Off topic, but it's amazing what a small world we live in. I used to dial up a BBS in Huntsville called Thunder Mountain. It was a Wildcat system with 3-4 nodes IIRC. My dad never would get area calling on our line so it was just outside the calling area and I couldn't dial in too often, but I remember them having good door games and files, plus a Fidonet feed. As I recall, either the owners of that board sold it to a company, or themselves went into business and created HiWAAY Information Services, an early dialup ISP in the area. I guess they are still around and doing just fine huh?
I have all the right stuff to be a fantastic NASA astronaut. The question is, does NASA have all the right stuff to attract me into its program, so that I can look forward to years of wasting away doing nothing while others are actually out accomplishing things?
1) All information does not end up in the public domain and to think so implies a level of naivete a bit beyond belief.
Oh really? Name one invention more than 50-100 years old whose implementation, inner workings, etc isn't common knowledge.
2) 'The common man' does not need to know how to make nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. I'd just as soon that organizations that want to attack my society also not know how to make such weapons.
Except that everyone already DOES know how. That cat is long out of the bag, reproduced, and had several generations of kittens. Good luck putting it back in.
3) Where some few governments have succeeded, with the help of other governments, I'm sure there are a lot of people and organizations, not to mention countries, who have been very determined to make a nuclear weapon who have obviously failed or we'd know about it.
Oh really? And how would you know about it, exactly, if someone built a small experimental nuclear reactor and produced enough plutonium to build a few warheads, until the warhead was actually detonated? And what makes you think anyone capable of doing such a thing would squander the capability by wasting it on anything but the most extraordinary of circumstances?
Humanity doesn't work exactly like you think it does. There aren't people who are "just out" to kill us, for no real reason, and will stop at nothing to do it. We create these people through our jacked up foreign policies. When we stop being bullies and accept our PLACE in the world as ONE of many nations, instead of the world's police force, then we don't have to worry about crazy asses trying to blow our cities up.
I don't think it's elitist to say that KDE is the best Linux desktop environment. (Gnome user here--Linux Mint.) It truly is one of the few things in Linux approaching closely to a well put together product, vs the pile of shit that most everything else is. It's just that it's huge and resource intensive. Not the best choice for slower machines, to be sure, but the world is steadily moving towards faster and better machines.
I think the key problem with any software being perceived as slow on any hardware really comes down to how well the whole system is designed, in regards to scheduling of UI operations (CPU time) vs other stuff, I/O, number crunching, etc. Nowhere is this worse than on Windows, especially XP and prior. This really stood to light since I've been broke for the past few years and haven't upgraded phones or computers in like 4 years. Finally I was tired of having a shit phone, and an increasingly slow computer (Dell Inspiron E1505, Core2@2.0, 2GB), and wanted to do Android development, so I bought and new phone and computer.
So I started off with the phone so this would benefit me the most. I have NEVER used a smart phone before, but I carefully read the reviews and picked an HTC Sensation 4G w/ 1.2Ghz dual core Snapdragon, 512 MB ram. And of course, it's now running the Revolution HD rom and overclocked to 1.5GHz. HTC Sense is really nice to begin with and now it's just so snappy and responsive. And comparing that to how creaky and slow my old laptop was, and especially when that one died and I had to switch to the year older business laptop on XP...WOW. What a long ways we have come.....on MOBILE devices.....but not so much on the PC. I like Windows 7, and Linux Mint I think is the overall best put together distro, but neither of these come anywhere near what I think an OS should really be capable of.
For starters, WHY is it in explorer when I click on a network drive or other resource that needs to be accessed, I'm forced to WAIT while this occurs? What the hell? I thought the whole point of having multiple processes running concurrently (you know, like back in the 386 days) was so that you could have important processes (such as, I don't know, ACCEPTING AND RESPONDING TO USER INPUT) running concurrently always? Windows is *rife* with these type of infuriating delays in the UI. I don't give a damn if there's a hundred processes running calculating PI to the billionth digit, there should be NO delay in the UI....EVER.....PERIOD.
Seriously, why do I have to wait 30 seconds for a dialog box to pop up when I right click something in just about any GUI environment these days? Back in the 80s didn't they keep some of that type of stuff in RAM at all times, and NEVER allow it to be swapped out or lost while the OS is running? With 16GB being $70 at Newegg, why aren't we doing that today? And why haven't we been doing it for years?
Etc. Etc. I think it's getting about that time to reinvent the operating system. It seems the latest rash of new languages being developed is a precursor to this event. And I have a feeling the reinvention will be something that is well thought through enough that it runs great on ANY modern computer, i.e. made in the last 10 years. Because let's face it, why the fuck should we just sigh and accept the fact that a 1.2 GHz machine can never do anything useful and we all just need to upgrade to all the latest gee whiz hardware to solve our problems? Hello? Clearly it's not the hardware at fault, with my phone being proof of that. Our SOFTWARE is the problem.
There is arguably some science that we don't want in the public domain.
Bullshit. All information ends up in the public domain regardless. Excessive attempts to control it only result in the common man getting screwed over. We are eventually going to figure out how to make a super flu anyway, same as anyone today who was determined enough could build a nuclear weapon if they wanted, despite many years of secrecy. There is no point trying to hold this back.
Neither one of those two situations, failing to signal a lane change or cruising in the passing lane, is likely to cause an accident if other drivers are paying attention and obeying sound defensive driving practices.
So how will you reduce the risk of someone next to you suddenly deciding to switch the lanes without checking that you're there? How do you reduce the risk of someone deciding he just has to pass the car in front of him even when there's incoming traffick?
Um...by not riding beside somebody, especially in their blind spot?
I mean, is this a serious question? Have you never learned defensive driving?
So basically you're just pissed because he used the word "journalism" for what he did, in the same way that insecure engineers always have to chime in pointing out loudly for everyone to see that THIS person is NOT properly called an engineer because he doesn't satisfy requirements X, Y, or Z.
Obviously you consider yourself one hell of a journalist, or at least a "proper" one, or have close ties to this field, or you wouldn't have felt so moved to immediately explain in the first post how badly this news article sucks. Wait...what kind of journalist is so absorbed into reading slashdot that he would have time to write such a length, detailed slashdot first post?
I'm glad this article was posted. I found the summary interesting. That's what I read slashdot for--interesting summaries, sometimes articles, and always for the interesting comments. It's quite revealing how much some people reveal about themselves unintentionally.
Another thing: you don't need a warrant to conduct *investigation* from public airspace. You don't even have to fly low, you can hover way up out of sight and just use a really good camera on a swivel mount, and watch someone 24/7. And all you need is a low level geek to fly it, who can be easily intimidated/controlled, rather than a real pilot (who is usually of the more independent sort) and crew (who might also need be corrupted.) So this tool just makes it far easier for the police/government to spy on people.
Oh, and just wait til some politician connects the dots and realizes these can be used for traffic law enforcement, too. With live views from overhead, officers can sit at their ease on the side of the Interstate and much more easily target the most vulnerable, "suspicious", or at-risk individuals for "enforcement" activity. (A red Mustang traveling at 76 MPH is a LOT more dangerous than a minivan doing the same, right?) Of course the department will boast that the speed as determined by drone is MUCH more accurate, while failing to mention the countless ways in which this can be tampered with just like a radar detector reading (i.e. "the human factor"), so the net result is a much more effective tool of oppression.
How is it different? Because now instead of hiring helicopters and guys with really good eyesight, the DEA can put up a few drones to fly around 24/7 streaming back visual and infrared feeds, to dudes sitting around monitors looking for those evil bad guys who are growing the wrong plants. Now the pigs don't even have to work to steal and rob from the citizens they "protect."
My experience has been the same. It baffles me to see people say WD is shit. I guess it all depends on individual circumstances, and some people have probably got bad batches. The only hard drive I've ever had "just die" for no discernable reason was a 1.2 gig Maxtor back in the day. I also killed a Samsung 160gb drive in my laptop, probably through rough treatment as it did get banged around some. Oh yeah, and I did have a 750GB WD die for the same reason, after much abuse in an external hard drive enclosure. It developed click of death but I got most/all the data off.
Back in the company I used to work for in 2007, we used to mail out/receive a LOT of data on external hard drives, and the most reliable brand was WD. Least reliable was LaCie, followed by Maxtor and Seagate. I have always bought WD drives and paid extra to get the Raptor, Caviar Black, etc drives, and never had one die on me. I do have some old WD400s/800s that are dead, but I think it might have somehow been from sitting, cause I don't remember them dying in service.
More muscle mass equals less flexibility, slower movement,
Incorrect.
inability to climb through small holes.
Maybe. But in nature there isn't a hole a mouse can't dig larger for himself if needed, to crawl through. Having twice the strength would help with that.
I suspect that a mouse being twice as strong wouldn't help it survive simply because strength isn't something that really keeps mice alive. A snake can catch and eat a muscle-bound mouse as easily as a skinny one.
Afghanistan is a bad example. Logistically it's a nightmare to conduct operations in there, especially for the US. The US doesn't have guaranteed bases in the region and as such has to keep on the good side of some pretty questionable characters.
Yeah, but the flipside is U.S. politicians don't have to sleep in Afghanistan at night. When the battle comes to their own homes, what good is a cruise missle or tank?
Think it through. There is nothing to stop them from developing a kill code, and they probably already have asked for one from manufacturers. It'll be here, sooner rather than later.
And every time it's used, during some event of police brutality, it'll turn a hundred citizens into radicals calling/fighting for revolution.
No, the days of fear and intimidation in this country are coming to an end. We haven't forgotten what it's like to be free, because the Internet has reminded us.
I don't think it's even a question of open source vs closed source. As you allude, projects which are backed up by large corporations--big, authoritative organizations, with money to spend--tend to work out much better than completely open source, volunteer-run and designed projects. This is a question of leadership, resources, and direction. Having true direction with all- or mostly-volunteer groups is only possible when the way forward is clear.
Firefox in its early years was lean, mean, and just all around a better browser. That was when IE was garbage and we all knew a good replacement was needed. After IE caught up, what then? That's when Firefox went to shit without clear direction. And just like any other sinking organization, at first the good guys leave one by one, then in droves, then you finally end up with morons running the show, until the whole thing collapses under its own weight. Is this the path Mozilla is on? I don't know, but I don't give a fuck, because their browser has sucked too much for far too long to care.
The deterioration of an organization is a difficult thing to predict and is based much more on social factors (i.e. leadership, or the lack thereof) than anything else.
So in a corporate-run project, there is (ideally) a clear chain of command, and everything (finances, capital, etc) are under control of it. Data flows up and down the chain, but decisions only flow from top to bottom. It takes an organization like this with true leadership and vision to produce products of the highest caliber. Open source community-driven projects will rarely if ever accomplish anything on the scale and scope possible here.
On a much smaller and simpler project however, I would say yes, it's very possible to see high quality open source projects. Generally these are projects that folks have worked on for a long time, fleshing it out and working out all the bugs. If the project is run by someone with some sense then a high quality product can and will likely result. It's the scaling it up to larger scales (i.e. adding more developers, coordinating them, etc) that really throws the wrench in the whole project and decides whether it goes the route of willy-nilly decision by committee bullshit, or directed decision making by competent people.
For a deeper insight into my perspective, I ran Linux on my desktop for many, many years, starting on a Pentium 100 w/ 16 MB on Slackware around 1996 (downloading the disks and writing them one at a time), then Red Hat when I bought their CD/book package at the mall gaming store. (Coolest thing ever!!!) I switched on and off from Windows but ran Linux exclusively for a long, long time. I even bought a Dell Inspiron E1505 with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed when those were offered.
But a couple years ago...I finally just had to switch to Windows for good, after Windows 7 came out and was looking worth a try. It has its flaws, but God Damn it, it's SO nice not to EVER have to drop to the command line...to fix... ANYTHING. A reboot at the most is all that's needed, and rarely so. I have tried all Linux distros under the sun and to date NONE of the open source distributions have truly got their shit together in terms of offering anything but rehashed versions of the same ole shit. (Except for perhaps RedHat...and Suse is not bad from my experience....but once again...coporate backed!)
Years ago the reason I stuck with Linux and held out hope for it was because I was SURE that soon, somebody would come along and find a way to stitch all these pieces together that the software community has made, and finally make something incredible. But then as the years passed and I saw the reality of unpatched bugs (or marked as "unimportant"), design changes for no apparent good reason, shit that Still Fucking Doesn't Just Work after eons (ex. the sound system. What the FUCK, people?), STILL no way to configure half the system from the GUI, have to drop to the command line to do anything halfway interesting. Fuck that shit, I have better things to do wi
"All sarcasm aside, I won't deny that America has been vilifying Iran (whether justified or not is outside the scope of my comment), but I really don't see how anything the U.S. may have done in terms of media treatment or political maneuvering could even hope to compare with the Iran hostage crisis when it comes to creating ill will between the two countries."
......You're kidding right?
Oh gee, I don't know, maybe the Iranians might have been pissed because the U.S. overthrew their democratically elected government and replaced it with a U.S.-backed puppet dictator (the Shah), whom the Iranians subsequently overthrew in a bloody revolution after decades of tyranny and oppression? No, I can't possibly imagine any reason Iranians might have been angry enough to overrun our embassy and take our people hostage.
WAKE UP and pull your head out of your ass before it's too late.
Here's why your entire post, while technically correct, is wrong: This drone receives its control signal via satellite. The satellites involved are most likely in LEO. Which is closer to the drone and thus stronger: LEO, or the jamming signal on the ground?
I am a U.S. civil engineering student, and I know a bit about speed limits on various roads.
Yes..."a bit"...as in, not a whole lot, considering you're a college kid in his early 20s at the latest, with zero real world experience and more opinion than actual knowledge. Don't get mad, just listen. You are way too young to be toeing the establishment line on this. Here's a few facts for you. The US Interstate System was designed to accommodate sustained speeds of 100+MPH. In today's world, with modern vehicles capable of safely and efficiently cruising at 80-90 MPH, keeping the speed limit at 65 MPH on a 10 lane straight as an arrow highway has NOTHING to do with curves, hills, or engineering limitations of the road, sorry. All of these are nothing more than plausible excuses, which ensure (for those in power) that the speed limits and other unfair/unnecessary traffic laws remain and continue serving their REAL agenda: a great means for police, courts, and local agencies to make lots of easy revenue. Period. It has NOTHING to do with safety, though that's the excuse. Research has shown that the VAST majority of drivers drive at a speed which is comfortable and safe for conditions...speed limit or no. I hate to sound paternal, but you will learn for yourself as you get older if you just keep your eyes open and see how the system works, that 95% of people are looking out for themselves and their buddies, not everyone as a whole, no matter what they say or believe. It's all about revenue and in fact safety is WORSENED with too low speed limits because "law abiding" idiots obey the limit hold up/block/surprise drivers who choose to drive at more sane speeds.
I'm surprised that fuel consumption, being a big national issue, hasn't gained traction with the speed limit people. The state next to mine even recently increased their speed limits on a major road from 65 to 70, so all those SUVs can go even faster and burn even more fuel (no engine technology in the world will save you from speed-squared drag).
Except most modern vehicles will get BETTER fuel mileage running at 70-80+ MPH instead of puttering along at 65. This is because modern vehicles have overdrive transmissions and are DESIGNED to run most efficiently at typical highway speeds.
I also think that all those people who speed on their commutes must have failed math, because going 75 instead of 70 only saves you a theoretical 100 seconds (not even 2 minutes!) over 30 miles,
#1 Really? And how much does it save over, say, 100,000 miles? My quick math says it a 93 hour savings, how bout yours? That's 93 fewer hours sitting in traffic, exposed to others' risky driving.
#2 Get this through your head: it's none of your business if I decide to burn a little of MY fuel, or save a little of MY time, by driving faster, when study after study and common fucking sense has proven time and again that the "safety" aspects of speed limits are basically bullshit, and the traffic camera in question here is nothing more than a new and improved means to generate more revenue for the parasitic, tyrannical fucking leeches who have infested our courts and police system.
#3 Before slinging arrows at people who "failed math" or whatever, make you actually have half a clue about anything yourself. (hint: you don't)
So I take it you're a software developer. You have very few material outlays. As many of us are aware and have experienced, software development is often done best in small, agile teams; often a "team of one". That's great. I'm glad it works for you. It is though (how did you put it?) "absolutely and categorically wrong" to assume this model is applicable to all types of business.
Just as you are absolutely and categorically wrong (no quotes) in assuming it doesn't apply to most types of businesses.
It's clear you've never actually tried to open your own business. All you've done is heard about others trying, and assumed/believed/perpetuated the lie that it's difficult to get started. It's not.
I grew up in an old dilapidated 60s single wide trailer in the woods of Alabama. My dad comes from a line of poor Irish farmers and my mom was the poor daughter of a Cherokee and English line. Both are from the backwoods, met and married in high school, and neither had a college education or much money until my mom put herself through (nursing) school after I graduated high school.
I didn't learn anything about business or finance growing up. My parents didn't know anything to teach me. All I knew is I wasn't planning to live in a single wide trailer the rest of my life.
Try setting up a business where you produce material goods. In addition to the costs of registering the business, you have to buy stock and equipment; even if you're working from home.
I started a business from my home building a certain type of electronic controller. I found a niche in a market which I was familiar with due to my hobbies. It cost me less than $7-800 to set this business up and start selling products, from the time of having the idea to putting up a business and starting to advertise.
You have to find a marketplace where you can show your goods.
Internet forums, word of mouth for your superior product....it's the best form of advertisement and costs nothing.
Often that means giving away "samples" to drum up business or paying a fee to attend a show of sorts.
Not in my case
If it's a booth, you have to dress it up to draw people in.
Not difficult
Then there's transport, shipping, etc.
A couple bucks worth of gas to run a load of packages down to the UPS/Fedex store/Post Office. Or get a business account and have them picked up at your door. This is a non issue.
All of which you're expected to eat.
Depends on the business. I built my products to order which mean that I had to stock NOTHING up front...and I didn't build a unit until I was paid in full.
If you break even within a year, you're doing well.
Yes, this is true.
People were beating down my door to order my product. My business was successful right out of the gate--BUT--I did make some crucial mistakes. I went out of business. My first attempt at business thus "failed."
Except...it wasn't really a failure. To me it was a huge learning experience. I learned more and finance and running a business in those short 8 months than I ever knew in the years before.
Most people would have given up after this. Indeed it's the tendency to give up at the first sign of adversity is what causes most people to be failures in the long run. I got pretty damn used to the self-employed lifestyle though, and wasn't going to give it up so easy to go back to the daily 9-5 cubicle grind.
I learned a new trade and started a new (very profitable) business in a different field. This one took a lot more up front investment....but I managed to find it, because I want to succeed. As we speak I am in the process of slowly ramping up production and starting to see profit coming in.
While I've been working on this I've been keeping an eye on the old market I was in before. I'm seeing products crop up which are similar to my old offering but not really much better. Meanwhile I've come up with a lot of great id
Never been to prison, I take it? If you wanna see what modern day slavery looks like, just let the police catch you growing the wrong plant, or drying it and selling it to another consenting adult. It's much easier for them to catch you doing this when they can follow and track your every move electronically.
Slashdot Mirror
Off topic, but it's amazing what a small world we live in. I used to dial up a BBS in Huntsville called Thunder Mountain. It was a Wildcat system with 3-4 nodes IIRC. My dad never would get area calling on our line so it was just outside the calling area and I couldn't dial in too often, but I remember them having good door games and files, plus a Fidonet feed. As I recall, either the owners of that board sold it to a company, or themselves went into business and created HiWAAY Information Services, an early dialup ISP in the area. I guess they are still around and doing just fine huh?
I have all the right stuff to be a fantastic NASA astronaut. The question is, does NASA have all the right stuff to attract me into its program, so that I can look forward to years of wasting away doing nothing while others are actually out accomplishing things?
Sadly, the answer is no.
1) All information does not end up in the public domain and to think so implies a level of naivete a bit beyond belief.
Oh really? Name one invention more than 50-100 years old whose implementation, inner workings, etc isn't common knowledge.
2) 'The common man' does not need to know how to make nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. I'd just as soon that organizations that want to attack my society also not know how to make such weapons.
Except that everyone already DOES know how. That cat is long out of the bag, reproduced, and had several generations of kittens. Good luck putting it back in.
3) Where some few governments have succeeded, with the help of other governments, I'm sure there are a lot of people and organizations, not to mention countries, who have been very determined to make a nuclear weapon who have obviously failed or we'd know about it.
Oh really? And how would you know about it, exactly, if someone built a small experimental nuclear reactor and produced enough plutonium to build a few warheads, until the warhead was actually detonated? And what makes you think anyone capable of doing such a thing would squander the capability by wasting it on anything but the most extraordinary of circumstances?
Humanity doesn't work exactly like you think it does. There aren't people who are "just out" to kill us, for no real reason, and will stop at nothing to do it. We create these people through our jacked up foreign policies. When we stop being bullies and accept our PLACE in the world as ONE of many nations, instead of the world's police force, then we don't have to worry about crazy asses trying to blow our cities up.
I don't think it's elitist to say that KDE is the best Linux desktop environment. (Gnome user here--Linux Mint.) It truly is one of the few things in Linux approaching closely to a well put together product, vs the pile of shit that most everything else is. It's just that it's huge and resource intensive. Not the best choice for slower machines, to be sure, but the world is steadily moving towards faster and better machines.
I think the key problem with any software being perceived as slow on any hardware really comes down to how well the whole system is designed, in regards to scheduling of UI operations (CPU time) vs other stuff, I/O, number crunching, etc. Nowhere is this worse than on Windows, especially XP and prior. This really stood to light since I've been broke for the past few years and haven't upgraded phones or computers in like 4 years. Finally I was tired of having a shit phone, and an increasingly slow computer (Dell Inspiron E1505, Core2@2.0, 2GB), and wanted to do Android development, so I bought and new phone and computer.
So I started off with the phone so this would benefit me the most. I have NEVER used a smart phone before, but I carefully read the reviews and picked an HTC Sensation 4G w/ 1.2Ghz dual core Snapdragon, 512 MB ram. And of course, it's now running the Revolution HD rom and overclocked to 1.5GHz. HTC Sense is really nice to begin with and now it's just so snappy and responsive. And comparing that to how creaky and slow my old laptop was, and especially when that one died and I had to switch to the year older business laptop on XP...WOW. What a long ways we have come.....on MOBILE devices.....but not so much on the PC. I like Windows 7, and Linux Mint I think is the overall best put together distro, but neither of these come anywhere near what I think an OS should really be capable of.
For starters, WHY is it in explorer when I click on a network drive or other resource that needs to be accessed, I'm forced to WAIT while this occurs? What the hell? I thought the whole point of having multiple processes running concurrently (you know, like back in the 386 days) was so that you could have important processes (such as, I don't know, ACCEPTING AND RESPONDING TO USER INPUT) running concurrently always? Windows is *rife* with these type of infuriating delays in the UI. I don't give a damn if there's a hundred processes running calculating PI to the billionth digit, there should be NO delay in the UI....EVER.....PERIOD.
Seriously, why do I have to wait 30 seconds for a dialog box to pop up when I right click something in just about any GUI environment these days? Back in the 80s didn't they keep some of that type of stuff in RAM at all times, and NEVER allow it to be swapped out or lost while the OS is running? With 16GB being $70 at Newegg, why aren't we doing that today? And why haven't we been doing it for years?
Etc. Etc. I think it's getting about that time to reinvent the operating system. It seems the latest rash of new languages being developed is a precursor to this event. And I have a feeling the reinvention will be something that is well thought through enough that it runs great on ANY modern computer, i.e. made in the last 10 years. Because let's face it, why the fuck should we just sigh and accept the fact that a 1.2 GHz machine can never do anything useful and we all just need to upgrade to all the latest gee whiz hardware to solve our problems? Hello? Clearly it's not the hardware at fault, with my phone being proof of that. Our SOFTWARE is the problem.
There is arguably some science that we don't want in the public domain.
Bullshit. All information ends up in the public domain regardless. Excessive attempts to control it only result in the common man getting screwed over. We are eventually going to figure out how to make a super flu anyway, same as anyone today who was determined enough could build a nuclear weapon if they wanted, despite many years of secrecy. There is no point trying to hold this back.
Neither one of those two situations, failing to signal a lane change or cruising in the passing lane, is likely to cause an accident if other drivers are paying attention and obeying sound defensive driving practices.
So how will you reduce the risk of someone next to you suddenly deciding to switch the lanes without checking that you're there? How do you reduce the risk of someone deciding he just has to pass the car in front of him even when there's incoming traffick?
Um...by not riding beside somebody, especially in their blind spot?
I mean, is this a serious question? Have you never learned defensive driving?
Even on the road today this is an issue. Doesn't matter how good of a driver you are.
Are you saying that one's odds of getting into an accident are uncorrellated with one's driving skill?
So basically you're just pissed because he used the word "journalism" for what he did, in the same way that insecure engineers always have to chime in pointing out loudly for everyone to see that THIS person is NOT properly called an engineer because he doesn't satisfy requirements X, Y, or Z.
Obviously you consider yourself one hell of a journalist, or at least a "proper" one, or have close ties to this field, or you wouldn't have felt so moved to immediately explain in the first post how badly this news article sucks. Wait...what kind of journalist is so absorbed into reading slashdot that he would have time to write such a length, detailed slashdot first post?
I'm glad this article was posted. I found the summary interesting. That's what I read slashdot for--interesting summaries, sometimes articles, and always for the interesting comments. It's quite revealing how much some people reveal about themselves unintentionally.
Another thing: you don't need a warrant to conduct *investigation* from public airspace. You don't even have to fly low, you can hover way up out of sight and just use a really good camera on a swivel mount, and watch someone 24/7. And all you need is a low level geek to fly it, who can be easily intimidated/controlled, rather than a real pilot (who is usually of the more independent sort) and crew (who might also need be corrupted.) So this tool just makes it far easier for the police/government to spy on people.
Oh, and just wait til some politician connects the dots and realizes these can be used for traffic law enforcement, too. With live views from overhead, officers can sit at their ease on the side of the Interstate and much more easily target the most vulnerable, "suspicious", or at-risk individuals for "enforcement" activity. (A red Mustang traveling at 76 MPH is a LOT more dangerous than a minivan doing the same, right?) Of course the department will boast that the speed as determined by drone is MUCH more accurate, while failing to mention the countless ways in which this can be tampered with just like a radar detector reading (i.e. "the human factor"), so the net result is a much more effective tool of oppression.
How is it different? Because now instead of hiring helicopters and guys with really good eyesight, the DEA can put up a few drones to fly around 24/7 streaming back visual and infrared feeds, to dudes sitting around monitors looking for those evil bad guys who are growing the wrong plants. Now the pigs don't even have to work to steal and rob from the citizens they "protect."
My experience has been the same. It baffles me to see people say WD is shit. I guess it all depends on individual circumstances, and some people have probably got bad batches. The only hard drive I've ever had "just die" for no discernable reason was a 1.2 gig Maxtor back in the day. I also killed a Samsung 160gb drive in my laptop, probably through rough treatment as it did get banged around some. Oh yeah, and I did have a 750GB WD die for the same reason, after much abuse in an external hard drive enclosure. It developed click of death but I got most/all the data off.
Back in the company I used to work for in 2007, we used to mail out/receive a LOT of data on external hard drives, and the most reliable brand was WD. Least reliable was LaCie, followed by Maxtor and Seagate. I have always bought WD drives and paid extra to get the Raptor, Caviar Black, etc drives, and never had one die on me. I do have some old WD400s/800s that are dead, but I think it might have somehow been from sitting, cause I don't remember them dying in service.
Right, because differentiating yourself as a premium provider with a better than industry norm warranty wouldn't work
Right, because Seagate is still the quality brand name it used to be 20 years ago.
Not being sarcastic here - I'm sure these folks understand their market better than a random AC, so it must make sense.
You think so?
More muscle mass equals less flexibility, slower movement,
Incorrect.
inability to climb through small holes.
Maybe. But in nature there isn't a hole a mouse can't dig larger for himself if needed, to crawl through. Having twice the strength would help with that.
I suspect that a mouse being twice as strong wouldn't help it survive simply because strength isn't something that really keeps mice alive. A snake can catch and eat a muscle-bound mouse as easily as a skinny one.
because of the way it works, junkies don't prefer it
Really? Cause I happen to know plenty of pill popping friends who can't get enough of it, it seems.
Afghanistan is a bad example. Logistically it's a nightmare to conduct operations in there, especially for the US. The US doesn't have guaranteed bases in the region and as such has to keep on the good side of some pretty questionable characters.
Yeah, but the flipside is U.S. politicians don't have to sleep in Afghanistan at night. When the battle comes to their own homes, what good is a cruise missle or tank?
Think it through. There is nothing to stop them from developing a kill code, and they probably already have asked for one from manufacturers. It'll be here, sooner rather than later.
And every time it's used, during some event of police brutality, it'll turn a hundred citizens into radicals calling/fighting for revolution.
No, the days of fear and intimidation in this country are coming to an end. We haven't forgotten what it's like to be free, because the Internet has reminded us.
I don't think it's even a question of open source vs closed source. As you allude, projects which are backed up by large corporations--big, authoritative organizations, with money to spend--tend to work out much better than completely open source, volunteer-run and designed projects. This is a question of leadership, resources, and direction. Having true direction with all- or mostly-volunteer groups is only possible when the way forward is clear.
Firefox in its early years was lean, mean, and just all around a better browser. That was when IE was garbage and we all knew a good replacement was needed. After IE caught up, what then? That's when Firefox went to shit without clear direction. And just like any other sinking organization, at first the good guys leave one by one, then in droves, then you finally end up with morons running the show, until the whole thing collapses under its own weight. Is this the path Mozilla is on? I don't know, but I don't give a fuck, because their browser has sucked too much for far too long to care.
The deterioration of an organization is a difficult thing to predict and is based much more on social factors (i.e. leadership, or the lack thereof) than anything else.
So in a corporate-run project, there is (ideally) a clear chain of command, and everything (finances, capital, etc) are under control of it. Data flows up and down the chain, but decisions only flow from top to bottom. It takes an organization like this with true leadership and vision to produce products of the highest caliber. Open source community-driven projects will rarely if ever accomplish anything on the scale and scope possible here.
On a much smaller and simpler project however, I would say yes, it's very possible to see high quality open source projects. Generally these are projects that folks have worked on for a long time, fleshing it out and working out all the bugs. If the project is run by someone with some sense then a high quality product can and will likely result. It's the scaling it up to larger scales (i.e. adding more developers, coordinating them, etc) that really throws the wrench in the whole project and decides whether it goes the route of willy-nilly decision by committee bullshit, or directed decision making by competent people.
For a deeper insight into my perspective, I ran Linux on my desktop for many, many years, starting on a Pentium 100 w/ 16 MB on Slackware around 1996 (downloading the disks and writing them one at a time), then Red Hat when I bought their CD/book package at the mall gaming store. (Coolest thing ever!!!) I switched on and off from Windows but ran Linux exclusively for a long, long time. I even bought a Dell Inspiron E1505 with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed when those were offered.
But a couple years ago...I finally just had to switch to Windows for good, after Windows 7 came out and was looking worth a try. It has its flaws, but God Damn it, it's SO nice not to EVER have to drop to the command line...to fix... ANYTHING. A reboot at the most is all that's needed, and rarely so. I have tried all Linux distros under the sun and to date NONE of the open source distributions have truly got their shit together in terms of offering anything but rehashed versions of the same ole shit. (Except for perhaps RedHat...and Suse is not bad from my experience....but once again...coporate backed!)
Years ago the reason I stuck with Linux and held out hope for it was because I was SURE that soon, somebody would come along and find a way to stitch all these pieces together that the software community has made, and finally make something incredible. But then as the years passed and I saw the reality of unpatched bugs (or marked as "unimportant"), design changes for no apparent good reason, shit that Still Fucking Doesn't Just Work after eons (ex. the sound system. What the FUCK, people?), STILL no way to configure half the system from the GUI, have to drop to the command line to do anything halfway interesting. Fuck that shit, I have better things to do wi
"All sarcasm aside, I won't deny that America has been vilifying Iran (whether justified or not is outside the scope of my comment), but I really don't see how anything the U.S. may have done in terms of media treatment or political maneuvering could even hope to compare with the Iran hostage crisis when it comes to creating ill will between the two countries."
Oh gee, I don't know, maybe the Iranians might have been pissed because the U.S. overthrew their democratically elected government and replaced it with a U.S.-backed puppet dictator (the Shah), whom the Iranians subsequently overthrew in a bloody revolution after decades of tyranny and oppression? No, I can't possibly imagine any reason Iranians might have been angry enough to overrun our embassy and take our people hostage.
WAKE UP and pull your head out of your ass before it's too late.
Here's why your entire post, while technically correct, is wrong: This drone receives its control signal via satellite. The satellites involved are most likely in LEO. Which is closer to the drone and thus stronger: LEO, or the jamming signal on the ground?
I am a U.S. civil engineering student, and I know a bit about speed limits on various roads.
Yes..."a bit"...as in, not a whole lot, considering you're a college kid in his early 20s at the latest, with zero real world experience and more opinion than actual knowledge. Don't get mad, just listen. You are way too young to be toeing the establishment line on this. Here's a few facts for you. The US Interstate System was designed to accommodate sustained speeds of 100+MPH. In today's world, with modern vehicles capable of safely and efficiently cruising at 80-90 MPH, keeping the speed limit at 65 MPH on a 10 lane straight as an arrow highway has NOTHING to do with curves, hills, or engineering limitations of the road, sorry. All of these are nothing more than plausible excuses, which ensure (for those in power) that the speed limits and other unfair/unnecessary traffic laws remain and continue serving their REAL agenda: a great means for police, courts, and local agencies to make lots of easy revenue. Period. It has NOTHING to do with safety, though that's the excuse. Research has shown that the VAST majority of drivers drive at a speed which is comfortable and safe for conditions...speed limit or no. I hate to sound paternal, but you will learn for yourself as you get older if you just keep your eyes open and see how the system works, that 95% of people are looking out for themselves and their buddies, not everyone as a whole, no matter what they say or believe. It's all about revenue and in fact safety is WORSENED with too low speed limits because "law abiding" idiots obey the limit hold up/block/surprise drivers who choose to drive at more sane speeds.
I'm surprised that fuel consumption, being a big national issue, hasn't gained traction with the speed limit people. The state next to mine even recently increased their speed limits on a major road from 65 to 70, so all those SUVs can go even faster and burn even more fuel (no engine technology in the world will save you from speed-squared drag).
Except most modern vehicles will get BETTER fuel mileage running at 70-80+ MPH instead of puttering along at 65. This is because modern vehicles have overdrive transmissions and are DESIGNED to run most efficiently at typical highway speeds.
I also think that all those people who speed on their commutes must have failed math, because going 75 instead of 70 only saves you a theoretical 100 seconds (not even 2 minutes!) over 30 miles,
#1 Really? And how much does it save over, say, 100,000 miles? My quick math says it a 93 hour savings, how bout yours? That's 93 fewer hours sitting in traffic, exposed to others' risky driving.
#2 Get this through your head: it's none of your business if I decide to burn a little of MY fuel, or save a little of MY time, by driving faster, when study after study and common fucking sense has proven time and again that the "safety" aspects of speed limits are basically bullshit, and the traffic camera in question here is nothing more than a new and improved means to generate more revenue for the parasitic, tyrannical fucking leeches who have infested our courts and police system.
#3 Before slinging arrows at people who "failed math" or whatever, make you actually have half a clue about anything yourself. (hint: you don't)
So I take it you're a software developer. You have very few material outlays. As many of us are aware and have experienced, software development is often done best in small, agile teams; often a "team of one". That's great. I'm glad it works for you. It is though (how did you put it?) "absolutely and categorically wrong" to assume this model is applicable to all types of business.
Just as you are absolutely and categorically wrong (no quotes) in assuming it doesn't apply to most types of businesses.
It's clear you've never actually tried to open your own business. All you've done is heard about others trying, and assumed/believed/perpetuated the lie that it's difficult to get started. It's not.
I grew up in an old dilapidated 60s single wide trailer in the woods of Alabama. My dad comes from a line of poor Irish farmers and my mom was the poor daughter of a Cherokee and English line. Both are from the backwoods, met and married in high school, and neither had a college education or much money until my mom put herself through (nursing) school after I graduated high school.
I didn't learn anything about business or finance growing up. My parents didn't know anything to teach me. All I knew is I wasn't planning to live in a single wide trailer the rest of my life.
Try setting up a business where you produce material goods. In addition to the costs of registering the business, you have to buy stock and equipment; even if you're working from home.
I started a business from my home building a certain type of electronic controller. I found a niche in a market which I was familiar with due to my hobbies. It cost me less than $7-800 to set this business up and start selling products, from the time of having the idea to putting up a business and starting to advertise.
You have to find a marketplace where you can show your goods.
Internet forums, word of mouth for your superior product....it's the best form of advertisement and costs nothing.
Often that means giving away "samples" to drum up business or paying a fee to attend a show of sorts.
Not in my case
If it's a booth, you have to dress it up to draw people in.
Not difficult
Then there's transport, shipping, etc.
A couple bucks worth of gas to run a load of packages down to the UPS/Fedex store/Post Office. Or get a business account and have them picked up at your door. This is a non issue.
All of which you're expected to eat.
Depends on the business. I built my products to order which mean that I had to stock NOTHING up front...and I didn't build a unit until I was paid in full.
If you break even within a year, you're doing well.
Yes, this is true.
People were beating down my door to order my product. My business was successful right out of the gate--BUT--I did make some crucial mistakes. I went out of business. My first attempt at business thus "failed."
Except...it wasn't really a failure. To me it was a huge learning experience. I learned more and finance and running a business in those short 8 months than I ever knew in the years before.
Most people would have given up after this. Indeed it's the tendency to give up at the first sign of adversity is what causes most people to be failures in the long run. I got pretty damn used to the self-employed lifestyle though, and wasn't going to give it up so easy to go back to the daily 9-5 cubicle grind.
I learned a new trade and started a new (very profitable) business in a different field. This one took a lot more up front investment....but I managed to find it, because I want to succeed. As we speak I am in the process of slowly ramping up production and starting to see profit coming in.
While I've been working on this I've been keeping an eye on the old market I was in before. I'm seeing products crop up which are similar to my old offering but not really much better. Meanwhile I've come up with a lot of great id
Never been to prison, I take it? If you wanna see what modern day slavery looks like, just let the police catch you growing the wrong plant, or drying it and selling it to another consenting adult. It's much easier for them to catch you doing this when they can follow and track your every move electronically.
Your signature is oddly appropriate here.