platform...
Would have been a way better world had there been such a thing as interface nazis for windows...
Except for a small number of missions (3-4) after the desert, you won't *need* human players if you're skilled.
I like both PvE and PvP, so I'm doing both and that may be the reason for my enjoying it, but there's also the fact that there are so many ways to combine 8 skills out of the 150 your two classes get you that you have lots to experiment.
Then there is the fissure of woes and the underworld, both of which can be quite challenging to even a good group.
Guild Wars is definately the best game I've played, both in terms of gameplay, absence of farming, tactics, balance of economy and LACK OF BUGS.
Now if only these koreans could leave the favor of the gods to europe...