Fingerprint identification is great as long as (1) you trust the organization that uses it with that very, VERY personal data, and (2) you trust that they're not so lame as to lose your fingerprint data.
(1) I wouldn't trust credit card companies with anything more serious than an easily replaceable 4-digit PIN number
(2) Sheesh, even government routinely misplace confidential tax data of their citizens. Need I say more?
In short, I'll keep using good ole anonymous cash to spend at local retailers for my purchases thank you very much.
No need to legislate this. Most people I know go out of their way to avoid buying products that don't charge with a USB connector if they can avoid it - at least computer-related products.
Me, the last device I bought with a special charger was a Casio Exilim camera that has unique enough features that I had no other choice. But I hate that charger each time I have to carry it with me on business trips when I already carry a USB charger that takes care of all my other devices.
9 to 10 per week? Beer guts are usually associated with people who drink 9-10 beers a day or more. I got mine years ago when I generally drank a 12 pack a day.
Wow, I don't know if I could survive that for more than 3 days. The most I ever drank on a regular basis was maybe 3 large strong beers and a quarter bottle of scotch a day, and I couldn't stand that for too long without gaining a ton of weight very quickly.
This. my BMI is 21, I exercise a lot, my belly is flat as a pancake, yet I drink at least 9 or 10 brown Belgian trappist beers per week (and those are loaded with alcohol at over 10 percent). I've been doing it for years too.
I know you're being sarcastic, but it's not just nuclear power plants that generate revenues. Where I live, there's a large wind farm that pays millions a year through council and business taxes: they make my small sleepy town mega-rich and pose zero threat to the environment, save for a few birds that think they can fly through the spinning blades now and then.
Yes, that's the conventional wisdom with open-source. But tell me: when was the last time you went inspect the code deep in the kernel? How many open-source code users do you think have the time, desire and ability - and probably paranoia - to go and inspect the code in *any* open-source project of reasonable size, let alone something as complex as the kernel?
I don't think someone could slip funny code in the main kernel tree - too many specialists reviewing the patches - but I'm convinced that if Canonical, SuSE or RH wanted to distribute a tainted kernel, they could do it undetected for a very long time, if not indefinitely.
Pharma companies make boatloads of money selling lifelong drugs to HIV sufferers. The last thing they want is a cure that'd kill the cash cow. Same reason why people with total kidney failure still can't benefit from artificial kidneys (too much money in dialysis machines, ambulance trips, special vacation packages... And no, kidney transplants don't kill the cash cow - patients are still on drugs for the rest of their lives) and why people diabetes still can't get artificial pancreata (too much money in insulin, needles...)
Yes, but allowing it and taxing the hell out of it would bring some of that money back into the government's pocket - or see it another way, the financial sumbitches that are bleeding most countries' economies white without any remorse today would have to start paying back some.
If a tax is levied on the speed of trading, at some point an equilibrium would be reached at which traders would consider the level of taxation acceptable: they wouldn't stop speed-trading, just doing it at a speed/cost that they're willing to bear. Better to collect money that way than to ban the activity altogether and collect no money at all.
This sort of financial activities is complete economic nonsense, as it brings nothing of value to people, companies or other concerns that actually produce something useful to society as a whole. Just reading the/. blurb should be enough to convince anyone that "robot trading" is a parasitic activity that should be taxed to oblivion - by ways of a tax based on the speed of trading for instance - and financial markets forced to become what they're supposed to be: places for investors to invest in real economic activities for the long haul.
Seriously, there's something I've never understood about electronic "warfare": unless you attack real targets and do something useful, such as penetrating your enemy's command network to steal plans or cryptographic keys or something, what's the point?
suffering from PTSD or knowing your phone is being watched 24/7 by anonymous bozos at the phone company, so that anonymous researchers may know your state of mind in real-time without you knowing. What a sad world...
The Snowden story is the tip of the iceberg. Whatever happens to him, whether he escapes the wrath of the US authorities or he gets caught and "rendered", will serve as a reminder to the world of what the US is turning (or has turned) into. His pizza, and whatever else he does, is very useful to know about in that respect: it keeps him in the limelight, and continues to discredit the administration.
Incidentally, none of the US powers that be is "asleep at the wheel": they're all very actively working against their constituents and against the population to keep themselves and their rich friends rich and in power.
How using Facebook at all can bring harm to you in real life.
Case in point: a colleague's teenage daughter applied for a summer job at the local supermarket, got selected and went to a job interview. The interviewer asked her to "describe herself". She did, and the interviewer then said "that's not what your Facebook says. Thank you, we'll call you." She's only 16 and she wasn't doing anything particularly public or outrageous on Facebook. It hit her hard and my colleague says she's been kind of depressed by the rejection she's faced.
As for me, I've learned the hard way 13 years ago (before Facebook but after Google) that the internet never forgets, and whatever you say will come back to haunt you eventually. As a result, I've learned to shut my trap online whenever possible.
Slashdot Mirror
Fingerprint identification is great as long as (1) you trust the organization that uses it with that very, VERY personal data, and (2) you trust that they're not so lame as to lose your fingerprint data.
(1) I wouldn't trust credit card companies with anything more serious than an easily replaceable 4-digit PIN number
(2) Sheesh, even government routinely misplace confidential tax data of their citizens. Need I say more?
In short, I'll keep using good ole anonymous cash to spend at local retailers for my purchases thank you very much.
CIA employees won't be furloughed. It's only agencies and services that people need or want that get shut down.
No need to legislate this. Most people I know go out of their way to avoid buying products that don't charge with a USB connector if they can avoid it - at least computer-related products.
Me, the last device I bought with a special charger was a Casio Exilim camera that has unique enough features that I had no other choice. But I hate that charger each time I have to carry it with me on business trips when I already carry a USB charger that takes care of all my other devices.
communicate in real-time faster than anybody else: it's called high-frequency trading.
So they're going to prosecute themselves?
Well, they can always cheat to go faster...
Just you hope Oracle maintains the batteries properly, especially since an emergency save-to-disk is going to take more than a few minutes...
9 to 10 per week? Beer guts are usually associated with people who drink 9-10 beers a day or more. I got mine years ago when I generally drank a 12 pack a day.
Wow, I don't know if I could survive that for more than 3 days. The most I ever drank on a regular basis was maybe 3 large strong beers and a quarter bottle of scotch a day, and I couldn't stand that for too long without gaining a ton of weight very quickly.
What gives you the idea that I'm not already older? :)
Hint: I was in my late 20s when I registered on /. You have my UID number, work it out.
This. my BMI is 21, I exercise a lot, my belly is flat as a pancake, yet I drink at least 9 or 10 brown Belgian trappist beers per week (and those are loaded with alcohol at over 10 percent). I've been doing it for years too.
I know you're being sarcastic, but it's not just nuclear power plants that generate revenues. Where I live, there's a large wind farm that pays millions a year through council and business taxes: they make my small sleepy town mega-rich and pose zero threat to the environment, save for a few birds that think they can fly through the spinning blades now and then.
Yes, that's the conventional wisdom with open-source. But tell me: when was the last time you went inspect the code deep in the kernel? How many open-source code users do you think have the time, desire and ability - and probably paranoia - to go and inspect the code in *any* open-source project of reasonable size, let alone something as complex as the kernel?
I don't think someone could slip funny code in the main kernel tree - too many specialists reviewing the patches - but I'm convinced that if Canonical, SuSE or RH wanted to distribute a tainted kernel, they could do it undetected for a very long time, if not indefinitely.
I may for things as much as I can in CASH. Cash is anonymous and won't snitch on you.
Pharma companies make boatloads of money selling lifelong drugs to HIV sufferers. The last thing they want is a cure that'd kill the cash cow. Same reason why people with total kidney failure still can't benefit from artificial kidneys (too much money in dialysis machines, ambulance trips, special vacation packages... And no, kidney transplants don't kill the cash cow - patients are still on drugs for the rest of their lives) and why people diabetes still can't get artificial pancreata (too much money in insulin, needles...)
So there is really such a big difference between one big balloon and lots of small balloons containing the same volume of helium?
The former takes just one BB gun pellet to bring down.
So this guys is wasting one of humankind's most precious resource on a useless stunt to promote his company. That's real slick, that.
Note to self: never do business with Accenture.
Yes, but allowing it and taxing the hell out of it would bring some of that money back into the government's pocket - or see it another way, the financial sumbitches that are bleeding most countries' economies white without any remorse today would have to start paying back some.
If a tax is levied on the speed of trading, at some point an equilibrium would be reached at which traders would consider the level of taxation acceptable: they wouldn't stop speed-trading, just doing it at a speed/cost that they're willing to bear. Better to collect money that way than to ban the activity altogether and collect no money at all.
This sort of financial activities is complete economic nonsense, as it brings nothing of value to people, companies or other concerns that actually produce something useful to society as a whole. Just reading the /. blurb should be enough to convince anyone that "robot trading" is a parasitic activity that should be taxed to oblivion - by ways of a tax based on the speed of trading for instance - and financial markets forced to become what they're supposed to be: places for investors to invest in real economic activities for the long haul.
Every single new Stephen King book for the past 10 years has been worse than the previous ones. I'd say continuity is not maintained here.
and nothing of value was lost...
Seriously, there's something I've never understood about electronic "warfare": unless you attack real targets and do something useful, such as penetrating your enemy's command network to steal plans or cryptographic keys or something, what's the point?
suffering from PTSD or knowing your phone is being watched 24/7 by anonymous bozos at the phone company, so that anonymous researchers may know your state of mind in real-time without you knowing. What a sad world...
Sorry, cars are digital these days.
While I had little love for either the USSR or the Cold War USA, a world with only one military superpower is turning out to be worse
The prez has a Nobel peace prize, like Mother Teresa. What can you possibly be afraid of?
The Snowden story is the tip of the iceberg. Whatever happens to him, whether he escapes the wrath of the US authorities or he gets caught and "rendered", will serve as a reminder to the world of what the US is turning (or has turned) into. His pizza, and whatever else he does, is very useful to know about in that respect: it keeps him in the limelight, and continues to discredit the administration.
Incidentally, none of the US powers that be is "asleep at the wheel": they're all very actively working against their constituents and against the population to keep themselves and their rich friends rich and in power.
How using Facebook at all can bring harm to you in real life.
Case in point: a colleague's teenage daughter applied for a summer job at the local supermarket, got selected and went to a job interview. The interviewer asked her to "describe herself". She did, and the interviewer then said "that's not what your Facebook says. Thank you, we'll call you." She's only 16 and she wasn't doing anything particularly public or outrageous on Facebook. It hit her hard and my colleague says she's been kind of depressed by the rejection she's faced.
As for me, I've learned the hard way 13 years ago (before Facebook but after Google) that the internet never forgets, and whatever you say will come back to haunt you eventually. As a result, I've learned to shut my trap online whenever possible.