...How are we going to increase the gravity of Mars to prevent the Atmosphere from leaking off very fast?...
Actually, Mars has enough gravity to support a nice atmosphere. Gravity isn't the problem. Solar storms are. Mars lacks a magnetic shield (currently) like Earth has. It's that magnetic shield that stops solar storms from ripping off part of the atmosphere. See also the fourth non-bold paragraph.
...Even in some kind of alternate universe where compulsory, mandatory implants for all residents of the United States were a rider on ANY bill, no matter WHAT the bill, it would NEVER pass...
This assumes people know it is there, and even then it's an iffy assumption. Remember, riders can be added quite literally at the last minute. Slip it in a 100+ page bill that's up for a vote in less than a day, and watch it slip under the radar. It's happened before and will probably happen again.
...It is your private property and you never expect anyone who wasn't welcome to break those boundries, but we have welcomed the Internet with it's complete opposite point of view...
The difference here is it's wireless. It uses *PUBLIC* airspace/radio frequencies. That's the same line of reasoning the Supreme Court used with regards to the creation of the FCC.
...including downloading the right drivers from Creative (in my case)...
Well, I've found downloading Windows drivers, esp. sound drivers to be chancy. I remember spending 6 hours trying to figure out why Windows said the sound card was installed (and drivers) and working properly but wouldn't play any sound. Boot up with Knoppix and the sound played fine. Somehow I figured out that I needed to update the drivers with the ones I just installed. Then sound worked. I've encountered this more than once since then.
Or how about the time when the above symptoms arose yet again, but this time the drivers were one big exe file I couldn't extract the individual files from. It was a 98SE machine and I was using 98SE drivers (according the manufacturer's website). Again, a quick check with Knoppix showed everything was working. Finally used the Windows 95 drivers and sound started working.
Yes, windows had a slick installer. But what good is the installer if it doesn't work.
...It just keeps moving up. This is why I'm pissed at government right now, because they keep trying this sort of stuff, and the courts keep ruling for them, sooner or later...
And enough voters just sit around and let those who do this get re-elected. Politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently - and for the very same reason.
...After all, it's not really the IDEA of ads on Web pages that's the problem, it's the QUANTITY. "Too much of any good thing is a bad thing", remember?...
To a certain extent I agree. I vaguely remember visiting a website that had so many ads, I couldn't find the content (likely the "Click here to enter" link). I left quickly.
However, that is only part of the equation. The other is annoyance. I use adblock, but don't block all ads, nor do I even try to. But if the ad is a pop-up, or flashing/jumping/vibrating ad, then I block it, and usually all others from that server. I find it somewhat ironic that a simple static banner ad will get more viewing from me that the fancy flash ads.
Can you please provide something by the way of information on that comment? I would imagine that a "hidden laws" clause in any act of legislation would not only be unconstitutional, but also loudly mentioned in every single news and talk outfit in the country...
First, the law need not be hidden, but merely not noticed in time for anyone to protest it. Perfectly legal although not moral. Secondly, the news and talk outfits in this country are mostly owned by the big corps, who benefit from this sort of behavior. No way they will talking about them.
Need proof? The protests in NY during the republican convention of 2004 were not reported by any of the big media outlets. Only smaller, more independent outfits (I think/. was one of them) reported anything. Major illegal activity that when all is said and done will cost the city of NY millions. Yet, not even the mayor's democratic opponents are taking him to task for this. If this isn't reported, do you really think "hiding" legislation will be?
...It would be difficult to avoid a descent into corruption and greed -- better just to avoid the union altogether.
No big organization is entirely free of corruption and greed and unions are no different. For all their flaws, they have done some good. Look at history. What were conditions in the factories like before unions? It was these horrible conditions that gave rise to unions in the first place.
Unions are far from perfect, but so is management at most companies. Just look at the US Airways story to see why unions are still needed.
...it takes a registered notary public (not a flunky that the bank assigns) to witness signatures on major business transactions...
Well, my experience with certain financial transactions is it requires a signature guarantee, usually from a bank. Notary isn't good enough. Having had to get both, I'd say a signature guarantee is more secure. Of course, with a signature guarantee, the bank can be held financially liable, so it only figures they would be more careful.
...I wasn't aware that there was any difference in the value of genuine software versus pirated software to the consumer...
The consumer may not care, but MS should. I actually wish them the best of luck in stamping out piracy. I really do. I can't count how many people I've offered copies of Openoffice to that said we can get MS Office (read "pirate it") so we aren't interested. If people have to start paying for every copy, a lot more will be interested in FOSS. People who wouldn't even consider Linux before now will. Go Microsoft!:->
AOL is not "special" in that circumstance. The short response timeframe is a little harsh...
Well, if you've had your entire domain blocked by AOL without warning, you might disagree. You might disagree strongly if after contacting AOL, they admitted you were wrongly blocked but they were having trouble figuring out how to unblock you (took a week).
How many double opt-in e-mail lists have been blocked simply because some AOL luser couldn't figure out how to unsubscribe (or didn't even try to) and just hit the report as spam button? (Hint: I know of 3 just off the top of my head.) AOL blocking is automatic. Guilty until proven innocent. Is 24 hours really that harsh given what AOL does to others?
Of course, if we could all convince the idiots that buy from spam to stop buying, this whole problem would disappear on it's own.
...Just forget to pay the phone company to not put you in their directory, and any identity thief already has a lot of info to help them out...
Or you could just instruct them to list you under a different name. For all the telco's I used, that's free. Makes it easy to screen phone calls and mail. Anything addressed to the ficticional name is junk. It still amazes me how many credit card offers I get addressed to my phone book listing.
How is this any worse than if a virus were to erase the hard drive?
In an erase, you still have a functioning piece of hardware. You could partition, reformat, and reinstall. With a locked hard drive, you can't do any of that as I understand the problem. From the article "...The disk in this state allows no access to its data and accepts only a limited number of commands..."
...[No, the smart cheater hacks into the system before the exam, in order to lift the subject (and possibly answers...) from the teacher's homedirectory;-)] Yeah, but won't they kind of notice when you carry a whole lot of sheets of paper full of answers in?
Just seeing the questions and having time to prepare would give the test taker a huge advantage, even if they couldn't take any notes. Further, I've had open book (and notes) exams. In fact, I had one FINAL exam where the professor just took mid-term 1 and 2 and stapled them together and crossed out the word(s) mid-term. And it was open book (and notes)! I had gotten B's on both mid terms, still had them and the notes on the solutions to the questions he went over in class. Sadly, the lazy SOB didn't actually grade my final, but just gave it a B. Claimed an A wouldn't have affected my course grade, so there was no point in grading it.
...but I bet the police would give the accused a chance (maybe by court order) to surrender their laptop...
While I agree with most of your statement, it's not entirely true. First, the university is not a court. They could expel the suspect without hard proof. Even if she didn't get expelled, they could make quite sure she would never get a degree. Not quite the same as a criminal conviction, but a definite speed bump in getting a degree. In any case, it was the campus police that worked to catch her. In my experience, the campus police work for the University administration, which undoubtably wanted her caught. Had this been a private company, I very much doubt that the police would have even done anything more than take a report.
Second, even if you use a laptop, you could always use a bootable CD to do the dirty work. This eliminates the possibility (unless you do something really stupid) of files being left in the cache or swapfile.
Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way, but to me it's poetic justice. Remember Sony used IP claims to shut down the Aibo hack site. Sony was also the one that sued in the "Sony vs. Betamax" case and tried to use IP to stop VCRs. IP is a cursed two-edged sword.
Any word on the progress to fix these [popups]? It's not just Firefox;...
Well, for Firefox and Mozilla, type "about:config" in the address bar, right click in the main window, new integer. Name it "privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins" and set the integer value to 2. It will reduce popups, especially if you have flash.
...Well, the burner turned on for about 3 seconds and then barfed, leaving me with a coaster. Tried again, same results. Since I was under time pressure I fired up windows and copied it using Nero. No problems at all...
It might be the burner, not the software. I had an LG burner once that would error out (under Linux). However, if I rebooted the machine (something you probably did when switching to Windows), it burned fine for a while. Repeat. After 5 rounds of it not working, then working after a reboot, I transferred it to a Windows machine and saw the same behavior. Therefore, it is likely the drive, not the software or the OS.
As a side note, I replaced the LG burner with a different one when I moved it and haven't had a burning problem since. I've also seen the same behavior with tape drives (on both Linux and Windows). Have to reboot to get then working again.
Which is why I've always used strong encryption to IM my friends. If AOL wants to break my 4096-bit RSA key to sell my "lol"s, then they're welcome to...
Hmmm...wonder how long before any encrypted messages are blocked? After all, it is THEIR servers the messages are going through, so they can filter.
Probably would have been better to use no@example.com (or org, or net) . The example.com/org/net domains are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration.
Why get spoofstick for IE? The Netcraft Toolbar (used in TFA) shows the country that the server is located in even! That's much nicer.
Well, except for the fact it requires IE and Win2K or better. Kind of leaves out Mozilla/Firefox/Konqueror/Safari/Opera/Linux/Mac users. Frankly, I don't feel safe surfing with IE even with all the current security patches anyway. I do agree that showing the country the server is in is a nice feature, but it's not worth the price I'd have to pay (i.e. use IE [pun not intended]).
Actually, only the case against the woman (DeGroot) was dismissed. Even then, she only had $7,500 in fines according to the article. She didn't even get any jail time from the jury that convicted her. Apparently, she was only a minor player in the operation.
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Actually, Mars has enough gravity to support a nice atmosphere. Gravity isn't the problem. Solar storms are. Mars lacks a magnetic shield (currently) like Earth has. It's that magnetic shield that stops solar storms from ripping off part of the atmosphere. See also the fourth non-bold paragraph.
This assumes people know it is there, and even then it's an iffy assumption. Remember, riders can be added quite literally at the last minute. Slip it in a 100+ page bill that's up for a vote in less than a day, and watch it slip under the radar. It's happened before and will probably happen again.
There are many reasons why this is a bad idea, the first and foremost that it violates the 4th Amendment...
Since when has violating the various amendments stopped, or even bothered, "our" government anymore?
Gee, ever heard of a medic alert braclet? I've even seen people with them. "Cards? We don't need no stinking cards."
The difference here is it's wireless. It uses *PUBLIC* airspace/radio frequencies. That's the same line of reasoning the Supreme Court used with regards to the creation of the FCC.
Well, I've found downloading Windows drivers, esp. sound drivers to be chancy. I remember spending 6 hours trying to figure out why Windows said the sound card was installed (and drivers) and working properly but wouldn't play any sound. Boot up with Knoppix and the sound played fine. Somehow I figured out that I needed to update the drivers with the ones I just installed. Then sound worked. I've encountered this more than once since then.
Or how about the time when the above symptoms arose yet again, but this time the drivers were one big exe file I couldn't extract the individual files from. It was a 98SE machine and I was using 98SE drivers (according the manufacturer's website). Again, a quick check with Knoppix showed everything was working. Finally used the Windows 95 drivers and sound started working.
Yes, windows had a slick installer. But what good is the installer if it doesn't work.
And enough voters just sit around and let those who do this get re-elected. Politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently - and for the very same reason.
To a certain extent I agree. I vaguely remember visiting a website that had so many ads, I couldn't find the content (likely the "Click here to enter" link). I left quickly.
However, that is only part of the equation. The other is annoyance. I use adblock, but don't block all ads, nor do I even try to. But if the ad is a pop-up, or flashing/jumping/vibrating ad, then I block it, and usually all others from that server. I find it somewhat ironic that a simple static banner ad will get more viewing from me that the fancy flash ads.
Can you please provide something by the way of information on that comment? I would imagine that a "hidden laws" clause in any act of legislation would not only be unconstitutional, but also loudly mentioned in every single news and talk outfit in the country...
First, the law need not be hidden, but merely not noticed in time for anyone to protest it. Perfectly legal although not moral. Secondly, the news and talk outfits in this country are mostly owned by the big corps, who benefit from this sort of behavior. No way they will talking about them.
Need proof? The protests in NY during the republican convention of 2004 were not reported by any of the big media outlets. Only smaller, more independent outfits (I think /. was one of them) reported anything. Major illegal activity that when all is said and done will cost the city of NY millions. Yet, not even the mayor's democratic opponents are taking him to task for this. If this isn't reported, do you really think "hiding" legislation will be?
No big organization is entirely free of corruption and greed and unions are no different. For all their flaws, they have done some good. Look at history. What were conditions in the factories like before unions? It was these horrible conditions that gave rise to unions in the first place.
Unions are far from perfect, but so is management at most companies. Just look at the US Airways story to see why unions are still needed.
Well, my experience with certain financial transactions is it requires a signature guarantee, usually from a bank. Notary isn't good enough. Having had to get both, I'd say a signature guarantee is more secure. Of course, with a signature guarantee, the bank can be held financially liable, so it only figures they would be more careful.
The consumer may not care, but MS should. I actually wish them the best of luck in stamping out piracy. I really do. I can't count how many people I've offered copies of Openoffice to that said we can get MS Office (read "pirate it") so we aren't interested. If people have to start paying for every copy, a lot more will be interested in FOSS. People who wouldn't even consider Linux before now will. Go Microsoft! :->
AOL is not "special" in that circumstance. The short response timeframe is a little harsh...
Well, if you've had your entire domain blocked by AOL without warning, you might disagree. You might disagree strongly if after contacting AOL, they admitted you were wrongly blocked but they were having trouble figuring out how to unblock you (took a week).
How many double opt-in e-mail lists have been blocked simply because some AOL luser couldn't figure out how to unsubscribe (or didn't even try to) and just hit the report as spam button? (Hint: I know of 3 just off the top of my head.) AOL blocking is automatic. Guilty until proven innocent. Is 24 hours really that harsh given what AOL does to others?
Of course, if we could all convince the idiots that buy from spam to stop buying, this whole problem would disappear on it's own.
Or you could just instruct them to list you under a different name. For all the telco's I used, that's free. Makes it easy to screen phone calls and mail. Anything addressed to the ficticional name is junk. It still amazes me how many credit card offers I get addressed to my phone book listing.
How is this any worse than if a virus were to erase the hard drive?
In an erase, you still have a functioning piece of hardware. You could partition, reformat, and reinstall. With a locked hard drive, you can't do any of that as I understand the problem. From the article "...The disk in this state allows no access to its data and accepts only a limited number of commands..."
Just seeing the questions and having time to prepare would give the test taker a huge advantage, even if they couldn't take any notes. Further, I've had open book (and notes) exams. In fact, I had one FINAL exam where the professor just took mid-term 1 and 2 and stapled them together and crossed out the word(s) mid-term. And it was open book (and notes)! I had gotten B's on both mid terms, still had them and the notes on the solutions to the questions he went over in class. Sadly, the lazy SOB didn't actually grade my final, but just gave it a B. Claimed an A wouldn't have affected my course grade, so there was no point in grading it.
She changed her professor's passwords? Of course she'll get caught! She's an idiot (oh wait, this was already established when she failed 3 classes).
I wonder, if she's an idiot but could still break into the system, what's that make the person(s) who designed the security for the system?
While I agree with most of your statement, it's not entirely true. First, the university is not a court. They could expel the suspect without hard proof. Even if she didn't get expelled, they could make quite sure she would never get a degree. Not quite the same as a criminal conviction, but a definite speed bump in getting a degree. In any case, it was the campus police that worked to catch her. In my experience, the campus police work for the University administration, which undoubtably wanted her caught. Had this been a private company, I very much doubt that the police would have even done anything more than take a report.
Second, even if you use a laptop, you could always use a bootable CD to do the dirty work. This eliminates the possibility (unless you do something really stupid) of files being left in the cache or swapfile.
Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way, but to me it's poetic justice. Remember Sony used IP claims to shut down the Aibo hack site. Sony was also the one that sued in the "Sony vs. Betamax" case and tried to use IP to stop VCRs. IP is a cursed two-edged sword.
Any word on the progress to fix these [popups]? It's not just Firefox;...
Well, for Firefox and Mozilla, type "about:config" in the address bar, right click in the main window, new integer. Name it "privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins" and set the integer value to 2. It will reduce popups, especially if you have flash.
It might be the burner, not the software. I had an LG burner once that would error out (under Linux). However, if I rebooted the machine (something you probably did when switching to Windows), it burned fine for a while. Repeat. After 5 rounds of it not working, then working after a reboot, I transferred it to a Windows machine and saw the same behavior. Therefore, it is likely the drive, not the software or the OS.
As a side note, I replaced the LG burner with a different one when I moved it and haven't had a burning problem since. I've also seen the same behavior with tape drives (on both Linux and Windows). Have to reboot to get then working again.
Which is why I've always used strong encryption to IM my friends. If AOL wants to break my 4096-bit RSA key to sell my "lol"s, then they're welcome to...
Hmmm...wonder how long before any encrypted messages are blocked? After all, it is THEIR servers the messages are going through, so they can filter.
Probably would have been better to use no@example.com (or org, or net) . The example.com/org/net domains are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration.
Why get spoofstick for IE? The Netcraft Toolbar (used in TFA) shows the country that the server is located in even! That's much nicer.
Well, except for the fact it requires IE and Win2K or better. Kind of leaves out Mozilla/Firefox/Konqueror/Safari/Opera/Linux/Mac users. Frankly, I don't feel safe surfing with IE even with all the current security patches anyway. I do agree that showing the country the server is in is a nice feature, but it's not worth the price I'd have to pay (i.e. use IE [pun not intended]).
Actually, only the case against the woman (DeGroot) was dismissed. Even then, she only had $7,500 in fines according to the article. She didn't even get any jail time from the jury that convicted her. Apparently, she was only a minor player in the operation.