Ms. Stob is a choice writer and a nice person with whom to exchange email. I dropped her a note after one column that was done in a very John Cleese-like exposed internal dialog style. I enjoyed it a lot and my note was done in a similar style. That resulted in several emails back and forth wherein I learned that I was one of only a few people (even those in Britain) that got the joke.
I may have to pick this one up. Of course, that means I'll also need to get a coffee table.
Seems to me than an intelligent burglar would avoid all of that long-and-drawn-out scoping and simply head to the airport...
An intelligent burglar would just buy that information from the barrista at the Starbucks inside the security envelope who has secreted a large and powerful RFID scanner/sniffer just below the espresso machine, completely hidden from sight.
I don't see why they didn't just burn it (cryptographically signed) onto a business card sized CD inserted into a pocket of the passport folder.
Because that's not remotely readable, and remote readability is the whole raison d'etre of this RFID-enabled passport campaign. Ask Bruce Schneier.
After all, US passports already have a mag stripe containing everything but the picture. And with the absolute refusal to place any safeguards whatsoever on the RFID data, there can only be one reasonable explanation. The USG wants the ability to do that which they so stridently deny can be done: sniff passport RFID from a surreptitious distance.
The question of motive is left as an exercise for the reader.
IMNSHO, it is the arrogance of lawyers that leads to the assumption that more laws will solve the problem.
Arrogance isn't the sole cause. Remember that legislators' work product is laws, and that lawyers' profit center is arbitrating conflicts with those laws. With that hammer as their only tool, is it surprising that we all look like nails?
What I really need is a personal cell repeater. My T-Mobile phone gets really good coverage all around Cincinnati, except inside my apartment. A small repeater cell to cover the inside would be perfect.
I've been using Binc for a little over a year. I, too, went to a single IMAP store to get around the sync problems of multiple clients. It's great. I use Thunderbird locally and at work (over an SSH tunnel), but I have Squirrelmail up for web-only situations. Mutt and/or Pine for the SSH-console-only situations.
One of these days, I'll get around to importing all the old MMDF mailboxes from my Waffle install of yore.
Good idea. That way, you can appreciate how that little "Print this PDF" box obscures other text in their "manifesto" while touting proprietary features that exemplify Adobe's own 'embrace and extend' policy.
Reminds me of my teenage days, when the old J. C. Whitney catalog had page after page of dubious contraptions that would either improve your gas mileage or boost your horsepower. My personal favorite was the magnetic oil dipstick that was claimed to boost horsepower by 10-12%.
And after every order, you'd get a notice telling you you might be entitled to a portion of their ongoing bankruptcy settlement.
FYI, for Dotster, you need to "add a service" to activate what they call "TransferLock". For those of you with more than one or two domains, here's the bulk modification dance:
From Account Management page, select 'Advanced Domain Search'
Leave all fields blank
'Select All'
'Manage Domains'
'Order Services for Domains'
'TransferLock' is next to last in the Other Services list. Click 'Add All'
Continue through the purchase dance
It's free, but I don't know why it isn't the default. BTW, anyone else wonder why Dotster has made bulk management a little less intuitive lately? The "Advanced Domain List" view used to be the default. (and don't get me started on their automagically registering.info domains last week)
"Opions vary" == "Road House"? You obviously have no taste.
"Opinions vary" is the most memorable quote from the Dalton character. "Road House" is the movie equivalent of the "annoying pop song stuck in head" effect.
Or, to put it another way, opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and some stink worse than others.
So... what you meant to say was that I don't share your taste. That's a feature, not a bug.
I consider "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" to be science fiction.
"Opinions vary." I consider ESOTSM the first movie bad enough that I walked out on a $2 theater showing. And I like Jim Carrey... well, except for that one thing.
So If I call you you will give me all the documentation I need to communicate with your products and write the apps needed to make it work 100% with whatever OS I choose to be using?
That information ships with the server, so calling them would be redundant.
So. I guess the subversion of the Original Copyright Intentions, by biased legislators and coporate America, are fair as well?
To which parent responded:
I don't recall saying this, but yes it is. Why not? The point of a representitive system is to represent the people.
While I agree that the "point of a representitive system is to represent the people", I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the assertion that "biased legislators and coporate America" == "the people".
Your assertion that it's our fault for voting the scum in fails to account for the influence of Large Sums Of Cash in the political process. Corporations can't vote, that's true. That's why corporations purchase legislators to cast votes for them. And those votes (the ones cast by members of Congress, not for them) are the only votes that count. We, The People don't get line-item veto power over bad laws, only Hobson's choice among self-interested legislators.
So, while "[c]opyright is available to everyone", not everyone is in a position to consolidate copyright control so as to forever extinguish the public domain in favor of a pay-per-view control over artistic expression designed to further enrich the already rich and powerful. Some believe this will promote the stagnation of the arts into an easily marketable commodity.
Then you're hardly in a position to say "Free TV isn't about art. It's an advertising conduit, and nothing more."
So stipulated. However, if you prepend "In the USA,", I think you might agree with the statement. I've heard from other Brits that BBC has some good programming. Though owing to the TV license, BBC isn't the "free" model I'd had in mind.
I apologise on behalf of all Brits that you had to endure Gatwick.
They haven't realized that going with the status quo will always result in mediocrity.
What gave you the impression that Sci-Fi (or any other non-subscription TV channel) is interested in anything other than mass-appeal, lowest-common-denominator mediocrity? High concept doesn't attract masses of viewers, and masses of viewers are required to keep those ad revenues up.
Free TV isn't about art. It's an advertising conduit, and nothing more.
Yeah, I remember the news admin at umn.edu back in 1991 bragging up his new 1GB drive. "This will let us do 7-day retention on all the news groups and 3 days on binaries."
The recreations conducted by History Channel, etc, etc, etc. are solely for the purpose of reexamining the incident to re-discover/uncover the truth behind the assassination.
I'd say those recreations and investigations ultimately are intended to attract viewers so that advertisements interspersed therein have an audience.
I know I gave them a fake address and I don't think I even gave them a phone number.
You have to fill something out? I have half a dozen "loyalty" cards, and never filled anything out. Just mumble something about filling it out at home and bringing it back.
We now have technology that will allow students to excel way beyond anywhere today's schools can get them.
You apparently accept the Upton Sinclair viewpoint of education. H. L. Mencken had another opinion:
The state maintains its control of elementary education, not primarily to reduce illiteracy and turn the eyes of the plain people toward the stars, but to make sure that they are not taught anything that is subversive. Public education is thus a police measure. The goal it moves toward is perfect standardization, perfect discipline, perfect imbecility.
And that was 80 years ago that Mencken said that. The more things change...
Slashdot Mirror
I may have to pick this one up. Of course, that means I'll also need to get a coffee table.
After all, US passports already have a mag stripe containing everything but the picture. And with the absolute refusal to place any safeguards whatsoever on the RFID data, there can only be one reasonable explanation. The USG wants the ability to do that which they so stridently deny can be done: sniff passport RFID from a surreptitious distance.
The question of motive is left as an exercise for the reader.
What I really need is a personal cell repeater. My T-Mobile phone gets really good coverage all around Cincinnati, except inside my apartment. A small repeater cell to cover the inside would be perfect.
One of these days, I'll get around to importing all the old MMDF mailboxes from my Waffle install of yore.
Portable, my ass.
And after every order, you'd get a notice telling you you might be entitled to a portion of their ongoing bankruptcy settlement.
Apparently, Mr. Hook is unfamiliar with the infamous Internet Exploder.
- From Account Management page, select 'Advanced Domain Search'
- Leave all fields blank
- 'Select All'
- 'Manage Domains'
- 'Order Services for Domains'
- 'TransferLock' is next to last in the Other Services list. Click 'Add All'
- Continue through the purchase dance
It's free, but I don't know why it isn't the default. BTW, anyone else wonder why Dotster has made bulk management a little less intuitive lately? The "Advanced Domain List" view used to be the default. (and don't get me started on their automagically registeringOr, to put it another way, opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and some stink worse than others.
So... what you meant to say was that I don't share your taste. That's a feature, not a bug.
Your assertion that it's our fault for voting the scum in fails to account for the influence of Large Sums Of Cash in the political process. Corporations can't vote, that's true. That's why corporations purchase legislators to cast votes for them. And those votes (the ones cast by members of Congress, not for them) are the only votes that count. We, The People don't get line-item veto power over bad laws, only Hobson's choice among self-interested legislators.
So, while "[c]opyright is available to everyone", not everyone is in a position to consolidate copyright control so as to forever extinguish the public domain in favor of a pay-per-view control over artistic expression designed to further enrich the already rich and powerful. Some believe this will promote the stagnation of the arts into an easily marketable commodity.
Others believe this has already happened.
Free TV isn't about art. It's an advertising conduit, and nothing more.
Of course, the rest of us will just do
Life does go on, doesn't it?
But then, many people call me cynical.