Someone posted to an earlier discussion about MP saying that there will be a release of all the first and second season Flying Circus episodes on two DVD's. Does anyone have any information on this?
minor tangent: cars and computers--in tech support
on
Computer Stupidities
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· Score: 1
I am amused to see how we are coming up with the car as a metaphor to talk about how people use and understand computers.
I have a personal metaphor that I use in a similar way to explain to people why tech support is so difficult.
Imagine that every car that came off an assembly line was different from every other car off the assembly line. Of course that is the case today, green Honda Accords vs. black Honda Accords. The thing is, the color doesn't make any difference in performance, but in this hypothetical situation, it makes a big difference. Your car will act very differently if you get the CD Player in it or the accessory wheels. Because of this, no two cars react the same way off the assembly line.
Worse, when a person brings them home, they add other stuff to the cars to personalize them. Not unusual for a person to drill in a hole to make a sunroof, or put strips on the side. Each of these minor modifications make a huge difference in how the car performs and most of the time they are being done by amateurs, people who have no mechanical background. That's not to say it is not being done right, but there are a lot of times where it is being done...strangely.
Then comes "car support." There are two types of questions in car support. One is the "my car won't start" variety. Answer: "you are not putting the key in the ignition, or you don't have gasoline." The other question is "whenever I am driving the car on a Thursday with the air conditioning on, and shift from 3rd gear to 4th gear, my radio station changes to the 5th preset. Why does that happen?" Answer:"get a new car."
That test is actually being updated, and in place of "authoritarian" will be the much nicer sounding "communitarian."
a very different and cool solution
on
Password Overload
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· Score: 1
It's called passface and it is password like in the sense that something needs to be remembered, but what you need to remember is very different.
The principle is that humans are very good at remembering faces, so you can select a face out of a series of faces, and then a second, and a third, and a fourth. That is your password. When you want to log on, you are greeted with the series of faces, and then you choose one, and then you get a second series of faces...et cetera.
To the contrary, I disagree. I have not heard of a single instance where it has been found useful, and, as I point out, it was just part of some strange scare at the time period. It is rarely done anymore.
Usually you can avoid a lot of SSN use. First, at least at OSU, if you don't get financial aid, and don't work for the university, you can avoid using the SSN completely. Next, at least here, it is against university policy for professors/ta's to request SSN's on homework, tests, exams, to post them outside of their offices for grade purposes, and they are not on the ID cards. Nevertheless, many of those things occur, and it takes vigilance to keep them at a minimum. Hopefully, soon, professors and ta's will no longer even be given their students SSN's, because, well, that is completely assinine.
With respect to clueless people, I think we can generally say that Ohio has clueless people just like any other state, but I like to think that there are proportionally fewer than some other less habitable states...
In my home state, Ohio, it is law that a person has to have car insurance. Well, if the insurance company is willing to insure someone, that means that they are saying that they are at least somewhat competent to drive. If that's the case, why do we even have driver's licenses? Let the insurance companies give out the "licenses", and the license plates. Don't have a current expiration sticker? Your insurance must have run out.
The insurance companies can run us through a battery of tests if they like in order to figure out whether we can handle insurance or not. If the insurance companies become a little weird, we can always regulate them...far easier for a government to regulate someone else than it is for a government to regulate itself.
According to http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page4/fp-04- page4-winners-losers.html
The current fingerprinting states are:
California Colorado Georgia Hawaii Texas (possible) West Virginia
At http://38.156.42.7 you can find information on opposition to fingerprinting in Texas. At http://www.atlantainfoguide.com/repeal/ you can find information on opposition to fingerprinting in Georgia.
Colorado, Texas, Georgia and I believe Hawaii are the only fingerprinting states. Alabama tried to bring those laws in, and failed. California I believe used to have them, and dumped them in 1996.
At http://38.156.42.7 you can find info on opposition to fingerprinting in Texas. At http://www.atlantainfoguide.com/repeal/ you can find information on work going on in Georgia concerning repealing of the fingerprinting laws. There are about four or five bills being considered right now in the Georgia legislature, I am under the impression that the opposition is strongest there, and it is most likely the first state to stop collection.
Good work up there with Toledo Edison. Here in Columbus, American Electric Power (AEP) gave me no problems, but it was hard working with Columbia Gas and Ameritech, in particular the latter, they get really annoyed with me when I complain about SSN collection.
The Ohio law which allows a person to remove their SSN from their driver's licenses came up one or two years ago, and really, it is just a courtesy as opposed to anything of consequence. They still are collecting them, and using them for the strangest of purposes.
At any rate, the real reason for its existence is The Akron Beacon Journal vs. the City of Akron. In that case, in 1994, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that government organizations in Ohio which disseminate SSN's may be held liable for damages as a result. (We don't have the sovereign immunity concept here in Ohio.) That's why that law was made, that's why our tax returns this year didn't have the SSN's in bold on the return label, and there are some other changes being made around the state as a result.
My privacy organization here at Ohio State (http://www.osu.edu/students/privacy) has figured out that this court case is our biggest friend in getting the university to change their policies. If any Buckeyes out there are interested, my privacy organization is going to be become a full organization in Ohio.
There is a new group that has formed to oppose mandatory SSN and fingerprint collection in order to obtain a Texas driver's license. It seems like their interest is a class action lawsuit. If you want information see their web site at http://38.156.42.7 (no domain name yet) or write to get on the mailing list: bonnieblue@iname.com
The point about your criminal having a gun is interesting - but the ability to draw and shoot someone who already has a gun pointing at you is rare
Good point, however, as many people point out, the idea is more associated with deterrence. In that infamous study from the University of Chicago (hell, can't remember who wrote it) the thesis presented was that those states which allowed concealed carrying (about 33) had lower crime rates as a result of criminals not knowing who could be carrying a gun. Take it as you like, the study was terribly controversial.
With respect to Britain changing its gun laws as a result of Dunblane, reports here in US claim that homicides involving guns has, paradoxically, risen after those laws took effect.
Switzerland has a completely different culture than the rest of the civilized world. The suiss people have stayed in their self-chosen cultural and political isolation for longer than the USA exists. It is true that suisse has less strict gun-ownership laws than most other european laws, but the percentage of actual gun-owners is less than in the USA.
I am not exactly sure how true that is. There are certainly quite a few gun owners in the US, but, assuming that what I hear is true about Switzerland, that every male over 18 is trained and has several types of guns, that would be somewhere about 50% gun ownership of the entire population. Then there may be a percentage of women who own guns...with that in mind, I can't see US gun ownership as a percentage of population being higher that Swiss ownership as a percentage of population.
Because I never actually used the microwave power systems. As I remember, for the money, they really didn't provide all that much more power over coal, in the end, you got more bang for the buck with nuclear. I don't recall using the gas powered ones either for the same reason. I always used nuclear (of course, I had disasters off and unlimited funds. Perhaps if I actually played for strategy instead of maximum population, I would have seen a need for microwave power.)
the new rules only apply to private mail boxes. You only need cash to open up a regular post office box at your local post office. The post office can't make people give up that much information for there own services because they are a government organization under the Privacy Act of 1974, and they would need congressional approval. This decision was just a little thing the postal service "made up." Them fraud artists and criminals still have plenty of ways of getting around it, and everyone knows it.
We are the seventh most populous state thank you very much. We also have more land zoned urban as a percentage of our land area than any other state. (I believe we are the top in land area zoned urban, but I have had problems confirming that.)
Butler County has about 350,000 people, and is one of the four Ohio counties that compose the Cincinnati metropolitan region (which also extends into southeastern Indiana and Northern Kentucky...but anyway.) The road itself is actually an important roadway in that area.
If I may, I have been watching more or less closely what is going on in Minnesota, and he is turning out to be quite a good governor. While he does occasionally say something controversial (well, perhaps I should say often) he seems to have a pretty strong vision of where he wants Minnesota to go. The first year or two won't be terribly big, but it looks like he will be trying to make some fairly significant changes after 2000/2001.
What is really impressive is how he stands up to things, where no one else would. For instance, there was a national prayer day a few months ago, and Ventura would not declare the day official in Minnesota because he says that it violates the separation between church and state. Whether you believe he is correct or incorrect, you have to admit that he has guts to make a decision that could be very unpopular. Minnesota was the only holdout on that day.
He has capitalized on his fame which is also interesting. Recently he spoke in front of congress concerning agriculture issues, and he got a lot of press, despite the topic being a little bit on the mundane side.
On the other hand, he is mostly Libertarian on his politics, and so am I. If I were a Democrat, I probably would not be so excited over him.
And, how many thieves do you know with access to cutting edge laboratory equipment, reseachers, and could be bothered waiting several months for the results?
Which is why I say, it would become much more economically justifiable should the clone be able to access other things, like workstations, workplaces, the person's home, et cetera. If it were only the bank account, it would be easier to rob a bank.
So how much of it is based on genetics? And even if only part of it is based on genetics, is it entirely random, or could the genetic clone be forced into the forming the same pattern. I did know that a twin's fingerprints are different, but only slightly different. I am wondering if the finger can also be cloned in such a way so that it would end up growing into a particular pattern.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone posted to an earlier discussion about MP saying that there will be a release of all the first and second season Flying Circus episodes on two DVD's. Does anyone have any information on this?
I am amused to see how we are coming up with the car as a metaphor to talk about how people use and understand computers.
I have a personal metaphor that I use in a similar way to explain to people why tech support is so difficult.
Imagine that every car that came off an assembly line was different from every other car off the assembly line. Of course that is the case today, green Honda Accords vs. black Honda Accords. The thing is, the color doesn't make any difference in performance, but in this hypothetical situation, it makes a big difference. Your car will act very differently if you get the CD Player in it or the accessory wheels. Because of this, no two cars react the same way off the assembly line.
Worse, when a person brings them home, they add other stuff to the cars to personalize them. Not unusual for a person to drill in a hole to make a sunroof, or put strips on the side. Each of these minor modifications make a huge difference in how the car performs and most of the time they are being done by amateurs, people who have no mechanical background. That's not to say it is not being done right, but there are a lot of times where it is being done...strangely.
Then comes "car support." There are two types of questions in car support. One is the "my car won't start" variety. Answer: "you are not putting the key in the ignition, or you don't have gasoline." The other question is "whenever I am driving the car on a Thursday with the air conditioning on, and shift from 3rd gear to 4th gear, my radio station changes to the 5th preset. Why does that happen?" Answer:"get a new car."
That test is actually being updated, and in place of "authoritarian" will be the much nicer sounding "communitarian."
It's called passface and it is password like in the sense that something needs to be remembered, but what you need to remember is very different.
The principle is that humans are very good at remembering faces, so you can select a face out of a series of faces, and then a second, and a third, and a fourth. That is your password. When you want to log on, you are greeted with the series of faces, and then you choose one, and then you get a second series of faces...et cetera.
Actually yes they can, but you have to pay a $5 fine, and show proof of their existence.
> Some of that is useful. I had my finger prints taken as a child for help in a missing persons case.
Actually, I wrote an articleon that subject.
To the contrary, I disagree. I have not heard of a single instance where it has been found useful, and, as I point out, it was just part of some strange scare at the time period. It is rarely done anymore.
Usually you can avoid a lot of SSN use. First, at least at OSU, if you don't get financial aid, and don't work for the university, you can avoid using the SSN completely. Next, at least here, it is against university policy for professors/ta's to request SSN's on homework, tests, exams, to post them outside of their offices for grade purposes, and they are not on the ID cards. Nevertheless, many of those things occur, and it takes vigilance to keep them at a minimum. Hopefully, soon, professors and ta's will no longer even be given their students SSN's, because, well, that is completely assinine.
With respect to clueless people, I think we can generally say that Ohio has clueless people just like any other state, but I like to think that there are proportionally fewer than some other less habitable states...
I am so pleased to see all these people defending our wonderful state. We have so much to offer, and there are a lot of clueless people out there.
I am thinking that our state should have a special "best place for rollercoasters" license plate or something. I am sure it would be a big seller.
In my home state, Ohio, it is law that a person has to have car insurance. Well, if the insurance company is willing to insure someone, that means that they are saying that they are at least somewhat competent to drive. If that's the case, why do we even have driver's licenses? Let the insurance companies give out the "licenses", and the license plates. Don't have a current expiration sticker? Your insurance must have run out.
The insurance companies can run us through a battery of tests if they like in order to figure out whether we can handle insurance or not. If the insurance companies become a little weird, we can always regulate them...far easier for a government to regulate someone else than it is for a government to regulate itself.
They are available here.
According to http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page4/fp-04- page4-winners-losers.html
The current fingerprinting states are:
California
Colorado
Georgia
Hawaii
Texas
(possible) West Virginia
At http://38.156.42.7 you can find information on opposition to fingerprinting in Texas. At http://www.atlantainfoguide.com/repeal/ you can find information on opposition to fingerprinting in Georgia.
http://www.networkusa.org/fingerprint/page2/fp-104 -208-immigration.html
I would post them, but they are on the long side.
Colorado, Texas, Georgia and I believe Hawaii are the only fingerprinting states. Alabama tried to bring those laws in, and failed. California I believe used to have them, and dumped them in 1996.
At http://38.156.42.7 you can find info on opposition to fingerprinting in Texas. At http://www.atlantainfoguide.com/repeal/ you can find information on work going on in Georgia concerning repealing of the fingerprinting laws. There are about four or five bills being considered right now in the Georgia legislature, I am under the impression that the opposition is strongest there, and it is most likely the first state to stop collection.
Good work up there with Toledo Edison. Here in Columbus, American Electric Power (AEP) gave me no problems, but it was hard working with Columbia Gas and Ameritech, in particular the latter, they get really annoyed with me when I complain about SSN collection.
The Ohio law which allows a person to remove their SSN from their driver's licenses came up one or two years ago, and really, it is just a courtesy as opposed to anything of consequence. They still are collecting them, and using them for the strangest of purposes.
At any rate, the real reason for its existence is The Akron Beacon Journal vs. the City of Akron. In that case, in 1994, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that government organizations in Ohio which disseminate SSN's may be held liable for damages as a result. (We don't have the sovereign immunity concept here in Ohio.) That's why that law was made, that's why our tax returns this year didn't have the SSN's in bold on the return label, and there are some other changes being made around the state as a result.
My privacy organization here at Ohio State (http://www.osu.edu/students/privacy) has figured out that this court case is our biggest friend in getting the university to change their policies. If any Buckeyes out there are interested, my privacy organization is going to be become a full organization in Ohio.
There is a new group that has formed to oppose mandatory SSN and fingerprint collection in order to obtain a Texas driver's license. It seems like their interest is a class action lawsuit. If you want information see their web site at http://38.156.42.7 (no domain name yet) or write to get on the mailing list: bonnieblue@iname.com
The point about your criminal having a gun is interesting - but the ability to draw and shoot someone who already has a gun pointing at you is rare
Good point, however, as many people point out, the idea is more associated with deterrence. In that infamous study from the University of Chicago (hell, can't remember who wrote it) the thesis presented was that those states which allowed concealed carrying (about 33) had lower crime rates as a result of criminals not knowing who could be carrying a gun. Take it as you like, the study was terribly controversial.
With respect to Britain changing its gun laws as a result of Dunblane, reports here in US claim that homicides involving guns has, paradoxically, risen after those laws took effect.
Switzerland has a completely different culture than the rest of the civilized world.
The suiss people have stayed in their self-chosen cultural and political isolation for longer than the USA exists. It is true that suisse has less strict gun-ownership laws than most other european laws, but the percentage of actual gun-owners is less than in the USA.
I am not exactly sure how true that is. There are certainly quite a few gun owners in the US, but, assuming that what I hear is true about Switzerland, that every male over 18 is trained and has several types of guns, that would be somewhere about 50% gun ownership of the entire population. Then there may be a percentage of women who own guns...with that in mind, I can't see US gun ownership as a percentage of population being higher that Swiss ownership as a percentage of population.
Because I never actually used the microwave power systems. As I remember, for the money, they really didn't provide all that much more power over coal, in the end, you got more bang for the buck with nuclear. I don't recall using the gas powered ones either for the same reason. I always used nuclear (of course, I had disasters off and unlimited funds. Perhaps if I actually played for strategy instead of maximum population, I would have seen a need for microwave power.)
the new rules only apply to private mail boxes. You only need cash to open up a regular post office box at your local post office. The post office can't make people give up that much information for there own services because they are a government organization under the Privacy Act of 1974, and they would need congressional approval. This decision was just a little thing the postal service "made up." Them fraud artists and criminals still have plenty of ways of getting around it, and everyone knows it.
We are the seventh most populous state thank you very much. We also have more land zoned urban as a percentage of our land area than any other state. (I believe we are the top in land area zoned urban, but I have had problems confirming that.)
Butler County has about 350,000 people, and is one of the four Ohio counties that compose the Cincinnati metropolitan region (which also extends into southeastern Indiana and Northern Kentucky...but anyway.) The road itself is actually an important roadway in that area.
Even if he didn't "hotwire" the car, we should all be proud of his accomplishment...Ohio needs more bright youngsters like this.
If I may, I have been watching more or less closely what is going on in Minnesota, and he is turning out to be quite a good governor. While he does occasionally say something controversial (well, perhaps I should say often) he seems to have a pretty strong vision of where he wants Minnesota to go. The first year or two won't be terribly big, but it looks like he will be trying to make some fairly significant changes after 2000/2001.
What is really impressive is how he stands up to things, where no one else would. For instance, there was a national prayer day a few months ago, and Ventura would not declare the day official in Minnesota because he says that it violates the separation between church and state. Whether you believe he is correct or incorrect, you have to admit that he has guts to make a decision that could be very unpopular. Minnesota was the only holdout on that day.
He has capitalized on his fame which is also interesting. Recently he spoke in front of congress concerning agriculture issues, and he got a lot of press, despite the topic being a little bit on the mundane side.
On the other hand, he is mostly Libertarian on his politics, and so am I. If I were a Democrat, I probably would not be so excited over him.
And, how many thieves do you know with access to cutting edge laboratory equipment, reseachers, and could be bothered waiting several months for the results?
Which is why I say, it would become much more economically justifiable should the clone be able to access other things, like workstations, workplaces, the person's home, et cetera. If it were only the bank account, it would be easier to rob a bank.
So how much of it is based on genetics? And even if only part of it is based on genetics, is it entirely random, or could the genetic clone be forced into the forming the same pattern. I did know that a twin's fingerprints are different, but only slightly different. I am wondering if the finger can also be cloned in such a way so that it would end up growing into a particular pattern.