Could we not have had, before yet again pouring gasoline onto the blazing inferno which is slashdot's collective readership, some input from someone who "IAL"?
"IAL"s aren't slashdotters. Our circular thinking and assumptions based on little data are even too much for them.;)
Chip makers do not have to go through the same FDA disclosure process that pharmaceuticals go through. By the time FDA approval is granted, the contents of the drug are public knowledge as is the process of synthesizing the drug. However, if Intel had to get FDA approval, we'd be typing all of this on Pentium Pro 233s.
It's the same doublespeak that brought us Operation Enduring Freedom.
I'm being a bit trollish and offtopic, but I can't resist sharing a friend's view of Operation Enduring Freedom: Bush is only enduring freedom until it can be legislated away.
"but at least the law requires the spam to be labeled"
But not with any specific label and the law forbids the FTC from setting a standard label. Thus, one message might be marked "ADV", and the next one marked "SOL" (solicitation), and the next marked "FOO", and the next marked "Sparky the Sample Bot", and on and on... This will make it pretty much useless to filter as it would raise the false positive rate by adding too many triggering words and phrases (ie: AOL labeling with "Hi ____, here's your updated message.") annoying most users and making the filtering software the villian in their eyes. A nice backhand if I ever saw one. Even the people who will obey the law will be left lots of wiggle room to gunk up and real filtering.
I had to try it. I went to Intertran and grabbed the closest language they had: Turkish. "Are you sure you want to delete this file?" becomes
"Are sen emin sen istemek -e dodru silmek bu ede?" in Turkish and becomes
"Are you safe you wish for had straight wipe this file?" translated back to English by a computer with a dictionary. Imagine what a fallable and awkward human can do with a phrase they don't understand ("All your base"?). Oh, and use TP when you wipe that file and wipe it straight - not crooked...
"If these machines used XP and a non-standard internet protocol (read: not TCP/IP, UDP, IPX, whatever) that the worm didn't have access to, this may not have even affected them. Am I right? Or is windows too standardized as to allow anything to use any system-level network protocol?"
I think you're right. This is a fine example of a need for a proprietary system for security. I'm not saying that obfuscating it makes it more secure, but adding to the learning curve of such a system might discourage some crackers and definitely foul automated attacks and worms. I guess the ATM analogy from the other day's "Can America Trust Electronic Voting?" is more apt than ever.
I have a whole new respect for Justice Stevens. Not only does he ask good questions and phrase things thoughtfully, he looks like anyone's favorite Uncle or something. This was an interesting look at how the justices approach critical thinking, which to me is the basis of morality.
None would turn back, because of the free handouts they get from the wasteful American welfare system which subsidizes laziness. They can't wait to get here and laze on the public hammock.
According to this and other sources I have seen, immigrants only count for 12% of the American Wasteful System system, leaving the other 88% to lazy Americans. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 cut a lot of benefits to immigrants. If anyone has a talent of profitable laziness, it's a Natural Born US Citizen. After all, a naturally born citizen going back to work more often than not earns less than if they were to stay on welfare. Be careful where you point that stick. You could poke your own eye out.
I did read the article and my point is that there are definite possibilities of these companies measuring votes in dollars (or at least trying to). I'm not saying that votes should be quantified as money, just that the analogy has some use to both sides of the argument and should not be discarded outright, but rather attacked openly. Think of the voting companies conditional like this:
if ( (EquipmentProfit - PriceOfFixingFraudOrProblem) > PriceOfPublicScrutiny ) then ignore FraudOrProblem
This code is originally adapted from the source of an Auto Executive, but there is also a Banking Executive fork...;)
Unless you have an appointment (very hard to get), you won't ever be able to see your elected official. I know this from experience as I've tried since I only work two blocks from the Capitol in Sacramento, and thus my state legislators. First I tried to make appointments, then I just started showing up since it was obvious that I would never get an appointment. I got my "talking to" about a year ago. It wasn't too harsh, but I was definitely given the idea that I should give up and just use filtered channels (ie: letters/e-mail/dedicated message phones). From the lobbyists I have spoken to, many officials are paranoid of a wacko trying to make an appointment to kill them or something - even though getting a weapon into the Capitol building today would be near impossible. The guy who drove a semi into the Capitol building a couple of years ago genuinely freaked out the legislators there (An event that I got to see the bizarre aftermath of).
"If you live in California, please bug the appropriate government officials about this."
The problem is getting to the elected officials. The capitol in Sacramento has been locked up tight now that we have a celebrity in office. Bug an official too much and your liable to get a "talking to" by the authorities and still never get to the official. Most of the e-mails and letters are tallied as simply "for" or "against" by some clerk and any insight or message from the writer is lost in the process. The binary for/against, democrat/republican, good/evil and patriot/traitor attitude in our governmental process all the way up to the federal level is genuinely frustrating and I don't know of any way to remove it without the populace becoming more educated and outraged - which is fleeting and hard to accomplish.
Thanks!. I've been giving moving to a foreign land more and more thought lately, so the joking is getting minimal and the reply is genuinely appreciated. Having a friend goading me for Canada and family in Europe is helping too. It's kind of odd. I never thought I'd be investigating foreign politics with the intent of leaving the US. After all, that's usually what people *coming* to the US are supposed to do to leave a politically bad nation of origin. Maybe I'll see you in Canada or maybe somewhere in Europe;)
"Obviously, my own experience isn't necessarily reflective of the whole of the US voting pool, but I have trouble believing that the majority of people actually do research every candidate before a vote..."
I can concur. Most Americans' only source of voting information is the mass media, which quickly becomes a "who's more scandalous/popular" competition led by new anchors just happy to be involved with "powerful people". Thus, the process feeds itself and no one addresses any issue in depth. "Senator _________ is anti-________ and pro-________, but look at his wonderful family, dog and high profile charity donations... Wouldn't you like to be rich/popular/powerful like him?" kind of bullshit that never addresses how Senator _________ plans to support those political positions or legislate them.
You know, I passed the Crest Theater here in Sacramento the other day when they had the citizenship swearing-in scheduled. There was a line a block long of immigrants excited to become US citizens and in a way I felt bad for these people. How many do you think would turn back if they saw how much people born here took it for granted and, in doing so help create the corruption they always complain about?
"Dollars and cents are 'commensurable.' A bank doesn't care if it loses $200 to a hacker who makes unauthorized withdrawals, so long as it gains back something more than $200 in cost savings from using the ATM that the hacker attacked. There is no difference except in amount between the dollars lost and the dollars gained. Their value is commensurable.
But there is no such commensurability between the false vote tallies that electronic voting systems might yield when things go badly, and the benefits of speed and efficiency that they might offer when things go well.
So the ATM analogy fails."
I don't think that this analogy fails. From my experience, banks tend to think of the money they hold as "their money". Their business is to use the money that they hold to generate income (fees/investments/interest charges on loans). To me this is the major danger of the voting companies. Do they consider the votes they process as "theirs"? Just look at what O'Dell wrote. To me the issue is control and the ATM analogy fits that well. Ever try to prove a fraudulent transaction to a bank? Were they evasive and controlling of the situation? Did they deny culpability? Did they deny a weakness in their process?
I think that the voting companies will eventually lobby to regulate out any scrutiny of their process. Will every attempt to investigate the security of such systems by an average citizen be dealt with as a "hacking" crime eventually? With today's fear of the "terrorists" exploiting things, the time for this type of legislation is ripe.
"I would expect that this new law will close many of the loopholes that other laws leave. That will make it much more difficult for someone accused of a criminal offense by spamming to win the court battle that follows."
Unless, of course, the spammer is outside jurisdiction... Like say, in Asia. One country cannot police a global resource without global cooperation without getting the military involved in an international incident.
Re:Promiscuous Plugging Outlawed!
on
iPod-Jacked
·
· Score: 3, Informative
"Next, the RIAA will follow around boomboxers and low-riders charging all the innocent passers-by for the music they are listening to."
Actually, it's called "public performance" and the RIAA tried to crack down on the Low-rider crowd about it in the early 90's and failed (they were often lauged at - even by law enforcement). I even got to see an RIAA rep (he may have just been a label rep, but none of my music biz buddies knew him) trying to pull this stuff here in Sacramento back then. The rep just hung out at sobriety checkpoints and spouted his crap about "breaking the law" and then the cops would get mad at him for being in the way and nothing would happen. Methinks the RIAA has more teeth now.
"I load my iPod with the entire collected works of Britney Spears. Then I walk up to strangers and motion to them to plug in. After they collapse, writhing in agony on the sidewalk, I steal their wallets.
"
I actually can't wait to see what Darl spouts about this interview. I wonder if he's going to spin it as "Love is on our side" or "Love f***ed us and you shouldn't listen to him". Darl has been so reactionary that I don't think he can resist issuing some sort of statement about this interview or bring it up in one of his own "interviews". How long do you think it will take until Love gets his subpeona?
Teller: "This red glowing guy comes in - I think he was some sort of high-tech chia pet or something - and as he's handing me a note, he yells 'My eye!' and doubles over in obvious pain. That's when I kicked him. Then he fell down and we all started kicking him. Funny thing is, the lights just kep on shining. It was like beating up a disco ball."
Nowadays, the only interviews you get are from personal references unless you're like this gent who's had a position open for over 6 months - I bet he hasn't asked his friends though... The only interviews I've gotten all year came from finding the bar where the companies employees hang out.
Slashdot Mirror
Chip makers do not have to go through the same FDA disclosure process that pharmaceuticals go through. By the time FDA approval is granted, the contents of the drug are public knowledge as is the process of synthesizing the drug. However, if Intel had to get FDA approval, we'd be typing all of this on Pentium Pro 233s.
I had to try it. I went to Intertran and grabbed the closest language they had: Turkish.
"Are you sure you want to delete this file?"
becomes
"Are sen emin sen istemek -e dodru silmek bu ede?"
in Turkish and becomes
"Are you safe you wish for had straight wipe this file?"
translated back to English by a computer with a dictionary. Imagine what a fallable and awkward human can do with a phrase they don't understand ("All your base"?). Oh, and use TP when you wipe that file and wipe it straight - not crooked...
I have a whole new respect for Justice Stevens. Not only does he ask good questions and phrase things thoughtfully, he looks like anyone's favorite Uncle or something. This was an interesting look at how the justices approach critical thinking, which to me is the basis of morality.
Oops! Shoulda hit "preview". This is the info and this is the image. Sorry.
By God you're right! Info on the Kirk Mask can be found here and the original ad for the mask is here.
Rename it "Master and Servant".
Unless you have an appointment (very hard to get), you won't ever be able to see your elected official. I know this from experience as I've tried since I only work two blocks from the Capitol in Sacramento, and thus my state legislators. First I tried to make appointments, then I just started showing up since it was obvious that I would never get an appointment. I got my "talking to" about a year ago. It wasn't too harsh, but I was definitely given the idea that I should give up and just use filtered channels (ie: letters/e-mail/dedicated message phones). From the lobbyists I have spoken to, many officials are paranoid of a wacko trying to make an appointment to kill them or something - even though getting a weapon into the Capitol building today would be near impossible. The guy who drove a semi into the Capitol building a couple of years ago genuinely freaked out the legislators there (An event that I got to see the bizarre aftermath of).
Thanks!. I've been giving moving to a foreign land more and more thought lately, so the joking is getting minimal and the reply is genuinely appreciated. Having a friend goading me for Canada and family in Europe is helping too. It's kind of odd. I never thought I'd be investigating foreign politics with the intent of leaving the US. After all, that's usually what people *coming* to the US are supposed to do to leave a politically bad nation of origin. Maybe I'll see you in Canada or maybe somewhere in Europe ;)
You know, I passed the Crest Theater here in Sacramento the other day when they had the citizenship swearing-in scheduled. There was a line a block long of immigrants excited to become US citizens and in a way I felt bad for these people. How many do you think would turn back if they saw how much people born here took it for granted and, in doing so help create the corruption they always complain about?
I think that the voting companies will eventually lobby to regulate out any scrutiny of their process. Will every attempt to investigate the security of such systems by an average citizen be dealt with as a "hacking" crime eventually? With today's fear of the "terrorists" exploiting things, the time for this type of legislation is ripe.
How's the weather in Ontario? Is rent cheap?
(Blatant Maleness Alert)I hope it was a nice tight company shirt ;) You ever notice that they always seem to give the girls one size too small?
Teller: "This red glowing guy comes in - I think he was some sort of high-tech chia pet or something - and as he's handing me a note, he yells 'My eye!' and doubles over in obvious pain. That's when I kicked him. Then he fell down and we all started kicking him. Funny thing is, the lights just kep on shining. It was like beating up a disco ball."
Nowadays, the only interviews you get are from personal references unless you're like this gent who's had a position open for over 6 months - I bet he hasn't asked his friends though... The only interviews I've gotten all year came from finding the bar where the companies employees hang out.