I think disabling the car would be a little drastic -- what if the sensor failed? Then you couldn't drive at all, until you got it fixed. And what if there was an emergency? I think that it would be much more helpful if there was a warning light on the dash (perhaps the silhouette of a martini glass) and perhaps a sound that informs the driver that the alcohol sensor has been tripped. That would give us consumers a good idea as to how reliable this technology is as well.
I think having a breathalyzer in the car is a good idea, because drunk driving is clearly a problem. But as soon as you start sending that information outside the vehicle where anyone can receive it, I feel it violates privacy issues. What else can be detected by analyzing air in the cabin? I like to eat quiche. Am I next?
It only works when people have alternatives. If every single bookstore in the entire world used face recognition software, it wouldn't matter what the public thinks -- companies would do whatever helps their bottom line. After a few years, it would seem perfectly normal and people would be complaining about something else.
The free market only works when there is truly diversity and a multitude of choices -- and the long term trend realized by corporate America is anything but.
Do you think so? I think it's true that any programmer could write a function to find every legal move from any given position. But the best move? That's an entirely different challenge. Oftentimes the best move won't appear as such until much later. It's true, as computers get faster, programmers can be lazier as to how they weed out the poor moves.
The real challenge must lie in how the computer is to decide which board configuration is superior to another... a non-trivial task.
I have to disagree. I think that Scott Bakula was pretty good in Quantum Leap. It wasn't a bad show, really. Kind of a futuristic version of karma. Of course, if I had to choose who would be captain of the enterprise, I would choose the guy in the funny suits with the TI-85 calculator who would read the statistics off. What was his name? Dean Something? He would never make it though, he's too short.
In any case, I think Captain Janeway was terrible. I mean, how could they really choose the main character from the spinoff "Mrs. Columbo"? Please.
Just my two cents: I'm looking forward to seeing how Scott does as captain. Maybe he's not a great actor, but hey, this is Star Trek. And he looks the part. How can anyone follow Patrick Stewart? I'm not gay, but that is a sexy man with a commanding aura. Any actor pales in comparison.
Clearly the lawyers have far too much power.
The ridicilous and seemingly exponential daily increase of lawsuits in this country seems to imply a notion that disturbs me:
If anyone anywhere is enjoying something, then someone somewhere should be making money off of it (often a lawyer).
And a corollary,
If anyone anywhere is injured, or just mildly annoyed, then someone somewhere must be held responsible and made to pay.
But what can one do? I wish that frivolous lawsuits would just get thrown out... but who decides? Clearly some lawsuits are justifiable, like when a family eats vegetables from a garden under which toxic waste was buried... Then it's okay.
Yes, and curiously enough, all my money wants to watch is the Home Shopping Network and Baywatch.
Re:A museum of defunct .coms ?
on
Net Cemetery
·
· Score: 2
But each grain as unique and beautiful as a fucken snowflake!! Ah, defunct dot-com's we hardly knew ye. Each tragedy the death of an entire potential universe. Nay, many universes, each. The conception of new profit making paradigms with infinite demographics nipped in the bud stings sharply. The bright light of truth burns the eyes and shatters the dreams of those that tried and failed. A dark world of paranoia and economic recession rises from the ashes of the old as we can only think wistfully of the splendor that once was. That Rome was built in a day, or nearly so.
I used to know a guy that owned an autobody and committed insurance fraud numerous times. Basically, he would tell the insurance company that the insured car had a broken whatever, and then just photograph whatever junk he had lying around. Of course he would get reimbursed for his "work." I can't say I blame him either. Freaking brilliant.
Anyway, photographs can be faked pretty easily, and it may even be the case that the fraudulent farmers did send photographs back to their insurance company...
It seems like AOL is letting the larger ISPs advertise because they might just buy them at some point in the future.
AOL probably wants to stifle the smaller ISPs because it would be too much trouble to buy all of them up and take their customers, so they suffocate them instead.
I'm assuming that AOL has as its long-term goal to be the only residential ISP in the entire world.
If a CD cost like 5 USD, i doubt piracy would be an issue anylonger. Napster didnt create the need, the need created napster !
I think that's true, but I wonder how much they could really cut the cost of CDs. Everyone knows that CDs are cheaper to manufacture than cassettes, but there are lots of other things that contribute to the price. Engineers have to get paid for their work of recording the music, and advertising and promotion is very expensive, too. Add to this compensation for the artists, and 17 USD doesn't exactly seem very exorbitant to me.
If a record doesn't sell, then they lose money, even. The more popular music ends up subsidizing the newer less popular music. I don't claim to know very much about the industry, but how much can the record companies really afford to lower the price?
Then again, if sales are slipping, could it be they put out one too many lousy records?!
I think the best way to voice dissent to the RIAA and the corporations that comprise it is through actions --
Don't buy recordings put out by the major labels -- or buy them second hand. This is a lot easier if you're like me, and most of the music you like is obscure, and you collect vinyl.
If you're an artist, don't sign on with a major label. We've all heard the horror stories from people like Courtney Love about how the major labels take advantage of the artists. There are lots of smaller labels that give a fair deal -- often the band ends up having to pay for producing a good recording, but in the end that band also has much more control over their music.
There is a lot of great local music that has yet to be discovered by big business. It would be nice if there was more. We can help by going to the shows and spending our money there.
As far as p2p is concerned, if a band is big enough to care about internet downloads is cutting into profits, then they probably are already making way more money than lots of artists out there. It seems that the lesser known musicians benefit from the exposure that p2p brings to them. That is as it should be, since they deserve it.
My former employer, Global Monitor, deals in ancient hardware. Often they will pick it up for free, and sometimes they will even pay for it, if you have a lot of old working (sometimes even non-working) 14" and 15" monitors, for instance. Some of the easier fixes are done in-house, others are sent overseas where it is cheaper to fix them. Their warehouse is a virtual museum of old computer junk. I've spent many an hour perusing all the stuff up there...
Everytime I turn around, it seems like I read a letter to the editor from RMS making a distinction between open source and free software, or between the Linux kernel and the GNU/Linux operating system. By constantly using his position as a (semi-)celebrity to associate himself with one small, relatively radical subset of open source movement in general, I think he may alienate some folks out there.
Since RMS most likely won't get up there and emphasize that there are alternatives to the GPL that may be attractive, I wonder how widely his ideas will be accepted by the people who have the money.
I see in RMS passionate beliefs, and also unwillingness to compromise. Could it hurt the open source movement in the long run?
I am in complete agreement with you insofar as I think that any employee who has a chronic problem looking at porn ought to reprimanded or even fired.
"If you're at work, shouldn't you be working? Even if you're on a break, do you need to surf p0rn?"
The sexual urge is just as importand to physical and mental well-being as eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. If an employee is distracted by sexual tension, he or she ought to be able to facilitate release by bringing up a little porno on the computer. As far as I'm concerned, it's no different than getting up to get a drink of water if you're thirsty, or going to the restroom if you have to pee. And after the urge is satisfied, the employee's mind is left clear and focused, and hence able to handle the tasks of the job more efficiently.
And, of course, this doesn't have the privacy and free speech elements that Freenet has. Unfortunately, I think those will make it hard for Freenet to
truly prosper. ISP's will be afraid to run Freenet nodes.
Well said. While I have no experience using Freenet, I picture it to be a repository of all sorts of positively disgusting porn with children, animals, shit and maybe a few copies of the Communist Manifesto or ASCII art of Che Gueverra. But OceanStore looks like it could possibly get more mainstream and possibly corporate support, as it focuses more on long-term technological adcantages.
One of the things that I find so interesting about massive distributed storage is that it makes the notion of a global consciousness/memory more concrete. One can look at the internet in the macrocosm as a human brain, and its contents are things that it is thinking about. When individuals have PDAs and unlimited storage anywhere they go, the internet becomes a more accurate representation of what is going on in the minds of people everywhere. I heard (maybe several years ago, and no source) that the majority of traffic on the internet is pr0n -- a sort of global puberty?
The thing that really disturbs me a little is that an EMP bomb might appear harmless enough to actually get used in a civilian area. From the article:
"It's being looked at for peacekeeping operations, perhaps for hostage situations where you want to knock out someone's mobile phones, computers, electronic security devices and so on," said a BAe Systems spokesman Thursday.
Unlike nuclear weapons, which are considered a peacekeeping force because no one wants to ever use them, these things could be deployed in any number of situations. Could you imagine what it would be like if the local police had this capability? I have a (perhaps unhealthy) dislike for aurhority figures. I'm probably paranoid too...
It seems to me that one could posit a corollary of our capitalist system --
If someone somewhere is having fun, making a profit, or otherwise enjoying the benefit of any thing, then someone, somewhere can make a profit off of their good fortune.
(And also, if anyone anywhere suffers from any kind of misfortune, a scapegoat (preferably with deep pockets) can be found and sued.)
And the popup windows that are so prevalent in business models for companies that provide Internet service or content are just an example of this. (And it applies to how the RIAA handles their business as well.)
But the thing is the the whole popup ad thing doesn't work anyway. Stock in both Juno and Netzero is falling sharply, according to the article. And other content providers are going to start using new advertising schemes as well. Can one assume that popup ads will be a mere pinprick compared to the electronic advertising of the near future?
Did he say "The medium is the message" or
did he say "The medium is the MASSAGE" or
both? Most people who see the title of the book will naturally (but incorrectly) see the word 'message' and not 'massage'... that must've been part of his point.
Slashdot Mirror
I think having a breathalyzer in the car is a good idea, because drunk driving is clearly a problem. But as soon as you start sending that information outside the vehicle where anyone can receive it, I feel it violates privacy issues. What else can be detected by analyzing air in the cabin? I like to eat quiche. Am I next?
It only works when people have alternatives. If every single bookstore in the entire world used face recognition software, it wouldn't matter what the public thinks -- companies would do whatever helps their bottom line. After a few years, it would seem perfectly normal and people would be complaining about something else.
The free market only works when there is truly diversity and a multitude of choices -- and the long term trend realized by corporate America is anything but.
The real challenge must lie in how the computer is to decide which board configuration is superior to another ... a non-trivial task.
In any case, I think Captain Janeway was terrible. I mean, how could they really choose the main character from the spinoff "Mrs. Columbo"? Please.
Just my two cents: I'm looking forward to seeing how Scott does as captain. Maybe he's not a great actor, but hey, this is Star Trek. And he looks the part. How can anyone follow Patrick Stewart? I'm not gay, but that is a sexy man with a commanding aura. Any actor pales in comparison.
the phone is ringin, o my god
Clearly the lawyers have far too much power. The ridicilous and seemingly exponential daily increase of lawsuits in this country seems to imply a notion that disturbs me:
And a corollary,
But what can one do? I wish that frivolous lawsuits would just get thrown out ... but who decides? Clearly some lawsuits are justifiable, like when a family eats vegetables from a garden under which toxic waste was buried... Then it's okay.
Yes, and curiously enough, all my money wants to watch is the Home Shopping Network and Baywatch.
But each grain as unique and beautiful as a fucken snowflake!! Ah, defunct dot-com's we hardly knew ye. Each tragedy the death of an entire potential universe. Nay, many universes, each. The conception of new profit making paradigms with infinite demographics nipped in the bud stings sharply. The bright light of truth burns the eyes and shatters the dreams of those that tried and failed. A dark world of paranoia and economic recession rises from the ashes of the old as we can only think wistfully of the splendor that once was. That Rome was built in a day, or nearly so.
the phone is ringin, o my god
Anyway, photographs can be faked pretty easily, and it may even be the case that the fraudulent farmers did send photographs back to their insurance company...
It seems like AOL is letting the larger ISPs advertise because they might just buy them at some point in the future.
AOL probably wants to stifle the smaller ISPs because it would be too much trouble to buy all of them up and take their customers, so they suffocate them instead.
I'm assuming that AOL has as its long-term goal to be the only residential ISP in the entire world.
I think that's true, but I wonder how much they could really cut the cost of CDs. Everyone knows that CDs are cheaper to manufacture than cassettes, but there are lots of other things that contribute to the price. Engineers have to get paid for their work of recording the music, and advertising and promotion is very expensive, too. Add to this compensation for the artists, and 17 USD doesn't exactly seem very exorbitant to me.
If a record doesn't sell, then they lose money, even. The more popular music ends up subsidizing the newer less popular music. I don't claim to know very much about the industry, but how much can the record companies really afford to lower the price?
Then again, if sales are slipping, could it be they put out one too many lousy records?!
I think the best way to voice dissent to the RIAA and the corporations that comprise it is through actions --
There is a lot of great local music that has yet to be discovered by big business. It would be nice if there was more. We can help by going to the shows and spending our money there.
As far as p2p is concerned, if a band is big enough to care about internet downloads is cutting into profits, then they probably are already making way more money than lots of artists out there. It seems that the lesser known musicians benefit from the exposure that p2p brings to them. That is as it should be, since they deserve it.
My former employer, Global Monitor, deals in ancient hardware. Often they will pick it up for free, and sometimes they will even pay for it, if you have a lot of old working (sometimes even non-working) 14" and 15" monitors, for instance. Some of the easier fixes are done in-house, others are sent overseas where it is cheaper to fix them. Their warehouse is a virtual museum of old computer junk. I've spent many an hour perusing all the stuff up there...
Since RMS most likely won't get up there and emphasize that there are alternatives to the GPL that may be attractive, I wonder how widely his ideas will be accepted by the people who have the money.
I see in RMS passionate beliefs, and also unwillingness to compromise. Could it hurt the open source movement in the long run?
"If you're at work, shouldn't you be working? Even if you're on a break, do you need to surf p0rn?"
The sexual urge is just as importand to physical and mental well-being as eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. If an employee is distracted by sexual tension, he or she ought to be able to facilitate release by bringing up a little porno on the computer. As far as I'm concerned, it's no different than getting up to get a drink of water if you're thirsty, or going to the restroom if you have to pee. And after the urge is satisfied, the employee's mind is left clear and focused, and hence able to handle the tasks of the job more efficiently.
Well said. While I have no experience using Freenet, I picture it to be a repository of all sorts of positively disgusting porn with children, animals, shit and maybe a few copies of the Communist Manifesto or ASCII art of Che Gueverra. But OceanStore looks like it could possibly get more mainstream and possibly corporate support, as it focuses more on long-term technological adcantages.
One of the things that I find so interesting about massive distributed storage is that it makes the notion of a global consciousness/memory more concrete. One can look at the internet in the macrocosm as a human brain, and its contents are things that it is thinking about. When individuals have PDAs and unlimited storage anywhere they go, the internet becomes a more accurate representation of what is going on in the minds of people everywhere. I heard (maybe several years ago, and no source) that the majority of traffic on the internet is pr0n -- a sort of global puberty?
What about adding freenet as a protocol to web-browsers, so you could type
to access content? Would this be hard to implement?But the thing is the the whole popup ad thing doesn't work anyway. Stock in both Juno and Netzero is falling sharply, according to the article. And other content providers are going to start using new advertising schemes as well. Can one assume that popup ads will be a mere pinprick compared to the electronic advertising of the near future?
Did he say "The medium is the message" or
did he say "The medium is the MASSAGE" or
both? Most people who see the title of the book will naturally (but incorrectly) see the word 'message' and not 'massage'... that must've been part of his point.