"But despite this looking primarily like a problem with Eve Online..."
I don't think scamming is a problem in EVE-Online, I think it adds another dimension of depth that makes the game all the more entertaining to play. It makes you think things through and also adds a level of risk that you just don't find in other games.
Now I can see a problem with scamming in 2nd Life since the money there is actually tied to real dollars. But I don't like Second Life, it's boring because I can't rob and kill people when ever I want so, I'll stick to EVE-Online. Yarr!!!
Na, I was joking around about actually talking to this president. I was just commenting, with a true story, on how bizarre some of these EM claims can become.;)
I used to do US/Canadian support for a major European cellphone manufacturer. We had these people call in from time to time wanting to know the EM strength because of this very reason. Most were pretty sain, and were just curious, but sometimes we get some real nuts.
One guy, for example, had the idea that all cellphones manufactured after 9/11 2001 monitored your brainwave for subversive thoughts, which it would then transmit that to, and I quote, "... the CIA, NSA, NASA, and The Destroyers". LOL
He wanted us to make a model that had zero em emissions. I tried to explain that the cell phone couldn't work without emitting something but he wouldn't have any of it. On top of that, he then accused me of being a member of one or all of the above said organizations and hung up in a actual panic!!
I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have talked to him because I was laughing my ass off after the call (and trying not during the call) but was let down that the call had not been recorded (as calls were only randomly recorded).
That doesn't sound nerdy to me at all. It just sounds like a bunch of spin words or market speak for, "We're going to setup more radio and television stations and air our version of the story."
Now if it dealt with some interesting new technology that somehow made it easier for the US to setup or maintain, then that might be Slashdot worthy. Personally, I come to Slashdot to read about technology related news rather than politics. Please keep the politics garbage on politics.slashdot.com where it belongs.
I can vouch that people like to talk to IT staff that they can understand. I cannot count the number of times I have heard, "THANK GOD I FINALLY GOT AN AMERICAN!" when I answered the phone. Several of the people who I worked with who where from Asia, India, or where ever, spent a lot of time around Americans just so they could practice, as they put it, "their American accents".
I've never experienced a situation where a white or black or a person of some other ethneticity was hired over the other because of race, at least that I was aware of anyways. Whether that's the trend or if I have been fortunate to work in very open companies is beyond my ability to know.
Also, for the poster who say that many people, especially women, don't take female techs seriously is very accurate in my experience. On several occasions people would hang up on the female techs because they didn't like the diagnosis, only to call back and get a male tech who would end up telling them the exact same thing since the female tech's conclusion were dead on, and then the customer would finally accept it.
So essentially the story is saying that percentage of population that already smokes or drinks turn to those things when the computer acts up. Probably no different than when the car acts up, when finances are coming up short, or anything else that causes them stress.
I remember reading a blog or article about the subject of how intelligent cars are becoming and the effects it has on drivers. What the article was basically talking about how all these safety systems allow bad drivers to actually become worse drivers, and the safety systems actually pick up the slack. So when these systems fail, and they certainly will fail from time to time, then you have drivers on the road that have become incredible risks to everyone around them.
My personal car does not have ABS, traction control, or any of those other things simply based on it's age, but runs very well since I take good care of my vehicle. Also, being that I live in North Dakota, I get to experience all forms of road hazards (depending on which season we are in).
I learned early on to respect the hazards that do exist and to drive accordingly. Granted, these additional safety systems would certainly be great additions to enhance my safety, but at the same time I know I do not have rely on them in order to make it to my destination. I do know people who do rely on these systems as described in the article I was mentioning, and it is down right scary to ride with them.
In the end nothing can truely replace good common sense, and good driving habits. If people make a real effort to be good drivers, then these additional safety system will really do some good. But as it is right now, these safety systems in many situations, are the only thing keeping many drivers and those around them safe.
Yeah, there is nothing new about this, I think this is some kind of a slashvertisement. The technology that OTEC has been developing in this field is interesting. Hopefully it will ultimately pan out.
Here's where I have seen more about this technology before:
The gummy bear story is definately true. I contracted for a major computer manufacture (one of the top 5, I can't give a name because of a NDA) but a customer found that if he heated a gummybear and made a mold of his finger print he could defeat the reader.
It was one of the older readers we distributed and was already discontinued and being phased out. The newer one that replaced it took into account body-temperature and more depth detail about the print, so the gummybear trick wouldn't work. (At least that's what the engineers claimed, don't know if it worked out, my contract ended before those readers became widespread)
I agree, it is silly to think that Americans are going to go along with having to pay more tax based on how much we drive. We're already paying enough on gasoline, who's brainiac who thinks we are going to be willing to pay even more based on the amount we drive? The other question is, if these measurements suddenly show a large segment of the population has been overpaying, will we get a refund or a reduction in tax.:P I know, wishful thinking, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander.;)
As far as the conspiracy theorists who think this is going to violate your privacy need to calm down. Even if this were to be come a common place device on all cars, you will be mearly a blip on some screen or in a computer in a large cloud of other blips. That hardly means that Big Brother is going to be staring into your life or mind 24hrs a day. You are going to have to do something to really standout in order for any law enforcement agency to take notice of your blip.
Think about it guys, how many times while watching a TV show with your girlfriend/wife does she get up in the middle of the show to go do some quick chore?? Guys don't do that because we are focusing on the show, but women do, at least all the women I know do.
But in general, women always have many things going on. Hell, sometimes my agenda for a day off is, "sleep, eat, play WoW", where a woman's will starts off at a minimum of 15 tasks plus what ever else come up during the day.
If I had to keep up with all that I would shoot myself. What can I say, I'm a guy, I like to focus.:)
Seriously, for the past few years theres been these TCO studies and they always flop back and forth (ussually depending who the writer prefers). There's just so many, trying to include so many variables, instances, and situations that the whole TCO thing has become unhelpful.
My experience has been that companies who invested in good people, who can think objectively, for their IS departments have smoother running operations than those companies that let the TCO studies make their decisions for them.
Where I work, we run a majority of Windows boxen that we simply have to buy because there is a lot of proprietary software that we require that only runs on Windows. But for the REALLY important stuff (billing, client records, and vital for survival stuff) we have an AS/400, a couple big HP Unix servers, a Linux based Oracle database, and a little Linux email server.
The Windows problems are typically caused by the wierd quirks you find with proprietary software, but typically leads to us being told by software's support group, "Reboot the machine and lets see what happens". Honestly, most of time the reboot does fix the problem.
The AS/400 and UNIX/Linux servers never need to be arbitrarily rebooted because a program is misbehaving, they just sit there and run. If a program is misbehaving, we can kill the program, find the problem, fix it, and start the program again.
What it comes down to is having good people running your company's IS department. They are the ones who will know what works and what doesn't, and they will buy the hardware appropriate for the task.
All that said, as far as I'm concerned, 99% of all TCO studies fall under the category of FUD, irregardless of which OS they come out in favor of.
Like these people already said about solar panels, they don't pay off because they are expensive, and heavy. But I think there is something else to think of and that is durability.
Naturally, weather is going to happen. That means high winds, wind shears, tornados, hurricanes, hail, lightning, and of coarse flying debris what with all the wind.
What would it take to make a solar panel tough enough to handle all that? Whatever it would take, it would probably make the panels even more prohibitively expensive than they already are.
They are nice idea, but I don't see them becoming a real option barring some major technological breakthrough.
Hey man, didn't mean to piss in your Wheaties. Was simply giving my take on the whole thing, whether you like it or not. I get the impression you are wound up a bit tight about this whole topic. You need to learn that not everyone is going to be very specific, citing studies or authors.
If you don't like my generalized opinion, then please feel free to post your opionion about the story citing studies you feel have a bearing on this story.:)
Feel free to rant some more about this response and how you feel I should read some more research studies, or perhaps you could give me directions to my local library since you are assuming I do not have the intelligence to find it.;)
Also, if you want to insult someone's intelligence, would be more curtious to not do so as an Anonymous Coward.:)
Scientists put out bogus studies to further certain groups agendas, be it tobacco, enviromentalist, big oil,or who ever.
Scientists, just like politicians are in groups pockets. To some how believe that these people are above suspicion is silly.
Do I believe in Global Warming? Yep, sure do. I even think humanity has a small part in it. Do I believe it's as bad as the enviromentalist say? Nope I don't.
All I know is that this study may very well determine where a lot of tax payer's dollars will go. If there is proof of ill-intent on the part of the scientists who did the study, then by all means it deserves investigation. But if this senator is going on a pointless witch-hunt then I hope he loses his next election (this coming from a card carrying Republican).
I think humanity is already making the right steps to moving to cleaning up it's act. Sure, we would all love for it to happen overnight, but it's not. I think in the end the real heros will not be the enviromentalist or politicians, but once again the men and women who, rather than do silly studies, actually invent the new technology that allows us to do things more cleanly.
So, how about we start diverting money away from these pointless studies and divert it to new technology developement that will make us a greener society.
Just my take. I'd rather something be done about a problem than to constantly hear that there is a problem.
I clicked the link to read the article and first thing I see are two ads from Microsoft. Knowing Microsoft I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is just a simple FUD campaign.
I honestly don't care if Firefox's growth is slowing. All I care about is that it continues to exist because I happen to like the browser, and since I switched to it I don't get stupid popup ads, and spyware like I did using IE. To me, that's what's important.
I realize there are always going to be security issues with any app out there and hackers will always find new and creative ways to take advantage of ever changing software. I just have more faith in the Mozilla group then I do in the IE group to work harder to make their product safe.:)
What says you have to tell your kids that you have this service? Prying into the lives of the teenagers is what a good parent is suppose to do, and this makes it a lot easier.
It also motivates the teenager to follow the street laws because 1. If dad finds out you are doing 220mph then you damn well should be off the roads. 2. If the system returns nothing at all, then it is obvious that the kid has disabled it - take away the keys/license. The worst thing that can happen is a dangerous driver is removed from the streets.
Why shouldn't the cops or insurance companies be notified automatically if it registers someone going well beyond the posted speed limit? I generally follows the rules of the road and have kept my record clean and enjoy a low insurance rate because of it. If they want to drive like that, let them pay the fines and pay the higher insurance premiums.
I think it would be great to have the cops notified of somone driving like that and doing something about it before someone get's hurt or killed. But I guess that's just my silly old notion of life being worth somthing.;)
Amen man. I loved the new BSG and was cheering when SciFi decided to continue with it. You are correct that the two shows left a lot of strong possiblities for plot lines.
I can't wait to watch (and record) the new episoids.
When clicking on the "KOREA IS ONE - Homogeneous Nation" on the left-hand menu, you get:
Object not found! The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster. Error 404 www.kcckp.net Sun Jul 18 02:13:40 2004 Apache/2.0.48 (Linux/SuSE)
Unfortunately, as pointed out on a different post, Winamp 1.0 wasn't released twice, and now there is no reasoning why the next version of Winamp would be eight since they aren't going to be combining previous versions with 5.0 since they have already done it.
That's why there is no logic to the joke and that's why I don't find it funny.
Slashdot Mirror
"But despite this looking primarily like a problem with Eve Online ..."
I don't think scamming is a problem in EVE-Online, I think it adds another dimension of depth that makes the game all the more entertaining to play. It makes you think things through and also adds a level of risk that you just don't find in other games.
Now I can see a problem with scamming in 2nd Life since the money there is actually tied to real dollars. But I don't like Second Life, it's boring because I can't rob and kill people when ever I want so, I'll stick to EVE-Online. Yarr!!!
Na, I was joking around about actually talking to this president. I was just commenting, with a true story, on how bizarre some of these EM claims can become. ;)
I used to do US/Canadian support for a major European cellphone manufacturer. We had these people call in from time to time wanting to know the EM strength because of this very reason. Most were pretty sain, and were just curious, but sometimes we get some real nuts.
One guy, for example, had the idea that all cellphones manufactured after 9/11 2001 monitored your brainwave for subversive thoughts, which it would then transmit that to, and I quote, "... the CIA, NSA, NASA, and The Destroyers". LOL
He wanted us to make a model that had zero em emissions. I tried to explain that the cell phone couldn't work without emitting something but he wouldn't have any of it. On top of that, he then accused me of being a member of one or all of the above said organizations and hung up in a actual panic!!
I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have talked to him because I was laughing my ass off after the call (and trying not during the call) but was let down that the call had not been recorded (as calls were only randomly recorded).
That doesn't sound nerdy to me at all. It just sounds like a bunch of spin words or market speak for, "We're going to setup more radio and television stations and air our version of the story."
Now if it dealt with some interesting new technology that somehow made it easier for the US to setup or maintain, then that might be Slashdot worthy. Personally, I come to Slashdot to read about technology related news rather than politics. Please keep the politics garbage on politics.slashdot.com where it belongs.
I can vouch that people like to talk to IT staff that they can understand. I cannot count the number of times I have heard, "THANK GOD I FINALLY GOT AN AMERICAN!" when I answered the phone. Several of the people who I worked with who where from Asia, India, or where ever, spent a lot of time around Americans just so they could practice, as they put it, "their American accents".
I've never experienced a situation where a white or black or a person of some other ethneticity was hired over the other because of race, at least that I was aware of anyways. Whether that's the trend or if I have been fortunate to work in very open companies is beyond my ability to know.
Also, for the poster who say that many people, especially women, don't take female techs seriously is very accurate in my experience. On several occasions people would hang up on the female techs because they didn't like the diagnosis, only to call back and get a male tech who would end up telling them the exact same thing since the female tech's conclusion were dead on, and then the customer would finally accept it.
So essentially the story is saying that percentage of population that already smokes or drinks turn to those things when the computer acts up. Probably no different than when the car acts up, when finances are coming up short, or anything else that causes them stress.
I remember reading a blog or article about the subject of how intelligent cars are becoming and the effects it has on drivers. What the article was basically talking about how all these safety systems allow bad drivers to actually become worse drivers, and the safety systems actually pick up the slack. So when these systems fail, and they certainly will fail from time to time, then you have drivers on the road that have become incredible risks to everyone around them.
My personal car does not have ABS, traction control, or any of those other things simply based on it's age, but runs very well since I take good care of my vehicle. Also, being that I live in North Dakota, I get to experience all forms of road hazards (depending on which season we are in).
I learned early on to respect the hazards that do exist and to drive accordingly. Granted, these additional safety systems would certainly be great additions to enhance my safety, but at the same time I know I do not have rely on them in order to make it to my destination. I do know people who do rely on these systems as described in the article I was mentioning, and it is down right scary to ride with them.
In the end nothing can truely replace good common sense, and good driving habits. If people make a real effort to be good drivers, then these additional safety system will really do some good. But as it is right now, these safety systems in many situations, are the only thing keeping many drivers and those around them safe.
Yeah, there is nothing new about this, I think this is some kind of a slashvertisement. The technology that OTEC has been developing in this field is interesting. Hopefully it will ultimately pan out.
t ml
:)
Here's where I have seen more about this technology before:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.06/craven.h
http://www.nrel.gov/otec/
Enjoy
The gummy bear story is definately true. I contracted for a major computer manufacture (one of the top 5, I can't give a name because of a NDA) but a customer found that if he heated a gummybear and made a mold of his finger print he could defeat the reader.
It was one of the older readers we distributed and was already discontinued and being phased out. The newer one that replaced it took into account body-temperature and more depth detail about the print, so the gummybear trick wouldn't work. (At least that's what the engineers claimed, don't know if it worked out, my contract ended before those readers became widespread)
I agree, it is silly to think that Americans are going to go along with having to pay more tax based on how much we drive. We're already paying enough on gasoline, who's brainiac who thinks we are going to be willing to pay even more based on the amount we drive? The other question is, if these measurements suddenly show a large segment of the population has been overpaying, will we get a refund or a reduction in tax. :P I know, wishful thinking, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander. ;)
As far as the conspiracy theorists who think this is going to violate your privacy need to calm down. Even if this were to be come a common place device on all cars, you will be mearly a blip on some screen or in a computer in a large cloud of other blips. That hardly means that Big Brother is going to be staring into your life or mind 24hrs a day. You are going to have to do something to really standout in order for any law enforcement agency to take notice of your blip.
Women also excel at spreading their attention.
:)
I think this statement is spot on.
Think about it guys, how many times while watching a TV show with your girlfriend/wife does she get up in the middle of the show to go do some quick chore?? Guys don't do that because we are focusing on the show, but women do, at least all the women I know do.
But in general, women always have many things going on. Hell, sometimes my agenda for a day off is, "sleep, eat, play WoW", where a woman's will starts off at a minimum of 15 tasks plus what ever else come up during the day.
If I had to keep up with all that I would shoot myself. What can I say, I'm a guy, I like to focus.
Is that an example of the ladies making better use of their lesser talent? :P
Seriously, for the past few years theres been these TCO studies and they always flop back and forth (ussually depending who the writer prefers). There's just so many, trying to include so many variables, instances, and situations that the whole TCO thing has become unhelpful.
My experience has been that companies who invested in good people, who can think objectively, for their IS departments have smoother running operations than those companies that let the TCO studies make their decisions for them.
Where I work, we run a majority of Windows boxen that we simply have to buy because there is a lot of proprietary software that we require that only runs on Windows. But for the REALLY important stuff (billing, client records, and vital for survival stuff) we have an AS/400, a couple big HP Unix servers, a Linux based Oracle database, and a little Linux email server.
The Windows problems are typically caused by the wierd quirks you find with proprietary software, but typically leads to us being told by software's support group, "Reboot the machine and lets see what happens". Honestly, most of time the reboot does fix the problem.
The AS/400 and UNIX/Linux servers never need to be arbitrarily rebooted because a program is misbehaving, they just sit there and run. If a program is misbehaving, we can kill the program, find the problem, fix it, and start the program again.
What it comes down to is having good people running your company's IS department. They are the ones who will know what works and what doesn't, and they will buy the hardware appropriate for the task.
All that said, as far as I'm concerned, 99% of all TCO studies fall under the category of FUD, irregardless of which OS they come out in favor of.
I could have swore a couple years ago Slashdot had the same, if not something down right identicle, to this story before.
:)
It's a neat idea though.
Like these people already said about solar panels, they don't pay off because they are expensive, and heavy. But I think there is something else to think of and that is durability.
Naturally, weather is going to happen. That means high winds, wind shears, tornados, hurricanes, hail, lightning, and of coarse flying debris what with all the wind.
What would it take to make a solar panel tough enough to handle all that? Whatever it would take, it would probably make the panels even more prohibitively expensive than they already are.
They are nice idea, but I don't see them becoming a real option barring some major technological breakthrough.
Hey man, didn't mean to piss in your Wheaties. Was simply giving my take on the whole thing, whether you like it or not. I get the impression you are wound up a bit tight about this whole topic. You need to learn that not everyone is going to be very specific, citing studies or authors.
:)
;)
:)
If you don't like my generalized opinion, then please feel free to post your opionion about the story citing studies you feel have a bearing on this story.
Feel free to rant some more about this response and how you feel I should read some more research studies, or perhaps you could give me directions to my local library since you are assuming I do not have the intelligence to find it.
Also, if you want to insult someone's intelligence, would be more curtious to not do so as an Anonymous Coward.
Scientists put out bogus studies to further certain groups agendas, be it tobacco, enviromentalist, big oil,or who ever.
Scientists, just like politicians are in groups pockets. To some how believe that these people are above suspicion is silly.
Do I believe in Global Warming? Yep, sure do. I even think humanity has a small part in it. Do I believe it's as bad as the enviromentalist say? Nope I don't.
All I know is that this study may very well determine where a lot of tax payer's dollars will go. If there is proof of ill-intent on the part of the scientists who did the study, then by all means it deserves investigation. But if this senator is going on a pointless witch-hunt then I hope he loses his next election (this coming from a card carrying Republican).
I think humanity is already making the right steps to moving to cleaning up it's act. Sure, we would all love for it to happen overnight, but it's not. I think in the end the real heros will not be the enviromentalist or politicians, but once again the men and women who, rather than do silly studies, actually invent the new technology that allows us to do things more cleanly.
So, how about we start diverting money away from these pointless studies and divert it to new technology developement that will make us a greener society.
Just my take. I'd rather something be done about a problem than to constantly hear that there is a problem.
I forgot I had temporarily disabled Adblock to view something and had forgotten to turn it back on.
:)
*click click*
There, all fixed. Thanx Doubleclick.
I clicked the link to read the article and first thing I see are two ads from Microsoft. Knowing Microsoft I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is just a simple FUD campaign.
:)
Here's the screenshot.
I honestly don't care if Firefox's growth is slowing. All I care about is that it continues to exist because I happen to like the browser, and since I switched to it I don't get stupid popup ads, and spyware like I did using IE. To me, that's what's important.
I realize there are always going to be security issues with any app out there and hackers will always find new and creative ways to take advantage of ever changing software. I just have more faith in the Mozilla group then I do in the IE group to work harder to make their product safe.
In other news, America's Space Administration, yes, NASA, reports that 2005 will be america's warmest year ever . You read it here first. Last Week.
:P
Seem to me, when in a warming cycle, every progressive year would be the warmest year until we go into a cooling cycle.
Someone PLEASE mod this one up!!!
AMEN!!!
What says you have to tell your kids that you have this service? Prying into the lives of the teenagers is what a good parent is suppose to do, and this makes it a lot easier.
;)
It also motivates the teenager to follow the street laws because 1. If dad finds out you are doing 220mph then you damn well should be off the roads. 2. If the system returns nothing at all, then it is obvious that the kid has disabled it - take away the keys/license. The worst thing that can happen is a dangerous driver is removed from the streets.
Why shouldn't the cops or insurance companies be notified automatically if it registers someone going well beyond the posted speed limit? I generally follows the rules of the road and have kept my record clean and enjoy a low insurance rate because of it. If they want to drive like that, let them pay the fines and pay the higher insurance premiums.
I think it would be great to have the cops notified of somone driving like that and doing something about it before someone get's hurt or killed. But I guess that's just my silly old notion of life being worth somthing.
Amen man. I loved the new BSG and was cheering when SciFi decided to continue with it. You are correct that the two shows left a lot of strong possiblities for plot lines.
I can't wait to watch (and record) the new episoids.
When clicking on the "KOREA IS ONE - Homogeneous Nation" on the left-hand menu, you get:
:p
Object not found!
The requested URL was not found on this server. The link on the referring page seems to be wrong or outdated. Please inform the author of that page about the error.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.
Error 404
www.kcckp.net
Sun Jul 18 02:13:40 2004
Apache/2.0.48 (Linux/SuSE)
How ironic
Unfortunately, as pointed out on a different post, Winamp 1.0 wasn't released twice, and now there is no reasoning why the next version of Winamp would be eight since they aren't going to be combining previous versions with 5.0 since they have already done it.
That's why there is no logic to the joke and that's why I don't find it funny.