Doom III and Half Life 2. I am still awaiting information as to what card specs will be required to play these in a decent manner...and hoping it doesn't require a second mortgage to acquire the recommended card.
Except it also has to be in phase, otherwise it is just monochromatic light.
Re:Invisibility possible now?
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Mastering Light
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· Score: 1
Not to mention that the (constant?) shock waves required to generate this miracle of frequency shift might be a wee bit uncomfortable to endure bodily.
Or...they could be an intense source of pleasure! People walking around invisably having orgasm after orgasm. You could track them by their squeels, moans, and grunts.
It IS way past time for the electoral college to be eliminated. A clique of elites should no longer be allowed to reverse the will of the People at large. The People were NOT mistaken and not confused, they wanted Gore, not Bush. All the electoral college does is allow illegitimate presidents to claim a "mandate" (Like Reagan did when all he garnered in reality was 54% of the popular vote - nearly half of the country voted against him...NOT a mandate) where none exists. It allows a small cabala of people to decide the overall political course of the country for the next 4 years with little or no regard to the populace's desire/will. The People are to be trusted and permitted to select the one individual who is supposed to represent everyone.
As for gerrymandering, it should flat-out be abolished and redistricting completely removed from politician's hands. The courts or a 3rd independent part should handle redistricting based solely on demographics and population, not politics. Cities do NOT belong bunched into a district of rural residents. Totally different populations with different goals and desires. It is wrong and even immoral to disenfranchise people by tweaking their districts for the benefit of ANY political party. Period.
As for Democrats doing the same thing, it all comes to revenge. They do to the Republicans what the Republicans did to them, and on and on. Illegitimate. Thus, redistricting should never have politicos involved in it.
As far as Gore and Florida, he goofed only in demanding recounts in certain districts. He should have demanded a full recount, statewide. A lot of Republican hacks should go to jail for purposefully disenfranchising black voters as well. The DID work to screw up voting for the minorities.
No. MOST Americans voted against Bush. The electoral college is wrong-headed and no longer relevant or valid. It should go away.
As for the old fashioned way...the way that has Republicans in states like Texas, Colorado, and a host of other Republican-dominated states either trying or succeeding in redistricting any and all opponents out of existence? Or how about their attempts in many of these same states to prevent the Democrats from having primaries? That system? It is too late, the dictatorship arrived when the Supreme Court rendered itself illegitimate and partisan in the last "election".
The term "Police State" has nothing to do with being "the world's policeman". The former is a real government style, like democracy, theocracy, fascism, etc. It is what all Western countries (and many 2nd and 3rd world countries already are) are becoming. In Great Britain, you have security cameras popping up all over bejesus so the Brit guv'mnt/police can watch everyone. In the US we are quickly following suite, only we are seeking to do one better with TIA (of course, we too have cameras popping up all over bejesus now too).
No doubt Germany and France are following along too, all in the name of anti-terrorism blah, blah. The world IS becoming a police state. Once all the major countries have taken the amorphous final steps, they will all but blend together into a superstate made up of member police states. All for your own good, you understand.
The Dems did the right and correct thing. The Repubs were trying to hijack the redistricting thing OUT OF PROPER CONTEXT AND TIMING strictly to "gain more seats" in the state house and, essentially, force Texas into being a one-party state. This, in a word, means dictatorship. In any case, what the Dems did is exactly what has been practiced by Dems AND Repulsives...err...Replublicans a number of times through Texas history (and in other states too).
Left no other option in the face of authoritarian rulers, the Dems did the right and logical thing. The Repulsives...Republicans...illegally attempted to bring OHS into the mix much the way they will use it against protesters and reporters and any other political or social opponent once TIA comes to be.
We just got an OHS office to "protect" us and one of the first things the creators of this monstrosity do is attempt to use if for personal politcal gain. TIA will be no different...nay, it will make it worse.
And so the wheel turns. Now WE (the USA) needs someone else to come in and liberate us from our own home-grown dictator. We could have used the help immediately after the Supreme Court annointed Bush as Dictator after the last illegitimate election.
Please don't wait until millions have been executed or jailed here for non-crimes before you come.
So you wont mind if I just kind of hang out with you all the time, listen in on ALL your conversations, track everything you buy, sell, say, do...and with whom. You wont mind if I sit in real close and listen in on your "private" conversations with your significant other, have sex, take a dump, go to the doctor, etc.
You wont mind if I go through all your drawers and closets, go through your car, acquire a copy of every single bit of correspondence you have ever written, sent, or received.
I need to ask that you start this whole thing off by first sending me a fax of your birth certificate, SSN (if you are American) or whatever other numbers you have associated with you in your country. Send me a copy of all your intimate letters, notes, and the like. Please tape your every move and send me copies daily so I can go over your life with a fine-toothed-comb. You have nothing to hide and no desire to hide anything so none of this should be a problem for you.
I don't want you to try to create a need in me. I don't need you to do that. It is not your job to CREATE a need, but rather, to fill a need. If I need something I will seek it out. If you shove it in my face, I will turn from you and go elsewhere for the same thing from a less intrusive provider.
I know what I want. I know what I need. You do not. I will handle it from here, thank you.
That's all great and it is one of the first things I thought of (after Big Brother). I am in the military and I tell you what, I would flatout refuse to allow anything like this to be implanted/injected into me regardless of its military utility.
I could perhaps accept a small, sub-q insert that is easily placed and, more importantly, easily removed immediately after I leave a combat/war arena but that is the absolute kicker. It can go in when going to a combat theater but it must, absolutely MUST come out the instant I come back. It does NOT get to stay in place. I'd quit the military, toss my commission, the works, before I allow such a device to remain inside me 24/7.
I assure you a LOT of other military members would react the same way as I do if this came to be a common/required tool in the military. Just the requirement for anthrax and smallpox vaccination has been enough to kick up a not insignificant amount of dust (and these are trivial). 24/7 GPS tracking/spying by implant would be a far bigger deal and would wreck the military.
The frickin' "GNU" part is implied and should not be "required" when describing what one is running. I run linux. Period. This IMPLIES that I am running a GNU system. Why? WHAT DISTRO IN THE UNIVERSE DOESN'T REQUIRE GNU LIBS AND TOOLS? There is no such thing as a NON-gnu linux, thus specifically demanding people call it gnu/linux (clumsy, clumsy, clumsy) is redundant and unnecessary. The day there is a NON-gnu/linux in existence is the day when you might wish to delimit your system from that "other" system.
My car is a blazer. I call it a blazer. I do not call it a "chevy blazer" because there is no such thing as a non-chevy blazer. My computer is an athlon system. I do not call it a VIA/MSI/Athlon system. My credit card is a visa, not a "Bank of whatever visa".
The religiousity of RMS is the most off-putting thing about him. I don't do religion. Religion is BOGUS. Religion is NOT a requirement. Don't force religion on me or we will fight. Free/Open software is great...as a development model. It is not now nor will it ever be the ONLY way computer software is handled/developed. Get over it.
Re:More like a Vernor Vinge novel...
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Brain Privacy
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· Score: 1
You obviously didn't read the book, and presumably are not the person I was responding to. Did you READ the other response to my first post?
There is nothing sci-fi about remote brain scanning. It is not doable now because the tech is not there to do it (huge magnetic rings, high power, heavy). IF one can develop tech to the point of being able to do brain scans in an unobstrusive manner, then there is a problem. You walk into a room for, say, a job interview, or a periodic performance report. You are asked questions, all the regular stuff only in this case you are being closely analyzed: skin temp, breathing rate, brain activity, voice analysis. From all this, one could theoretically do real lie detection and, worse, violate some real basic privacy. Incorporate this sort of observation into a general everyday setting and a lot more information would be obtainable.
We aren't there yet. The brain scanning being discussed would only be of academic interest at this point - a lot of research must still be conducted to map out the broad, repeating patterns of brain activity that can be associated with lying vs telling the truth, let alone determine associations between brain activity pattern X with a specific thought.
The sound it makes is irrelevant. Once launched, the jig is up. It is unlikely that a terrorist attack using a simple cruise missile will take place with lots of warning so that a nice perimeter of military troops could be setup and be expectant of a cruise missile attack.
More likely, a terrorist or group would build several of these and just launch them at targets. All that would happen until AFTER the detonation at the target is a bunch of people craning their necks and scratching their heads as a loud, funky little jet wizzes overhead. They might make calls to the police asking about it but by the time anything came of it, the target is hit.
The only time that the noise and crude nature of such a weapon would matter is if it is being targetted at a fielded military unit primed for being attacked anyway. Think about the reaction of US military troops to something as simple and crude as an ultralight - remember those episodes in the latest Iraq war? They didn't really know what to do about it and didn't really respond effectively. I doubt the first shot or two by crude cruise missiles would be handled much different, but in this case, instead of a buzzing, leisurely pass-by by an unassuming ultralight, you have a high speed (300+ mph at low altitude is plenty fast, especially for a very small package) little thing shooting past.
I don't think there would be much of a useful response initially except to dive for cover and don gas masks. The real target is much more likely to be civilian from within a civilian milieu. There would be no useful defense reaction until too late, if then.
For that VERY comment they DID try to have a go at me. Sent the local cops after me for a newsgroup post of the above joke - basically, just reposting the original that caused the injustice to what's-his-name formerly of California and now in Canada (what's his name? Henson?).
I evaded their attempt but only after a lot of problems. A simple and obvious "Tom Cruise Missile For Sale for use against Churchs of Scientology" joke spurred them to get a PI to pretend to be an FBI agent (a felony) to put the local cops onto me for posting the joke. I was told that the FBI was interested and that I might expect a visit from them wrt the "threatening incident". I immediately went to the FBI myself instead of waiting for them only to find that they didn't know anything about the episode in question. I got them (the Feds) to go after the PI who I was able to identify through some basic internet-based detective work (and with the help of several anti-CofS activists). Ultimately, though I ran into "difficulties" with my then employer over making internet "threats" (Tom Cruise missile for sale...), I immediately struck back and won. It wasn't fun nor was it funny.
I LIKE the stupid joke because it is so silly yet manages to bring out such an incredible rise out of Scientologists. Just be aware of potential bumps in your future.
Re:More like a Vernor Vinge novel...
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Brain Privacy
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· Score: 1
I did not forget the zipheads. But "zipheads" in and of themselves were inadequate for the preemptive control exercised by the Emergent in the novel. The zips simply collated and analyzed all the minutae of information gathered on individuals via ubiquitous monitoring of everything.
In any case, the flaw is that it doesn't require zipheads to do this. All it takes is ubiquitous monitoring of physiological and, in regards to the intent of the slashdot article, brainscanning and activity mapping to obtain the information that a computer could then analyze and flag.
As many indicated in response, the technology needed to do remote brainscanning simply doesn't (yet) exist. In the future, it may, and in the meantime, once brain function mapping reaches a certain thoroughness, it will be good enough for directed scanning during questioning or interviews and become a MUCH better lie detector than the pathetic excuse for lie detector that we have now.
I have thought about the privacy issue as well - which you bring up. Why not simply provide every soldier with more privacy and thus eliminate the problem from that end? It would remove a lot of the problems of mixed sex housing too, though not all of it.
One of the main problems with this is that it would be more costly in terms of simple $$ and in material. You would have to provide more bathrooms, more private bedrooms. This would require a large redistribution of money away from hardware and maintenance to human support. Not in itself a bad thing but it would be less efficient overall.
In combat situations where one gets to spend time in tents, etc, I believe that the problems I mentioned in the original post would be essentially nil...or I would hope so. It would be absurd for soldiers to be getting all hot and distracted during the stress and privation of combat conditions, though the intensity of feeling could, in theory, heighten sexual tensions...
In any case, I would bet both testicles and my right eye that any move to increase privacy options for soldiers, at least in peacetime conditions, would be fought tooth-and-nail by the powers-that-be. Money diverted to building privacy barracks, extra bathrooms, showers, etc, would be seen to threaten procurement, flight hours (which are alotted and based on money), and training. Perhaps simple things like cheap office cubicle partitions and curtains would be all that is necessary to minimize problems but it would still be a large cost overall and seen as inefficient (and a threat to equipment purchasing).
Re:what you are fearing...
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Brain Privacy
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· Score: 1
Excellent post and you are absolutely right. Our thoughts contain EVERYTHING from initial gut reactions on. They contain murderous, violent, "Id" content with a veneer of "SuperEgo" smacking it all around. Think "Forbidden Planet" and the monsters from the id.
Beyond that, the meatloaf REALLY is excellent! The part I don't want you or your wife to hear/know is the thoughts about wanting to bend her over the table and hump her blind with or without your being there...oops, did I write that out loud?
Re:The Spartans
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Brain Privacy
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· Score: 2, Insightful
So here is a little thinking question...if it is simply 100% OK to admit gays into the military (and leave them in when they are discovered), is it OK to house men and women soldiers together in the same rooms? Make them use the same showers? Make them roomies?
I am a military type and though I don't get bent out of shape about homosexuals being in the military (of COURSE they are, they are in every frickin' job in every corner of the world), I still am supportive of the pschizophrenic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy as a matter of policy. Why? The answers to the questions above.
It is not acceptable and would not be conducive to military discipline, morale, and capability to house men and women 100% together, sharing rooms, bathrooms, showers, etc. It wouldn't be acceptable to the public at large and it wouldn't be acceptable to most members (though the idea of getting roomed up with a hottie has a certain appeal...but therein lies the problem).
Homosexuals are not any better at suppressing their desires/urges than anyone else. While they have to keep their orientation secret, they are especially driven to control their urges/desires in open company (or in the showers or in roomie situations) because of what happens if they don't.
If you freely mix and match men and women together there WILL be problems, period, end of story. There will be sex, sexual politics to the extreme, uncomfortable staring and drooling. This because it is a given that most of the guys and women will be oriented towards the opposite sex. So, how is it different and OK to house homosexual men with the very item of their sexual attraction, and OPENLY with full acceptance by the powers-that-be, and housing men and women together, the items of each others sexual attraction? How would this NOT adversely affect the mission of the military (the military is NOT for social experimentation or other touchy-feelie bullcrap that floats in corporate America, academe, etc)?
Are people actually positing that homosexuals are superior at controlling themselves than any heterosexual? I doubt that many men would be comfortable KNOWING that the guy their undressing in front of finds men in general sexually exciting - just like a woman would feel undressing in front of generic men in a similar situation, KNOWING that the guy is almost assuredly hetero and finds women of sexual interest (remember, we think about sex every 5 minutes or so).
You COULD propose that declared homosexuals get housed with women, which MIGHT work if most of the women didn't have a problem in general having a generic man around while they undressed, showered, etc, but this isn't assured. You COULDN'T do the reverse with lesbians housing with men because many/most men would STILL get off having a nekkid chick in their room/shower regardless of whether she was hot for men or not...and that whole lesbian sex, girl-on-girl thing is a turn-on to a lot of men to boot.
It really isn't as simple as the intellectual, twice-removed thinking a lot of people have about homosexuals in the military seem to think. Like it or not, the morale and fighting ability, and trust between soldiers is more important than any other consideration. Period. And it has nothing to do with who is homophobic or why. One doesn't have to be homophobic or have "conflicted" sexual feelings to not be comfortable in VERY close quarters for an extended period of time with someone who by nature finds your sex sexually exciting.
More like a Vernor Vinge novel...
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Brain Privacy
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· Score: 2, Informative
Brainscanning and other monitoring abilities would give a company/gov't (the same thing these days, particularly in the USofCorp America) power similar to that of the "Emergent" in A Deepness in the Sky
by Vernor Vinge.
Picking up impulses whether acted on or not, knowing who is hot for who whether it is "secret" or not, knowing who is PO'd/disgruntled and thus a "security risk" and in need of firing or pre-emptive jailing (or indefinite detainment by the gov't under out current Shrub).
The possibilities for superb abuse are wondrous. Can't wait for widespread law-enforcement use, gov't use, and corporate use. Those tin foil hats would start to come in handy about then but they would be a dead giveaway that you have something to hide and thus need to be detained, fired, etc.
I can think of a simple reason to use DSL instead of ethernet: wiring. Why run through each building and into multiple rooms running cat5, cutting holes, etc, when you can just use the outlets for phone that are already installed?
DSL is plenty fast enough and easier to install after-the-fact.
The other alternative is wireless. Perhaps no more labor-intensive than setting up DSL (remember, using the existing phonelines) and as easy as placing and firing up a few APs. Done.
You don't really need Windoze for MCSE. Linux has a whole host of Minesweeper-like games and even Solitaire games. You can get up to advanced skill with either/both in linux and never see a Windoze desktop!
No, MS getting every contract would be more wrong than mandating OSS, period. The ONLY way that it would be acceptable would be if the mandate was for fully open standards, regardless of whether the actual vendor/provider is OSS or closed source. So long as government databases, documents, etc, are in an open format that ANYONE can read with or without a propriatory product, then all is well.
So, the question shouldn't be whether to mandate OSS or not, but whether or not fully open standards and formats should be mandated (no more official government documents in *.doc format and no websites based on M$-only crap).
"Once all the game developers have already stopped porting to linux they wont come back"? WHAT game developers are porting games to linux? C'mon! Virtually none. Id software produces linux binaries of all their games as a matter of tradition. Perhaps one or two other vendors may consider porting, but usually they are coaxed into allowing someone else to port.
Wine isn't hurting anything because there is nothing to hurt. All you need is for linux on the desktop to become more widespread and you will see linux ports from the actual game source rather than a bunch of hackers doing a port a year or two after the game has been out and played already by the rest of the world. In any case, it isn't as if game developers/companies are building FOR wine - most game do NOT work on winex or winehq or codeweaver's wine. It is practically an accident when a game does work. Thus, if companies were actually building for wine rather than for windoze proper (or linux), then you MIGHT have an argument, but even then it would be pretty weak. Why NOT build for a standard (wine) library so that you know your one game will run on windoze and linux out of the box? You don't HAVE to work to produce multiple versions unless you are also writing for Macs, then it would be two versions instead of 3 (best case): Mac, Windoze, and linux.
You say all that and give no example that can be checked. I read 90% and did not find it "crappy". Do you take issue with the fact that he was stating that essentially there was nothing magic or special or superior to Westerners/Middle Easterners who started and ran with cultivation and the society type that supports vs others (Amerinds, islanders, etc) who did not have a lot of crop choices to choose from that were suitable for cultivation and thus led to a society that was not weapons and tech driven aka Western Europe? Were Amerinds inferior? Islanders?
Support your statements that he was historically inaccurate and explain the shoddy premise.
Slashdot Mirror
Doom III and Half Life 2. I am still awaiting information as to what card specs will be required to play these in a decent manner...and hoping it doesn't require a second mortgage to acquire the recommended card.
Except it also has to be in phase, otherwise it is just monochromatic light.
Not to mention that the (constant?) shock waves required to generate this miracle of frequency shift might be a wee bit uncomfortable to endure bodily.
Or...they could be an intense source of pleasure! People walking around invisably having orgasm after orgasm. You could track them by their squeels, moans, and grunts.
It IS way past time for the electoral college to be eliminated. A clique of elites should no longer be allowed to reverse the will of the People at large. The People were NOT mistaken and not confused, they wanted Gore, not Bush. All the electoral college does is allow illegitimate presidents to claim a "mandate" (Like Reagan did when all he garnered in reality was 54% of the popular vote - nearly half of the country voted against him...NOT a mandate) where none exists. It allows a small cabala of people to decide the overall political course of the country for the next 4 years with little or no regard to the populace's desire/will. The People are to be trusted and permitted to select the one individual who is supposed to represent everyone.
As for gerrymandering, it should flat-out be abolished and redistricting completely removed from politician's hands. The courts or a 3rd independent part should handle redistricting based solely on demographics and population, not politics. Cities do NOT belong bunched into a district of rural residents. Totally different populations with different goals and desires. It is wrong and even immoral to disenfranchise people by tweaking their districts for the benefit of ANY political party. Period.
As for Democrats doing the same thing, it all comes to revenge. They do to the Republicans what the Republicans did to them, and on and on. Illegitimate. Thus, redistricting should never have politicos involved in it.
As far as Gore and Florida, he goofed only in demanding recounts in certain districts. He should have demanded a full recount, statewide. A lot of Republican hacks should go to jail for purposefully disenfranchising black voters as well. The DID work to screw up voting for the minorities.
No. MOST Americans voted against Bush. The electoral college is wrong-headed and no longer relevant or valid. It should go away.
As for the old fashioned way...the way that has Republicans in states like Texas, Colorado, and a host of other Republican-dominated states either trying or succeeding in redistricting any and all opponents out of existence? Or how about their attempts in many of these same states to prevent the Democrats from having primaries? That system? It is too late, the dictatorship arrived when the Supreme Court rendered itself illegitimate and partisan in the last "election".
The term "Police State" has nothing to do with being "the world's policeman". The former is a real government style, like democracy, theocracy, fascism, etc. It is what all Western countries (and many 2nd and 3rd world countries already are) are becoming. In Great Britain, you have security cameras popping up all over bejesus so the Brit guv'mnt/police can watch everyone. In the US we are quickly following suite, only we are seeking to do one better with TIA (of course, we too have cameras popping up all over bejesus now too).
No doubt Germany and France are following along too, all in the name of anti-terrorism blah, blah. The world IS becoming a police state. Once all the major countries have taken the amorphous final steps, they will all but blend together into a superstate made up of member police states. All for your own good, you understand.
The Dems did the right and correct thing. The Repubs were trying to hijack the redistricting thing OUT OF PROPER CONTEXT AND TIMING strictly to "gain more seats" in the state house and, essentially, force Texas into being a one-party state. This, in a word, means dictatorship. In any case, what the Dems did is exactly what has been practiced by Dems AND Repulsives...err...Replublicans a number of times through Texas history (and in other states too).
Left no other option in the face of authoritarian rulers, the Dems did the right and logical thing. The Repulsives...Republicans...illegally attempted to bring OHS into the mix much the way they will use it against protesters and reporters and any other political or social opponent once TIA comes to be.
We just got an OHS office to "protect" us and one of the first things the creators of this monstrosity do is attempt to use if for personal politcal gain. TIA will be no different...nay, it will make it worse.
And so the wheel turns. Now WE (the USA) needs someone else to come in and liberate us from our own home-grown dictator. We could have used the help immediately after the Supreme Court annointed Bush as Dictator after the last illegitimate election.
Please don't wait until millions have been executed or jailed here for non-crimes before you come.
So you wont mind if I just kind of hang out with you all the time, listen in on ALL your conversations, track everything you buy, sell, say, do...and with whom. You wont mind if I sit in real close and listen in on your "private" conversations with your significant other, have sex, take a dump, go to the doctor, etc.
You wont mind if I go through all your drawers and closets, go through your car, acquire a copy of every single bit of correspondence you have ever written, sent, or received.
I need to ask that you start this whole thing off by first sending me a fax of your birth certificate, SSN (if you are American) or whatever other numbers you have associated with you in your country. Send me a copy of all your intimate letters, notes, and the like. Please tape your every move and send me copies daily so I can go over your life with a fine-toothed-comb. You have nothing to hide and no desire to hide anything so none of this should be a problem for you.
I don't want you to try to create a need in me. I don't need you to do that. It is not your job to CREATE a need, but rather, to fill a need. If I need something I will seek it out. If you shove it in my face, I will turn from you and go elsewhere for the same thing from a less intrusive provider.
I know what I want. I know what I need. You do not. I will handle it from here, thank you.
That's all great and it is one of the first things I thought of (after Big Brother). I am in the military and I tell you what, I would flatout refuse to allow anything like this to be implanted/injected into me regardless of its military utility.
I could perhaps accept a small, sub-q insert that is easily placed and, more importantly, easily removed immediately after I leave a combat/war arena but that is the absolute kicker. It can go in when going to a combat theater but it must, absolutely MUST come out the instant I come back. It does NOT get to stay in place. I'd quit the military, toss my commission, the works, before I allow such a device to remain inside me 24/7.
I assure you a LOT of other military members would react the same way as I do if this came to be a common/required tool in the military. Just the requirement for anthrax and smallpox vaccination has been enough to kick up a not insignificant amount of dust (and these are trivial). 24/7 GPS tracking/spying by implant would be a far bigger deal and would wreck the military.
The frickin' "GNU" part is implied and should not be "required" when describing what one is running. I run linux. Period. This IMPLIES that I am running a GNU system. Why? WHAT DISTRO IN THE UNIVERSE DOESN'T REQUIRE GNU LIBS AND TOOLS? There is no such thing as a NON-gnu linux, thus specifically demanding people call it gnu/linux (clumsy, clumsy, clumsy) is redundant and unnecessary. The day there is a NON-gnu/linux in existence is the day when you might wish to delimit your system from that "other" system.
My car is a blazer. I call it a blazer. I do not call it a "chevy blazer" because there is no such thing as a non-chevy blazer. My computer is an athlon system. I do not call it a VIA/MSI/Athlon system. My credit card is a visa, not a "Bank of whatever visa".
The religiousity of RMS is the most off-putting thing about him. I don't do religion. Religion is BOGUS. Religion is NOT a requirement. Don't force religion on me or we will fight. Free/Open software is great...as a development model. It is not now nor will it ever be the ONLY way computer software is handled/developed. Get over it.
You obviously didn't read the book, and presumably are not the person I was responding to. Did you READ the other response to my first post?
There is nothing sci-fi about remote brain scanning. It is not doable now because the tech is not there to do it (huge magnetic rings, high power, heavy). IF one can develop tech to the point of being able to do brain scans in an unobstrusive manner, then there is a problem. You walk into a room for, say, a job interview, or a periodic performance report. You are asked questions, all the regular stuff only in this case you are being closely analyzed: skin temp, breathing rate, brain activity, voice analysis. From all this, one could theoretically do real lie detection and, worse, violate some real basic privacy. Incorporate this sort of observation into a general everyday setting and a lot more information would be obtainable.
We aren't there yet. The brain scanning being discussed would only be of academic interest at this point - a lot of research must still be conducted to map out the broad, repeating patterns of brain activity that can be associated with lying vs telling the truth, let alone determine associations between brain activity pattern X with a specific thought.
The sound it makes is irrelevant. Once launched, the jig is up. It is unlikely that a terrorist attack using a simple cruise missile will take place with lots of warning so that a nice perimeter of military troops could be setup and be expectant of a cruise missile attack.
More likely, a terrorist or group would build several of these and just launch them at targets. All that would happen until AFTER the detonation at the target is a bunch of people craning their necks and scratching their heads as a loud, funky little jet wizzes overhead. They might make calls to the police asking about it but by the time anything came of it, the target is hit.
The only time that the noise and crude nature of such a weapon would matter is if it is being targetted at a fielded military unit primed for being attacked anyway. Think about the reaction of US military troops to something as simple and crude as an ultralight - remember those episodes in the latest Iraq war? They didn't really know what to do about it and didn't really respond effectively. I doubt the first shot or two by crude cruise missiles would be handled much different, but in this case, instead of a buzzing, leisurely pass-by by an unassuming ultralight, you have a high speed (300+ mph at low altitude is plenty fast, especially for a very small package) little thing shooting past.
I don't think there would be much of a useful response initially except to dive for cover and don gas masks. The real target is much more likely to be civilian from within a civilian milieu. There would be no useful defense reaction until too late, if then.
For that VERY comment they DID try to have a go at me. Sent the local cops after me for a newsgroup post of the above joke - basically, just reposting the original that caused the injustice to what's-his-name formerly of California and now in Canada (what's his name? Henson?).
I evaded their attempt but only after a lot of problems. A simple and obvious "Tom Cruise Missile For Sale for use against Churchs of Scientology" joke spurred them to get a PI to pretend to be an FBI agent (a felony) to put the local cops onto me for posting the joke. I was told that the FBI was interested and that I might expect a visit from them wrt the "threatening incident". I immediately went to the FBI myself instead of waiting for them only to find that they didn't know anything about the episode in question. I got them (the Feds) to go after the PI who I was able to identify through some basic internet-based detective work (and with the help of several anti-CofS activists). Ultimately, though I ran into "difficulties" with my then employer over making internet "threats" (Tom Cruise missile for sale...), I immediately struck back and won. It wasn't fun nor was it funny.
I LIKE the stupid joke because it is so silly yet manages to bring out such an incredible rise out of Scientologists. Just be aware of potential bumps in your future.
I did not forget the zipheads. But "zipheads" in and of themselves were inadequate for the preemptive control exercised by the Emergent in the novel. The zips simply collated and analyzed all the minutae of information gathered on individuals via ubiquitous monitoring of everything.
In any case, the flaw is that it doesn't require zipheads to do this. All it takes is ubiquitous monitoring of physiological and, in regards to the intent of the slashdot article, brainscanning and activity mapping to obtain the information that a computer could then analyze and flag.
As many indicated in response, the technology needed to do remote brainscanning simply doesn't (yet) exist. In the future, it may, and in the meantime, once brain function mapping reaches a certain thoroughness, it will be good enough for directed scanning during questioning or interviews and become a MUCH better lie detector than the pathetic excuse for lie detector that we have now.
I have thought about the privacy issue as well - which you bring up. Why not simply provide every soldier with more privacy and thus eliminate the problem from that end? It would remove a lot of the problems of mixed sex housing too, though not all of it.
One of the main problems with this is that it would be more costly in terms of simple $$ and in material. You would have to provide more bathrooms, more private bedrooms. This would require a large redistribution of money away from hardware and maintenance to human support. Not in itself a bad thing but it would be less efficient overall.
In combat situations where one gets to spend time in tents, etc, I believe that the problems I mentioned in the original post would be essentially nil...or I would hope so. It would be absurd for soldiers to be getting all hot and distracted during the stress and privation of combat conditions, though the intensity of feeling could, in theory, heighten sexual tensions...
In any case, I would bet both testicles and my right eye that any move to increase privacy options for soldiers, at least in peacetime conditions, would be fought tooth-and-nail by the powers-that-be. Money diverted to building privacy barracks, extra bathrooms, showers, etc, would be seen to threaten procurement, flight hours (which are alotted and based on money), and training. Perhaps simple things like cheap office cubicle partitions and curtains would be all that is necessary to minimize problems but it would still be a large cost overall and seen as inefficient (and a threat to equipment purchasing).
Excellent post and you are absolutely right. Our thoughts contain EVERYTHING from initial gut reactions on. They contain murderous, violent, "Id" content with a veneer of "SuperEgo" smacking it all around. Think "Forbidden Planet" and the monsters from the id.
Beyond that, the meatloaf REALLY is excellent! The part I don't want you or your wife to hear/know is the thoughts about wanting to bend her over the table and hump her blind with or without your being there...oops, did I write that out loud?
So here is a little thinking question...if it is simply 100% OK to admit gays into the military (and leave them in when they are discovered), is it OK to house men and women soldiers together in the same rooms? Make them use the same showers? Make them roomies?
I am a military type and though I don't get bent out of shape about homosexuals being in the military (of COURSE they are, they are in every frickin' job in every corner of the world), I still am supportive of the pschizophrenic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy as a matter of policy. Why? The answers to the questions above.
It is not acceptable and would not be conducive to military discipline, morale, and capability to house men and women 100% together, sharing rooms, bathrooms, showers, etc. It wouldn't be acceptable to the public at large and it wouldn't be acceptable to most members (though the idea of getting roomed up with a hottie has a certain appeal...but therein lies the problem).
Homosexuals are not any better at suppressing their desires/urges than anyone else. While they have to keep their orientation secret, they are especially driven to control their urges/desires in open company (or in the showers or in roomie situations) because of what happens if they don't.
If you freely mix and match men and women together there WILL be problems, period, end of story. There will be sex, sexual politics to the extreme, uncomfortable staring and drooling. This because it is a given that most of the guys and women will be oriented towards the opposite sex. So, how is it different and OK to house homosexual men with the very item of their sexual attraction, and OPENLY with full acceptance by the powers-that-be, and housing men and women together, the items of each others sexual attraction? How would this NOT adversely affect the mission of the military (the military is NOT for social experimentation or other touchy-feelie bullcrap that floats in corporate America, academe, etc)?
Are people actually positing that homosexuals are superior at controlling themselves than any heterosexual? I doubt that many men would be comfortable KNOWING that the guy their undressing in front of finds men in general sexually exciting - just like a woman would feel undressing in front of generic men in a similar situation, KNOWING that the guy is almost assuredly hetero and finds women of sexual interest (remember, we think about sex every 5 minutes or so).
You COULD propose that declared homosexuals get housed with women, which MIGHT work if most of the women didn't have a problem in general having a generic man around while they undressed, showered, etc, but this isn't assured. You COULDN'T do the reverse with lesbians housing with men because many/most men would STILL get off having a nekkid chick in their room/shower regardless of whether she was hot for men or not...and that whole lesbian sex, girl-on-girl thing is a turn-on to a lot of men to boot.
It really isn't as simple as the intellectual, twice-removed thinking a lot of people have about homosexuals in the military seem to think. Like it or not, the morale and fighting ability, and trust between soldiers is more important than any other consideration. Period. And it has nothing to do with who is homophobic or why. One doesn't have to be homophobic or have "conflicted" sexual feelings to not be comfortable in VERY close quarters for an extended period of time with someone who by nature finds your sex sexually exciting.
Brainscanning and other monitoring abilities would give a company/gov't (the same thing these days, particularly in the USofCorp America) power similar to that of the "Emergent" in A Deepness in the Sky
by Vernor Vinge.Picking up impulses whether acted on or not, knowing who is hot for who whether it is "secret" or not, knowing who is PO'd/disgruntled and thus a "security risk" and in need of firing or pre-emptive jailing (or indefinite detainment by the gov't under out current Shrub).
The possibilities for superb abuse are wondrous. Can't wait for widespread law-enforcement use, gov't use, and corporate use. Those tin foil hats would start to come in handy about then but they would be a dead giveaway that you have something to hide and thus need to be detained, fired, etc.
I can think of a simple reason to use DSL instead of ethernet: wiring. Why run through each building and into multiple rooms running cat5, cutting holes, etc, when you can just use the outlets for phone that are already installed?
DSL is plenty fast enough and easier to install after-the-fact.
The other alternative is wireless. Perhaps no more labor-intensive than setting up DSL (remember, using the existing phonelines) and as easy as placing and firing up a few APs. Done.
You don't really need Windoze for MCSE. Linux has a whole host of Minesweeper-like games and even Solitaire games. You can get up to advanced skill with either/both in linux and never see a Windoze desktop!
No, MS getting every contract would be more wrong than mandating OSS, period. The ONLY way that it would be acceptable would be if the mandate was for fully open standards, regardless of whether the actual vendor/provider is OSS or closed source. So long as government databases, documents, etc, are in an open format that ANYONE can read with or without a propriatory product, then all is well.
So, the question shouldn't be whether to mandate OSS or not, but whether or not fully open standards and formats should be mandated (no more official government documents in *.doc format and no websites based on M$-only crap).
"Once all the game developers have already stopped porting to linux they wont come back"? WHAT game developers are porting games to linux? C'mon! Virtually none. Id software produces linux binaries of all their games as a matter of tradition. Perhaps one or two other vendors may consider porting, but usually they are coaxed into allowing someone else to port.
Wine isn't hurting anything because there is nothing to hurt. All you need is for linux on the desktop to become more widespread and you will see linux ports from the actual game source rather than a bunch of hackers doing a port a year or two after the game has been out and played already by the rest of the world. In any case, it isn't as if game developers/companies are building FOR wine - most game do NOT work on winex or winehq or codeweaver's wine. It is practically an accident when a game does work. Thus, if companies were actually building for wine rather than for windoze proper (or linux), then you MIGHT have an argument, but even then it would be pretty weak. Why NOT build for a standard (wine) library so that you know your one game will run on windoze and linux out of the box? You don't HAVE to work to produce multiple versions unless you are also writing for Macs, then it would be two versions instead of 3 (best case): Mac, Windoze, and linux.
You say all that and give no example that can be checked. I read 90% and did not find it "crappy". Do you take issue with the fact that he was stating that essentially there was nothing magic or special or superior to Westerners/Middle Easterners who started and ran with cultivation and the society type that supports vs others (Amerinds, islanders, etc) who did not have a lot of crop choices to choose from that were suitable for cultivation and thus led to a society that was not weapons and tech driven aka Western Europe? Were Amerinds inferior? Islanders?
Support your statements that he was historically inaccurate and explain the shoddy premise.