Now Al Quida could put nano gizmos in coins knowing nobody would registar a suspicion report because they fear getting laughed at like the last guy who did it.
*boggle*
Please tell me this is supposed to be satire. It sounds like something Colbert would say. But... gak. *please* tell me this is satire. Even if it isn't, just tell me it is. The state of the art for current nanotech is tiny motors powered by alcohol or sugar. These tiny motors are nowhere near industrial production levels. At an industrial level needed for, say, coinage, the state of the art is things like buckyballs, nanotubes, and those quick-dry pants and shirts.
You have any idea the kind of resources that'd be needed to put micro surveillance gear into a circulation coin? Even *if* the technology existed, you'd have to produce millions of them to have any chance at actually finding one in the pocket of somebody interesting, and that's to say nothing of the network of radio receivers you'd need... a transmitter and power supply small enough to fit inside a coin? The range would probably be so small you might as well plant a traditional bug....
The thing people don't realize about extradition is that you can only be extradited for something that's a crime in your current location. In this case, cracking software is illegal in both Australia and the US. The charges were placed in the US, and a motion to extradite was filed. If it were something that isn't illegal in Australia, then he couldn't be extradited for it.
At that point, the Australians had basically two choices... they could either file charges in their own court system and deny the extradition on the grounds that he was already being dealt with in the Australian court system, or they could turn him over to face the charges in the US. That's the nature of the treaty... the only other grounds to deny an extradition request are human rights, and I think it'd be pretty hard to prove that he'd face any worse treatment in the US court system than he'd get in Australia.
This isn't an example of American hubris. This is an example of the Australians not wanting to prosecute for something that doesn't affect Australian interests (as in, because the injured parties aren't Australian companies, they've got nothing to gain by using Australian resources and tax money by trying him).
Points for doing your research. I play SL. And I use Linux exclusively. There's a Linux-native client for SL... and believe it or not, the Linux-native client actually works better than the Windows client as of right now. Fewer known bugs, and some of the known bugs that affect Windows do not exist in the Linux client.
*shrugs* gotta love it when zealots spout off about shit they don't know about, and don't even bother to lift a finger to confirm their facts first. You're a perfect example of why most people don't take the Linux community seriously. Kindly do a little research before you open your trap next time. And failing that, remember the axiom... 'tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Realistically, it's not possible in SL. It is possible to sit in a chair or other device that removes control of your character, and animates them into doing something you wouldn't otherwise do. But you've always got either a "release keys" button or a "stand" button at the bottom of the screen, and you can always remove any clothing that could be forcing you to do things. This is to say nothing of hotkeys like CTRL-ALT-H which will automatically teleport your character home, or just closing the game client. So realistically, there isn't any way of raping somebody within SL.
However... one thing you'll notice if you hang out in SL a lot is that there's a *lot* of D/s going on. Master/slave relationships. Now... I'm not going to get into a debate over the morality of D/s, but I can tell you that the slave pressing those buttons or escaping a situation like that is akin to saying "no" to their master. It's a big no-no within the D/s community, and could destroy your relationship, not to mention any chance you have of finding another relationship within the circle you frequent. I know of a few people who have found themselves in this situation, though... a friend or lover of the dominant has tried to take advantage of the submissive. Depending on the situation, or the rules in place for the submissive, they may not have the right to leave that situation without ending their current relationship, making this is form of psychological rape.
You're right, in that this is a game. There's always an exit, and that is to unplug. But sometimes, depending on the type of relationship you're in, it may be difficult to do. Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of any way to rape somebody in Second Life outside of the situation I just outlined.
Agreed.... the only times I ever use KDE are when I'm trying to get somebody who's new to Linux to come to the dark side.:) It's way too windows-like, and while it does have some nice functionality over and above Explorer, whatever happened to keeping things lightweight and zippy? Give me XFCE 4 any day... it's not as light as, say, blackbox, but it's also nowhere near as fugly. I think it strikes a good balance between eye candy and functionality, and is something that MS has never been able to do.
The problem is that the bad guys have access to the Internet, too. I've seen missions get scrapped less than half an hour before go time because somebody leaked information that could have compromised it. The problem with blogging is that all it takes is one person to post information about the route for the bad guys to be able to figure out where you are gonna be. As the line goes, "loose lips sink ships"... if the bad guys know where you're gonna be, they can plan an ambush really easily, and people get killed.
A large part of opsec in Afghanistan is changing routes, not following set patterns, etc. It's making it a *lot* harder for Taliban forces to plant IEDs with any guarantee of actually hitting us with them.
As to posting information after the fact... again. Patterns. We try to avoid patterns in Afghanistan, but any information that gets leaked about our movements can help the enemy figure out what we're doing, which in turn can help them figure out where we're gonna be. Your friend can deal with combat stress reaction the same way other members of the army do... by talking amongst each other. Watch out for your buddies. Your best defense against stress reactions is your buddies. Them knowing the symptoms and watching out for you can catch it *long* before the symptoms affect your performance. There's no way to know who's going to be able to deal with combat stress until you actually expose people to it, and that's why it's included in standard military first aid training.
Obligatory disclaimer: I'm in the Canadian army reserve. Our rules are a little different from the American rules... to begin with, we've had rules restricting what members are allowed to post on the Internet for as long as I've been in....
The thing of that is that you can still *read* the documents. I had to install the PowerPoint Viewer 2007 on my laptop yesterday, because I received a PPT 2007 document from work that I needed for today. I can't create or edit documents with the viewer, but the MS Website has freely downloadable viewers for all of their proprietary Office 2007 versions of documents, and all of the viewers are backwards compatible with older versions of the software.
It's a pain in the ass (PPT Viewer was a 25.7MB download), but it's a bit misleading to say that people don't have a way to view documents created with Office 2k7 without buying the software.
BUT IT JUST SUCKS!!!! I freakin HATE MS for this kind of stuff. Did you know that you CAN NOT downgrade Vista Home(any version) to XP - BUT the business versions are ALL downgradeable.
In order to downgrade Vista Home to XP, it'd have to actually be a downgrade.... but nope. Vista to XP is an upgrade. Hence them wanting more money.:)
Computer networks are ubiquitous enough that most people with any attachment to business know what a network is. Just describe the Internet as a network of networks. That's what it is, after all.
They don't have to understand how it actually works. But they understand the concept of networking through social networking. It's a concept that's innate to human nature. Computer networking really isn't any different, and isn't a hard topic for people to grasp in general terms.
Re:I still use my PS/1, NetBSD works just fine
on
The Top 21 Tech Flops
·
· Score: 1
You aren't running that in X are you? Or if you are, you're using something like TWM or FluxBox.... There's absolutely no way that a '286 with 6MB of RAM could run, say, KDE, with anything approaching zippiness....
Lucas says in the intro to the Special Edition version of the film that the double sunset wasn't a special effect, it was an optical illusion caused by the atmospheric conditions in the desert where they filmed it.
I'm pretty sure that the US Bill of Rights has guarantees against unlawful search/seizure (that is, without a warrant and probable cause), and that all of the RIAA's "evidence" would be inadmissable in court. I'm also pretty sure that there's stuff in there about arbitrary detention, and a few others that would severely limit this kind of crap... if it was the government doing it.
This being a civil suit, we both know that laws which restrict the government's power are largely irrelevant. Where it comes in, though, is the knowledge that if the government was using these tactics and information gathering methods, the case wouldn't hold water. There've been too many things that the RIAA has done that would be illegal for the government to do.
About all we *can* do is countersue the RIAA if they bring suit against us, and organize a boycott. Good luck with the latter, though...
hehe.... I made a trip yesterday. 159km... call it 100 miles, though it's just shy of it. used about 10L of gas (1/4 tank in a 40L tank), call it 2.5 gallons, because the math is easy. 40mpg. what makes this noteworthy? the trip took 54 minutes. You can figure out from that what speed I averaged.... That was with two adults and a 9-year old in the back seat, btw.
Efficient cars exist, and it's entirely possible to drive fast and still get good mileage. You get good mileage by maintaining a constant speed, and not worrying too much about accelerating hard. Now granted, I wasn't getting the maximum efficiency that my car is capable of, but if I can cruise along in 5th at 100mph and keep the tach at 4000rpm, I'm going to get better mileage than I would if I'm varying my speed from 60-80mph, passing people every which way, slowing down, stopping and going, etc. If you accelerate gently, you get better mileage.
Of course... not driving an SUV is also a major factor... I drive a 2007 Chevrolet Aveo. It's supposed to get close to 50mpg on the highway, but I'm betting that's for 55mph, not 100.
You know... when I read your subject, I was expecting the post to be something about Dubya looking at a map of Asia for the first time. Of course, in my version, it still led to a first strike against possible terrorists. ^.~
data from operational zones is usually set via secured sattelite communications. it's entirely possible to set up a link that's green and has enough bandwidth to carry several international VoIP calls. given that some cell phones can be used as data modems, it's also possible to hook up a cell phone as the transmitter for the transmission of encrypted data from a laptop computer.
but cell phones are great, operationally speaking, because they allow a way to reach an individual person quite easily without going through the hassle of arranging a call. it's unlikely that cell phones will ever be used (in voice mode) for really sensitive material, but we do have ways of passing information in the red while masking the content. code words, to begin with. a few other methods I can't really talk about. fact is, though, that for unsecured communications in the domestic theatre, cell phones are now the primary means of communication, and it's only logical that we start rolling out ways to use them overseas. they're never going to replace things like inmarsat, frequency hopping, and encryption, because they're too easy to hack (not that those other methods are 100% secure either). but they are going to make the job a lot easier for signal operators, in reducing the amount of chatter on nets, keeping them open for more important traffic.
obligatory disclaimer: I'm a signal operator in the Canadian Army. Yes, we do have guns....
AFAIK, they do. It's more a question of people who work multiple jobs (and therefore aren't removing enough tax at the source) and people who are due refunds.
If the tax system is working properly, nobody needs to file their taxes, because the government has the right balance taken off at the source. But that assumes that nobody takes unpaid leave from their work, and that you always work the same number of hours per week. Most people get refunds here in Canada.
Pretty much every gas station I've been at has the ability to program the pump to only dispense X dollars worth of gas. It's not quite the same as pay at the pump, but there's nothing to stop you from going in, handing over a $20 bill and telling them you're at pump 4, and going back and pumping your gas. Doesn't take very long at all to go in and prepay at the counter, and some of them insist you do that anyway, late at night.
Most gas stations also don't care much about security after you've paid for the gas. They're worried about people committing crimes, and as far as they're concerned, you haven't stolen from them if you don't point a gun at the guy behind the counter, and if you don't pump 'n dash.
You're an idiot. Different skillset doesn't mean that somebody is necessarily stupid. Being able to sell the product that you're making is a very important skill... it's what actually puts food in your stomach. Somebody in sales may not be able to write code, but then, how good are you at dealing with the customers? Most of the engineers I know have really shitty social skills, and their sale rate would be a lot less than somebody who specializes in the task.... You might have the satisfaction of saying that you never had to deal with a salesman who didn't grok what you're actually capable of with the code, but at what cost?
If you have a communication problem with sales and it's causing unrealistic expectations and project goals, then the problem is in part your fault: you're not communicating with them effectively enough to pass the message that something's not possible. Personally, I've never had any problems dealing with sales: most of them get pissy when you say "no. that's impossible." but understand when you say "no, that would be extremely difficult, here's why. it's possible, but not within our current timetable."
I'd been planning on moderating this thread, but I felt that just using mod points here wouldn't be enough....
E=mc^2 does *NOT* refer to velocity. Or speed. It refers to the amount of energy contained within a particle. If you were to totally annihilate a particle of a given mass M, the equation tells you how much energy you'd get out of it. This equation does *NOT* apply to general or special relativity, or the amount of energy required to accelerate something to a given velocity. C is a constant. It's a really big constant, but it's still a constant. C^2 is still a constant, too. It's a really really big constant, but it's still a constant. If that equation really had anything to do with getting something up to the speed of light, then we'd know exactly how much energy would be required to get any object up to the speed of light. You might even find that the world's current energy output is enough to accelerate a small object like a bullet to the speed of light. That's a far cry from the supposed "infinite" energy needed to accelerate something with any mass at all to the speed of light.
Secondly, antimatter has positive mass. Its electro-magnetic properties are the opposite of normal matter, but that's as far as it goes. A positron has the same mass as an electron, and an antiproton has the same mass as a proton. Simply throwing in equal parts matter-antimatter does *not* reduce the mass to zero. It doubles the mass.
The reason antimatter was used as a fuel in Star Trek is the incredible amount of energy that can be released by matter-antimatter annihilation. We don't currently have an energy-positive form of fusion available to us. Even if we did, there'd still be nuclear waste left over. Fission is the most energy-efficient method of power production we have, and it still leaves behind large amounts of nuclear waste that has to be properly disposed of. All of that mass left over equals energy that was not released by the reaction. In a matter-antimatter annihilation, there is zero mass left over. All of the available energy in the equation is released as energy. It's an entirely different class of energy production to what we're currently using, and the writers of ST were working on the assumption that if you were ever going to get to that kind of speed, you'd need an awful lot of energy. In the 1960's, and today, matter-antimatter annihilation is the most efficient source of energy known. It only made sense that they'd use it.
We can't prove that there isn't a teapot orbiting around the sun. That doesn't mean that there is.
Err... we can prove that there *is* one, though. I've got a teapot sitting on my desk right now, and this whole planet is orbiting around the sun every 365 1/4 days or so....
But yes. Your point does stick... a lack of evidence to disprove something's existence isn't proof of its existence. Welcome to the great theological debate.:)
Slashdot Mirror
*boggle*
Please tell me this is supposed to be satire. It sounds like something Colbert would say. But... gak. *please* tell me this is satire. Even if it isn't, just tell me it is. The state of the art for current nanotech is tiny motors powered by alcohol or sugar. These tiny motors are nowhere near industrial production levels. At an industrial level needed for, say, coinage, the state of the art is things like buckyballs, nanotubes, and those quick-dry pants and shirts.
You have any idea the kind of resources that'd be needed to put micro surveillance gear into a circulation coin? Even *if* the technology existed, you'd have to produce millions of them to have any chance at actually finding one in the pocket of somebody interesting, and that's to say nothing of the network of radio receivers you'd need... a transmitter and power supply small enough to fit inside a coin? The range would probably be so small you might as well plant a traditional bug....
The thing people don't realize about extradition is that you can only be extradited for something that's a crime in your current location. In this case, cracking software is illegal in both Australia and the US. The charges were placed in the US, and a motion to extradite was filed. If it were something that isn't illegal in Australia, then he couldn't be extradited for it.
At that point, the Australians had basically two choices... they could either file charges in their own court system and deny the extradition on the grounds that he was already being dealt with in the Australian court system, or they could turn him over to face the charges in the US. That's the nature of the treaty... the only other grounds to deny an extradition request are human rights, and I think it'd be pretty hard to prove that he'd face any worse treatment in the US court system than he'd get in Australia.
This isn't an example of American hubris. This is an example of the Australians not wanting to prosecute for something that doesn't affect Australian interests (as in, because the injured parties aren't Australian companies, they've got nothing to gain by using Australian resources and tax money by trying him).
Points for doing your research. I play SL. And I use Linux exclusively. There's a Linux-native client for SL... and believe it or not, the Linux-native client actually works better than the Windows client as of right now. Fewer known bugs, and some of the known bugs that affect Windows do not exist in the Linux client.
*shrugs* gotta love it when zealots spout off about shit they don't know about, and don't even bother to lift a finger to confirm their facts first. You're a perfect example of why most people don't take the Linux community seriously. Kindly do a little research before you open your trap next time. And failing that, remember the axiom... 'tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Realistically, it's not possible in SL. It is possible to sit in a chair or other device that removes control of your character, and animates them into doing something you wouldn't otherwise do. But you've always got either a "release keys" button or a "stand" button at the bottom of the screen, and you can always remove any clothing that could be forcing you to do things. This is to say nothing of hotkeys like CTRL-ALT-H which will automatically teleport your character home, or just closing the game client. So realistically, there isn't any way of raping somebody within SL.
However... one thing you'll notice if you hang out in SL a lot is that there's a *lot* of D/s going on. Master/slave relationships. Now... I'm not going to get into a debate over the morality of D/s, but I can tell you that the slave pressing those buttons or escaping a situation like that is akin to saying "no" to their master. It's a big no-no within the D/s community, and could destroy your relationship, not to mention any chance you have of finding another relationship within the circle you frequent. I know of a few people who have found themselves in this situation, though... a friend or lover of the dominant has tried to take advantage of the submissive. Depending on the situation, or the rules in place for the submissive, they may not have the right to leave that situation without ending their current relationship, making this is form of psychological rape.
You're right, in that this is a game. There's always an exit, and that is to unplug. But sometimes, depending on the type of relationship you're in, it may be difficult to do. Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of any way to rape somebody in Second Life outside of the situation I just outlined.
Agreed.... the only times I ever use KDE are when I'm trying to get somebody who's new to Linux to come to the dark side. :) It's way too windows-like, and while it does have some nice functionality over and above Explorer, whatever happened to keeping things lightweight and zippy? Give me XFCE 4 any day... it's not as light as, say, blackbox, but it's also nowhere near as fugly. I think it strikes a good balance between eye candy and functionality, and is something that MS has never been able to do.
The problem is that the bad guys have access to the Internet, too. I've seen missions get scrapped less than half an hour before go time because somebody leaked information that could have compromised it. The problem with blogging is that all it takes is one person to post information about the route for the bad guys to be able to figure out where you are gonna be. As the line goes, "loose lips sink ships"... if the bad guys know where you're gonna be, they can plan an ambush really easily, and people get killed.
A large part of opsec in Afghanistan is changing routes, not following set patterns, etc. It's making it a *lot* harder for Taliban forces to plant IEDs with any guarantee of actually hitting us with them.
As to posting information after the fact... again. Patterns. We try to avoid patterns in Afghanistan, but any information that gets leaked about our movements can help the enemy figure out what we're doing, which in turn can help them figure out where we're gonna be. Your friend can deal with combat stress reaction the same way other members of the army do... by talking amongst each other. Watch out for your buddies. Your best defense against stress reactions is your buddies. Them knowing the symptoms and watching out for you can catch it *long* before the symptoms affect your performance. There's no way to know who's going to be able to deal with combat stress until you actually expose people to it, and that's why it's included in standard military first aid training.
Obligatory disclaimer: I'm in the Canadian army reserve. Our rules are a little different from the American rules... to begin with, we've had rules restricting what members are allowed to post on the Internet for as long as I've been in....
The thing of that is that you can still *read* the documents. I had to install the PowerPoint Viewer 2007 on my laptop yesterday, because I received a PPT 2007 document from work that I needed for today. I can't create or edit documents with the viewer, but the MS Website has freely downloadable viewers for all of their proprietary Office 2007 versions of documents, and all of the viewers are backwards compatible with older versions of the software.
It's a pain in the ass (PPT Viewer was a 25.7MB download), but it's a bit misleading to say that people don't have a way to view documents created with Office 2k7 without buying the software.
In order to downgrade Vista Home to XP, it'd have to actually be a downgrade.... but nope. Vista to XP is an upgrade. Hence them wanting more money.
Computer networks are ubiquitous enough that most people with any attachment to business know what a network is. Just describe the Internet as a network of networks. That's what it is, after all.
They don't have to understand how it actually works. But they understand the concept of networking through social networking. It's a concept that's innate to human nature. Computer networking really isn't any different, and isn't a hard topic for people to grasp in general terms.
You aren't running that in X are you? Or if you are, you're using something like TWM or FluxBox.... There's absolutely no way that a '286 with 6MB of RAM could run, say, KDE, with anything approaching zippiness....
this being slashdot, it's only a matter of time before somebody answers "porn"....
Happens on Earth, too. Just not as common.
Lucas says in the intro to the Special Edition version of the film that the double sunset wasn't a special effect, it was an optical illusion caused by the atmospheric conditions in the desert where they filmed it.
Err... you mean aside from dying of radiation poisoning, right?
Keep in mind I'm Canadian, not American... but...
I'm pretty sure that the US Bill of Rights has guarantees against unlawful search/seizure (that is, without a warrant and probable cause), and that all of the RIAA's "evidence" would be inadmissable in court. I'm also pretty sure that there's stuff in there about arbitrary detention, and a few others that would severely limit this kind of crap... if it was the government doing it.
This being a civil suit, we both know that laws which restrict the government's power are largely irrelevant. Where it comes in, though, is the knowledge that if the government was using these tactics and information gathering methods, the case wouldn't hold water. There've been too many things that the RIAA has done that would be illegal for the government to do.
About all we *can* do is countersue the RIAA if they bring suit against us, and organize a boycott. Good luck with the latter, though...
Oh, I was aware of it. I also weigh 103kg, not 80....
hehe.... I made a trip yesterday. 159km... call it 100 miles, though it's just shy of it. used about 10L of gas (1/4 tank in a 40L tank), call it 2.5 gallons, because the math is easy. 40mpg. what makes this noteworthy? the trip took 54 minutes. You can figure out from that what speed I averaged.... That was with two adults and a 9-year old in the back seat, btw.
Efficient cars exist, and it's entirely possible to drive fast and still get good mileage. You get good mileage by maintaining a constant speed, and not worrying too much about accelerating hard. Now granted, I wasn't getting the maximum efficiency that my car is capable of, but if I can cruise along in 5th at 100mph and keep the tach at 4000rpm, I'm going to get better mileage than I would if I'm varying my speed from 60-80mph, passing people every which way, slowing down, stopping and going, etc. If you accelerate gently, you get better mileage.
Of course... not driving an SUV is also a major factor... I drive a 2007 Chevrolet Aveo. It's supposed to get close to 50mpg on the highway, but I'm betting that's for 55mph, not 100.
You know... when I read your subject, I was expecting the post to be something about Dubya looking at a map of Asia for the first time. Of course, in my version, it still led to a first strike against possible terrorists. ^.~
data from operational zones is usually set via secured sattelite communications. it's entirely possible to set up a link that's green and has enough bandwidth to carry several international VoIP calls. given that some cell phones can be used as data modems, it's also possible to hook up a cell phone as the transmitter for the transmission of encrypted data from a laptop computer.
but cell phones are great, operationally speaking, because they allow a way to reach an individual person quite easily without going through the hassle of arranging a call. it's unlikely that cell phones will ever be used (in voice mode) for really sensitive material, but we do have ways of passing information in the red while masking the content. code words, to begin with. a few other methods I can't really talk about. fact is, though, that for unsecured communications in the domestic theatre, cell phones are now the primary means of communication, and it's only logical that we start rolling out ways to use them overseas. they're never going to replace things like inmarsat, frequency hopping, and encryption, because they're too easy to hack (not that those other methods are 100% secure either). but they are going to make the job a lot easier for signal operators, in reducing the amount of chatter on nets, keeping them open for more important traffic.
obligatory disclaimer: I'm a signal operator in the Canadian Army. Yes, we do have guns....
AFAIK, they do. It's more a question of people who work multiple jobs (and therefore aren't removing enough tax at the source) and people who are due refunds.
If the tax system is working properly, nobody needs to file their taxes, because the government has the right balance taken off at the source. But that assumes that nobody takes unpaid leave from their work, and that you always work the same number of hours per week. Most people get refunds here in Canada.
Pretty much every gas station I've been at has the ability to program the pump to only dispense X dollars worth of gas. It's not quite the same as pay at the pump, but there's nothing to stop you from going in, handing over a $20 bill and telling them you're at pump 4, and going back and pumping your gas. Doesn't take very long at all to go in and prepay at the counter, and some of them insist you do that anyway, late at night.
Most gas stations also don't care much about security after you've paid for the gas. They're worried about people committing crimes, and as far as they're concerned, you haven't stolen from them if you don't point a gun at the guy behind the counter, and if you don't pump 'n dash.
You're an idiot. Different skillset doesn't mean that somebody is necessarily stupid. Being able to sell the product that you're making is a very important skill... it's what actually puts food in your stomach. Somebody in sales may not be able to write code, but then, how good are you at dealing with the customers? Most of the engineers I know have really shitty social skills, and their sale rate would be a lot less than somebody who specializes in the task.... You might have the satisfaction of saying that you never had to deal with a salesman who didn't grok what you're actually capable of with the code, but at what cost?
If you have a communication problem with sales and it's causing unrealistic expectations and project goals, then the problem is in part your fault: you're not communicating with them effectively enough to pass the message that something's not possible. Personally, I've never had any problems dealing with sales: most of them get pissy when you say "no. that's impossible." but understand when you say "no, that would be extremely difficult, here's why. it's possible, but not within our current timetable."
Bah. My mod points expired. That's a very interesting idea... one I wish more programmers would follow up on.
I'd been planning on moderating this thread, but I felt that just using mod points here wouldn't be enough....
E=mc^2 does *NOT* refer to velocity. Or speed. It refers to the amount of energy contained within a particle. If you were to totally annihilate a particle of a given mass M, the equation tells you how much energy you'd get out of it. This equation does *NOT* apply to general or special relativity, or the amount of energy required to accelerate something to a given velocity. C is a constant. It's a really big constant, but it's still a constant. C^2 is still a constant, too. It's a really really big constant, but it's still a constant. If that equation really had anything to do with getting something up to the speed of light, then we'd know exactly how much energy would be required to get any object up to the speed of light. You might even find that the world's current energy output is enough to accelerate a small object like a bullet to the speed of light. That's a far cry from the supposed "infinite" energy needed to accelerate something with any mass at all to the speed of light.
Secondly, antimatter has positive mass. Its electro-magnetic properties are the opposite of normal matter, but that's as far as it goes. A positron has the same mass as an electron, and an antiproton has the same mass as a proton. Simply throwing in equal parts matter-antimatter does *not* reduce the mass to zero. It doubles the mass.
The reason antimatter was used as a fuel in Star Trek is the incredible amount of energy that can be released by matter-antimatter annihilation. We don't currently have an energy-positive form of fusion available to us. Even if we did, there'd still be nuclear waste left over. Fission is the most energy-efficient method of power production we have, and it still leaves behind large amounts of nuclear waste that has to be properly disposed of. All of that mass left over equals energy that was not released by the reaction. In a matter-antimatter annihilation, there is zero mass left over. All of the available energy in the equation is released as energy. It's an entirely different class of energy production to what we're currently using, and the writers of ST were working on the assumption that if you were ever going to get to that kind of speed, you'd need an awful lot of energy. In the 1960's, and today, matter-antimatter annihilation is the most efficient source of energy known. It only made sense that they'd use it.
Err... we can prove that there *is* one, though. I've got a teapot sitting on my desk right now, and this whole planet is orbiting around the sun every 365 1/4 days or so....
But yes. Your point does stick... a lack of evidence to disprove something's existence isn't proof of its existence. Welcome to the great theological debate.
If it does, you've been playing Max Payne in Bullet Time too much.