Why does everyone think that everything can be solved with technology? Oh, right, it's easier to sell than telling everyone they mostly suck at something and that they need to get better at it than, "here's a magic $product that will fix all your problems."
The problem is not technology, the problem is not our gadgets,; the problem is our collective attitude about driving and (lack of) training. Requirements to obtain (and retain) a driver's license in some countries would be shocking to most people in North America. Our standards are pathetic and woefully inadequate. Oh, you can follow some basic instructions that a chimp could do for 15 minutes? Here, now you can drive anything outside of a big rig, motorcycle or bus (unless it's an RV, because apparently, having fewer passengers magically turns it into an agile sports sedan... or something), including hauling your big-ass 5th wheel.
That shit doesn't fly in places where driving is taken seriously. Just Google "driving license in [European country]" and wait for your jaw to drop.
If we actually trained people to have vehicular and situational awareness, they would realize that it's a bad idea to be dicking around with their gizmos while operating a multi-ton projectile around hundreds of other multi-ton projectiles, pedestrians, cyclists and municipal structures... and we wouldn't be trying to develop bullshit tech like this or legislating laws ripe for abuse.
That kind of training takes years of practice, not 15 minutes in a mostly controlled situation. But you can't put that in a box and slap on a price sticker.
If Microsoft called the devices and software layer WinTouch or something, that might have helped a little, as a lot of people have been disappointed that a "Windows" computer can't run legacy mouse/keyboard Windows apps.
the overwhelming majority of police are good people with a genuine desire to do good in the world
Any cop who consciously neglects to report a corrupt colleague or subordinate is equally corrupt.
Are you really suggesting the "overwhelming majority" of "good people" in uniform have no idea what their colleagues and subordinates are up to and are completely unaware of their corruption? Do you have idea how minutely detailed the paperwork is required to be and how glaringly obvious it is when details are "missing" or plainly false?
Has there ever been a single situation where one corrupt jackass is tazing some innocent law-abider for "non-compliance" and one of the five other cops standing around him said, "what the fuck are you doing? You can't just torture someone into submission!"... of course not, they readily assist him by wrenching the victim's arms to put him/her in cuffs to be dragged into the cruiser (or worse).
Until we get rid of this "protect the brotherhood above all else" attitude that's heavily ingrained in police culture, corruption will continue to reign and continually worsen.
That's as bullshitty a term as it is in your supermarket. There *are* no "organic" results when they're calculated based on your tracking history, ad clicks and social connections.
For how long has America been glorifying and aggrandizing the most useless among itself, pushing propaganda as product, you must be this sexy to participate...
You end up having people more interested in the latest fashionable trends and pointless endeavors than solving the real problems and challenges of substance that face society.
Personally, I couldn't give less of a shit about the latest trendy sexy whatever. But, I love tackling a challenging project that helps people get shit done.
I don't buy new laptops anymore, they have all turned to shit. Keyboards that are lousy for the one job they need to do, touchpads that are worse, boot systems that lock you out, mandatory online account association, malignant operating systems... thank Torvalds performance vs. necessity peaked years ago. I can just keep buying used machines made before this computing cancer spread to the bones.
Same goes for cars. Boneheaded infotainment systems, I-can't-let-you-do-that-Dave electronic nannies, idiotic maintenance restrictions, needless complexities... fortunately, old cars run just fine. They look better, too.
It's kind of like trying to explain computers to some people. It is so natural and ingrained for us that it's actually difficult for us to express every logical pathway to "mere mortals" because we don't even consciously think about them. Some people just have lacking or limited ability to abstract, so every individual step takes a conscious and deliberate effort (god, that must be exhausting); the steps that don't even occur to us because they've become instinctive.
I should clarify: it's not that it can't or doesn't do OTF encryption, it's that it's very limited and incongruous with with the usage model.
When your computer is on, it's generally tied to a desk in a reasonably secured home or office building. If you have a laptop and you're carrying it in a bag, it's generally in suspend mode (TrueCrypt can be configured to automatically dismount volumes on logout, timeout, power saving, etc.), hibernation or powered off, and not otherwise polling for notifications like a phone is in its equivalent lower-power mode. Note that the hardware state of hibernation is equivalent to powered off, so any open encryption volumes are locked if you're using FDE or the OS volume is encrypted.
If someone swipes your phone out of your hand or pocket, it's pretty unlikely that it's going to powered off in an encrypted state at the time and your data is in the clear, protected only by a relatively weak PIN. If somebody swipes your laptop bag out of your hand / your car / a bus / a train / etc., chances are much more likely that it will be in an encrypted state and your data is pretty safe.
The major with built-in storage encryption for a smartphone is that it can't encrypt/decrypt on the fly, it's only encrypted when the phone is completely off. OTF encryption would be pretty incongruous to the functionality of a phone; the only way it would work would be with an asymmetrical encryption setup (yeah, try exchanging keys with your mom and see how that goes) or for it to demand your key to unlock with every call, SMS, notification, etc.
I look forward to the day when America gets back to the point where people start taking responsibility for their own actions again, instead of always looking for someone else to blame (and sue) for their own stupidity.
The person keeping a keychain in her unattended car, with keys of all her properties, conveniently labelled what each key is for and where it can be found, is called an "Idiot".
Don't forget, the "victim" also shares liability for such negligence. If you need proof of this, just ask your insurer if they'd cover the resulting losses. At the very least, they're going to jack your rates.
I read the article on Ars the other day. 8.1 has not really improved, it has just made some small, and ultimately meaningless, concessions to address a small number of complaints. The result is an awkward juxtaposition of UI paradigms that just makes things worse.
I see a lot of harping on here about how geeks should just accept it. Why? Why should I accept this inferior bullshit that malevolently decides to randomly screw with me when I'm trying to actually get things done?
I can accept change when it is change for the better, which this is not. Look, I'm sure it's perfectly fine for dicking around on Faceshitstatwat and other pointless endeavors of vanity and self-aggrandizing, but isn't Microsoft forgetting something? Y'know, like... the people who actually do the production work to make all this stuff happen?
Now, I'm reasonably technologically proficient, but I couldn't ever wrap my head around it. So, there's this virtual currency that can be "mined"? What exactly is being mined? Cryptographic calculations? What gives it its value? Simply that it's a new calculation? It all seems like trying to making something out if nothing, which inevitably ends up being nothing.
The value of real money is in being a by-currency for minerals and materials with actual, practical utility. Where is the practical utility for bitcoin?
You're right that business pays for (almost) anything, but they should not be given a backdoor to pay for things at their discretion. Those decisions should be made by the represented public.
For that to happen, high percentage tax brackets would need to be re-enstated and embargoes placed on offshore tax havens. Fat chance.
Oh, and Detroit is dead because they made shitty cars for too long.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does everyone think that everything can be solved with technology? Oh, right, it's easier to sell than telling everyone they mostly suck at something and that they need to get better at it than, "here's a magic $product that will fix all your problems."
The problem is not technology, the problem is not our gadgets,; the problem is our collective attitude about driving and (lack of) training. Requirements to obtain (and retain) a driver's license in some countries would be shocking to most people in North America. Our standards are pathetic and woefully inadequate. Oh, you can follow some basic instructions that a chimp could do for 15 minutes? Here, now you can drive anything outside of a big rig, motorcycle or bus (unless it's an RV, because apparently, having fewer passengers magically turns it into an agile sports sedan... or something), including hauling your big-ass 5th wheel.
That shit doesn't fly in places where driving is taken seriously. Just Google "driving license in [European country]" and wait for your jaw to drop.
If we actually trained people to have vehicular and situational awareness, they would realize that it's a bad idea to be dicking around with their gizmos while operating a multi-ton projectile around hundreds of other multi-ton projectiles, pedestrians, cyclists and municipal structures... and we wouldn't be trying to develop bullshit tech like this or legislating laws ripe for abuse.
That kind of training takes years of practice, not 15 minutes in a mostly controlled situation. But you can't put that in a box and slap on a price sticker.
The problem is obvious: you didn't believe hard enough.
If Microsoft called the devices and software layer WinTouch or something, that might have helped a little, as a lot of people have been disappointed that a "Windows" computer can't run legacy mouse/keyboard Windows apps.
Call it LoseTouch .. it works both ways!
Since you can only run one thing at a time, I'd be OK if they called it "Window"
By the transitive property of some random penguin chosen as a mascot for Linux making no sense, neither does that.
the overwhelming majority of police are good people with a genuine desire to do good in the world
Any cop who consciously neglects to report a corrupt colleague or subordinate is equally corrupt.
Are you really suggesting the "overwhelming majority" of "good people" in uniform have no idea what their colleagues and subordinates are up to and are completely unaware of their corruption? Do you have idea how minutely detailed the paperwork is required to be and how glaringly obvious it is when details are "missing" or plainly false?
Has there ever been a single situation where one corrupt jackass is tazing some innocent law-abider for "non-compliance" and one of the five other cops standing around him said, "what the fuck are you doing? You can't just torture someone into submission!" ... of course not, they readily assist him by wrenching the victim's arms to put him/her in cuffs to be dragged into the cruiser (or worse).
Until we get rid of this "protect the brotherhood above all else" attitude that's heavily ingrained in police culture, corruption will continue to reign and continually worsen.
That's as bullshitty a term as it is in your supermarket. There *are* no "organic" results when they're calculated based on your tracking history, ad clicks and social connections.
Friends don't let friends get tracked. Use the quack that doesn't track!
For how long has America been glorifying and aggrandizing the most useless among itself, pushing propaganda as product, you must be this sexy to participate...
You end up having people more interested in the latest fashionable trends and pointless endeavors than solving the real problems and challenges of substance that face society.
Personally, I couldn't give less of a shit about the latest trendy sexy whatever. But, I love tackling a challenging project that helps people get shit done.
...the guy who's pushing for Hollywood's control of the web? Something is amiss.
A worthy adversary to rival my porn collection!
Silly rabbit... laws don't apply to corporations
I don't buy new laptops anymore, they have all turned to shit. Keyboards that are lousy for the one job they need to do, touchpads that are worse, boot systems that lock you out, mandatory online account association, malignant operating systems... thank Torvalds performance vs. necessity peaked years ago. I can just keep buying used machines made before this computing cancer spread to the bones.
Same goes for cars. Boneheaded infotainment systems, I-can't-let-you-do-that-Dave electronic nannies, idiotic maintenance restrictions, needless complexities... fortunately, old cars run just fine. They look better, too.
It's kind of like trying to explain computers to some people. It is so natural and ingrained for us that it's actually difficult for us to express every logical pathway to "mere mortals" because we don't even consciously think about them. Some people just have lacking or limited ability to abstract, so every individual step takes a conscious and deliberate effort (god, that must be exhausting); the steps that don't even occur to us because they've become instinctive.
I should clarify: it's not that it can't or doesn't do OTF encryption, it's that it's very limited and incongruous with with the usage model.
When your computer is on, it's generally tied to a desk in a reasonably secured home or office building. If you have a laptop and you're carrying it in a bag, it's generally in suspend mode (TrueCrypt can be configured to automatically dismount volumes on logout, timeout, power saving, etc.), hibernation or powered off, and not otherwise polling for notifications like a phone is in its equivalent lower-power mode. Note that the hardware state of hibernation is equivalent to powered off, so any open encryption volumes are locked if you're using FDE or the OS volume is encrypted.
If someone swipes your phone out of your hand or pocket, it's pretty unlikely that it's going to powered off in an encrypted state at the time and your data is in the clear, protected only by a relatively weak PIN. If somebody swipes your laptop bag out of your hand / your car / a bus / a train / etc., chances are much more likely that it will be in an encrypted state and your data is pretty safe.
The major with built-in storage encryption for a smartphone is that it can't encrypt/decrypt on the fly, it's only encrypted when the phone is completely off. OTF encryption would be pretty incongruous to the functionality of a phone; the only way it would work would be with an asymmetrical encryption setup (yeah, try exchanging keys with your mom and see how that goes) or for it to demand your key to unlock with every call, SMS, notification, etc.
I always involuntarily read "SCROTUM", which... when you consider some of the decisions they make, kinda works.
I look forward to the day when America gets back to the point where people start taking responsibility for their own actions again, instead of always looking for someone else to blame (and sue) for their own stupidity.
You're gonna need a time machine
The person keeping a keychain in her unattended car, with keys of all her properties, conveniently labelled what each key is for and where it can be found, is called an "Idiot".
Don't forget, the "victim" also shares liability for such negligence. If you need proof of this, just ask your insurer if they'd cover the resulting losses. At the very least, they're going to jack your rates.
It's called the "anchoring effect"
I read the article on Ars the other day. 8.1 has not really improved, it has just made some small, and ultimately meaningless, concessions to address a small number of complaints. The result is an awkward juxtaposition of UI paradigms that just makes things worse.
I see a lot of harping on here about how geeks should just accept it. Why? Why should I accept this inferior bullshit that malevolently decides to randomly screw with me when I'm trying to actually get things done?
I can accept change when it is change for the better, which this is not. Look, I'm sure it's perfectly fine for dicking around on Faceshitstatwat and other pointless endeavors of vanity and self-aggrandizing, but isn't Microsoft forgetting something? Y'know, like... the people who actually do the production work to make all this stuff happen?
The NSA told them to say this, right? I mean, it's not like we can really know either way, since the trust has been obliterated.
Now, I'm reasonably technologically proficient, but I couldn't ever wrap my head around it. So, there's this virtual currency that can be "mined"? What exactly is being mined? Cryptographic calculations? What gives it its value? Simply that it's a new calculation? It all seems like trying to making something out if nothing, which inevitably ends up being nothing.
The value of real money is in being a by-currency for minerals and materials with actual, practical utility. Where is the practical utility for bitcoin?
You're right that business pays for (almost) anything, but they should not be given a backdoor to pay for things at their discretion. Those decisions should be made by the represented public.
For that to happen, high percentage tax brackets would need to be re-enstated and embargoes placed on offshore tax havens. Fat chance.
Oh, and Detroit is dead because they made shitty cars for too long.
Who'd have thought that America's first domino piece of descent into corporatist totalitarianism would be Facebook?
Are the articles British?