Is it okay for a witness to a crime to finger a suspect? How is a camera any different, other than that it is much harder to falsify video than it is to make up a story?
Exactly my point. How is video different than an eye witness? Is it really no different? Is it hard to falsify a video? Not really.
Would someone falsify a video? It depends, I guess, on the benefit of doing so. Is a photo or picture compromising? Often it is, but you need context for it to have meaning.
Seeing those photos don't tell the whole picture. Was everyone in the photos guilty of a crime? Any of them? I know I can't say that without knowing more details.
It turns out that Northeastern University has decided to post pictures of a post-Superbowl riot near the campus of Northeastern University. The intent seems to be to identify the rioters and vandals who destroyed cars and property. It seems that officials at Northeastern believe that the rioters may be somehow affiliated with the university (and few dispute that idea).
As of now, Northeastern's web site only has a couple dozen photographs of vandalism in action. But they do have videos from nearby video cameras... it may just be a matter of time before they post some video clips.
Clearly these rioters were both stupid and committed crimes, so there's no need to debate the criminal aspects of their activity.
But is it OK for anyone to secretly videotape activities in the street? Is it OK for Northeastern to pin their students based on video and film taken by random observers?
Hold on there cowboys. Lots of people are saying "use your $7000 as a down payment on a house!" Like they are some sort of financial expert that knows that a home purchase is better investment than a rental for you!
Before you commit $50000 to $500000 for a small house (depending on where you live!), you should figure out if home ownership is financially sound for you.
Of course, every real estate guy will show you in black and white that home ownership is always smarter than rental. After all, you're investing in something, not pissing it away every month, right?
Well, no, that is not always true! It depends on the housing market, interest rates, tax rates, maintenence costs, rental rates, and a bunch of other variables.
I for one rent. I rent because it is cheaper for me, it works with my lifestyle, and the fact that I can invest my money in other places that give me a much greater return (with only a little more risk). Do NOT jump to a conclusion just because everyone and your father says it's better. My father said that 93 octane gasoline is "better", but I know that's bullshit too.
Back on topic: Do the wireless thing. Do it for $500, and do as little wiring as possible. It'll be fun. In the worst case, if it doesn't work out, scrap the project and sell the left over equipment on eBay.
My sister has comcast. She has one of those big plasma TVs, and we watched the super bowl last night (yay Pats!).
My sister subscribes to their "Digital" TV service. The picture was GREAT. It couldn't be beat, except when it freaked out and then the picture "regenerates" itself (the pixelation thing).
We lost the signal two or three times during the game. I'm inclined to say that the total experience was "poor to fair", as losing a second or two of video three times over a 5 hour period is "lousy quality". I can't say if satellite is better or worse.
Let's use nuclear power so we can go there. If the thermostat incorrectly activates, someone will turn it off. No more of this multi-million dollar robot BS.
Um, or, we could put a couple temp probes on the thing and let the computer control the heater. That'll save about $983 billion or more from your plan.
Please realize that when I started writing this comment, there were 10 or so replies, and mine wasn't redundant.
Just because at the time I hit "submit" there was an insightful comment similar to my informative comment doesn't make your useless AC note anything other than "redundant troll".
What do you want - a locking system that permits only one post at a time? That's stupid.
I seriously doubt that George Bush -has- a desktop. What is he going to do with it? Write a reply to the Secretary of State via eMail? Look at the budget on Excel? Put together the state of the union with PowerPOint?
Come on, people in powerful places don't waste their time with this kind of crap. They have lots of people doing "stuff" for them.
The exception is likely those in the computer industry - like Gates and Jobs. Those folks have a technical background, and want to experience their own industry (obviously, having a computer on your desktop can be a help if you're a leader in the world of technology).
CEOs and other people of power are not like you and me. They have people like you and me. Or, more likely, they have people that have people like you and me. Well, twice more removed.
Wow, that's pretty good useful life! I still have my Apple II+, but I haven't really used it since 1986 or so. Nice machine, but your//e is a lot more useful.
I have some interesting hardware with that too... Profile hard drive (from a Lisa), Videx Enhanser II (for a "complete" keyboard), CP/M card, Language card (of course), A multi-function card (clock, serial, parallel, 128k RAM), Videx 80 column card, a Disk II and a classic Panasonic 9" B&W monitor.
It's funny that the Apple II was such a great machine for such a long time. I still remember some things like "call -151", PR#6, etc, but I forget how to run a program. Oh I do remember: "brun", "run", etc.
Re:The original Macintosh had no SCSI port.
on
Macintosh 2004 Case Mod
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
As I recall, there were two popular types of hard drives for the original Mac:
1) Floppy drive port. Several vendors sold HDDs that plugged into the Floppy port. All these drives were known to be very s-l-o-w.
2) Hardware modification. I owned a Hyperdrive for my Mac M0001. In a nutshell, a daughter board was attached to the CPU. My Hyperdrive was a 3.5" hard drive, 10 MB capacity. The Hyperdrive upped my RAM to 512k, and a small fan was added to the case to keep it cooler (the fan exhausted thru the top left rear vent).
Despite the fan added by the Hyperdrive folks, my Mac had a heat problem on hot days.
In any case, my Mac with Hyperdrive was the envy of the Apple universe. Later I upgraded my Mac to 512kE specs when the Mac Plus came out - that upgrade consisted of new ROMs and a 800k floppy.
In all, that Mac lasted me from 1984 until 1990. Pretty darn good, athough at the end I was really hot for a SE/30. In 1990, I sold it via a classified ad for something like $600!
You got it - the best example of democracy gone haywire is California. The voters in California can vote for crazy things that simply don't make sense. And sadly, they often pass, leading to things like a impossibly chaotic budget situation (like "last year we had a 30 billion dollar surplus. This year, even costs are virtually identical to last year, we have a 50 billion dollar deficit").
Alas, even with a federal republic, it's clear that there are some major loopholes - as shown recently, the Supreme Court is now a political vehicle no matter which side you look at it from.
However, it's clear that the electoral college system no longer addresses any real-world problems - instead, it just makes people feel even less democracy, and provides no real safety (as seen in the last election).
A hydrogen-powered military tank wouldn't make any more of a bang than a diesel powered tank. Heck, the Hindenberg, with an incredibly large volume of hydrogen held in an unsafe container, didn't even make a huge bang - it simply burned quickly, and there were may survivors. If you ever see the pictures, note that the metal tower next to the air ship wasn't even knocked down by the so-called "explosion".
Then again, hollywood often makes things "more exciting" than physical reality. I've seen lots of cars "blow up" in the movies. But for all the car fires I've seen, I've never seen a car explode. Or even heard of one exploding. Except in the movies and Grand Theft Auto.
Remember, most of Hollywood is based on entertainment, not science.
Yum! I remember when my Mom used to make me a big glass of Olivine when I got home from school. Just add it into a glass warm milk, and yum! Wholesome and delicious, rich in essential vitamins and minerals!
Just imagine all that Olivine on Mars! Certainly it'd be worthwhile to travel to Mars, given an unbounded supply of ready-made food already on the surface. This, my friends, could cure world hunger!
In fact, now that they've found that Mars has a lot of Olivine, I'd start speculating that the dust is being bound together by Tang.
WARNING! Do you own a car, know how to read, or view photographs? Then you may be using some of my intellectual property, and I may file a lawsuit against you, claiming hundreds or even billions in damages.
Are you concerned? YOU SHOULD BE! Intellectual Property Theft is one of the most notorious crimes facing life on this planet. Terrorists often use Intellectual Property Theft to further their own evil goals. Stealling my intellectual propery is unAmerican.
What can you do? Well, you can either give up on life, or you can buy a license from me! Feel comfortable driving, reading, or seeing things. Have no fear of turning into an unamerican terrorist. And all it costs is $350 per person!
Errr, yeah, I do realize the expense. I worked on some components for ISS.
Sorry, I should clarify: when I wrote that we should get something out of a $1 billion investment, like a fleet of moon landers to do real science, I was talking a fleet of unmanned landers. Yeah, it's hard to build a fleet of manned moon landers for a billion;-). Heck, a billion$ didn't even buy a one half of a B2 bomber.
But for a billion dollars you can do a lot of quality science, AND as a nice side effect you can do a lot of engineering. Both of which can be of use iff human moon or mars landings are determined to be cost-effective in terms of science.
I'd rather see a couple small teams be organized to pull off incremental science missions. When their work looks promising, and we have the technology and reason to sit on Mars or the moon, great!
If we spend $1 billion this year on this goal, then I want SOMETHING that we can show for it. Either a fleet of moon landers that do real science, or a working, low-cost rocket system that can carry nice sized payloads outside of earth orbit, etc.
I just don't want to spend $1 billion for a bunch of soon-to-be-obsolete technical drawings of a prototype lander that'll bring 2 guys to poke around the moon for a few days and then call it quits.
In other words, this should be about the science of it FIRST. We need practical deliverables OTHER THAN just being able to watch TV on Mars or the Moon.
Actually, tracking down the leak is the right way to handle this.
Which leak - the Academy leak to the LA Times fingering Caridi, or the leak of the (lousy) movie onto the internet?
Clearly the Academy is full of internal holes. If the Academy couldn't keep the name of Caridi out of the press before it's full investigation, then how could the Academy keep thousands of videos from leaking?
WHY would I want TWO digital restriction management file types to deal with?
This is a bad move.
I don't give a damn about what restriction software other players that I don't own support. I'm not going to use crappy music services anyhow. If they want to sell to me, sell me in the restriction format that my player supports. AAC. If you want to support WMA too, great. Go for it. I don't care.
Now, if you want me to CARE, then support MP3 and OGG!
Sorry, I disagree that it's useless without QoS information.
I have three local high bandwidth ISP options. The cheapest is about $35/month. The most expensive is Comcast running which starts at an incredible $52.91 per month.
It is true that QoS is interesting, but it is also informative to learn that it isn't possible to get broadband for less than $35 per month in my area.
In addition, it is interesting to note that Comcast charges $53 per month for their service where I live.
And, by the way, none of those options include a static IP.
I pay US$52.91 per month for Internet service via Comcast. That includes $0.56 in "taxes & fees". I do not get cable TV service, only Internet.
Pretty expensive, and it just went up AGAIN. If I had a landline telephone, I'd swap to DSL in about 12 seconds. I still might do that so I can share speakeasy dsl with my neighbors.
Slashdot Mirror
I was stopped walking on my own property and asked for ID by police.
The reason? "There's been some break-ins around here." I had long hair at the time - maybe I wasn't the "right element" for him.
Just a loser cop with nothing better to do in suburban Connecticut.
Funny, they never even came to the house after I reported that someone batted my mailbox 8 times in one month.
Is it okay for a witness to a crime to finger a suspect? How is a camera any different, other than that it is much harder to falsify video than it is to make up a story?
Exactly my point. How is video different than an eye witness? Is it really no different? Is it hard to falsify a video? Not really.
Would someone falsify a video? It depends, I guess, on the benefit of doing so. Is a photo or picture compromising? Often it is, but you need context for it to have meaning.
Seeing those photos don't tell the whole picture. Was everyone in the photos guilty of a crime? Any of them? I know I can't say that without knowing more details.
It turns out that Northeastern University has decided to post pictures of a post-Superbowl riot near the campus of Northeastern University. The intent seems to be to identify the rioters and vandals who destroyed cars and property. It seems that officials at Northeastern believe that the rioters may be somehow affiliated with the university (and few dispute that idea).
As of now, Northeastern's web site only has a couple dozen photographs of vandalism in action. But they do have videos from nearby video cameras... it may just be a matter of time before they post some video clips.
Clearly these rioters were both stupid and committed crimes, so there's no need to debate the criminal aspects of their activity.
But is it OK for anyone to secretly videotape activities in the street? Is it OK for Northeastern to pin their students based on video and film taken by random observers?
Hold on there cowboys. Lots of people are saying "use your $7000 as a down payment on a house!" Like they are some sort of financial expert that knows that a home purchase is better investment than a rental for you!
Before you commit $50000 to $500000 for a small house (depending on where you live!), you should figure out if home ownership is financially sound for you.
Of course, every real estate guy will show you in black and white that home ownership is always smarter than rental. After all, you're investing in something, not pissing it away every month, right?
Well, no, that is not always true! It depends on the housing market, interest rates, tax rates, maintenence costs, rental rates, and a bunch of other variables.
I for one rent. I rent because it is cheaper for me, it works with my lifestyle, and the fact that I can invest my money in other places that give me a much greater return (with only a little more risk). Do NOT jump to a conclusion just because everyone and your father says it's better. My father said that 93 octane gasoline is "better", but I know that's bullshit too.
Back on topic: Do the wireless thing. Do it for $500, and do as little wiring as possible. It'll be fun. In the worst case, if it doesn't work out, scrap the project and sell the left over equipment on eBay.
My sister has comcast. She has one of those big plasma TVs, and we watched the super bowl last night (yay Pats!).
My sister subscribes to their "Digital" TV service. The picture was GREAT. It couldn't be beat, except when it freaked out and then the picture "regenerates" itself (the pixelation thing).
We lost the signal two or three times during the game. I'm inclined to say that the total experience was "poor to fair", as losing a second or two of video three times over a 5 hour period is "lousy quality". I can't say if satellite is better or worse.
Funny, I bought a new house a couple years ago. But now the original owner claims that the garage was not included.
Was the agreement was viral? I guess so!
Let's use nuclear power so we can go there. If the thermostat incorrectly activates, someone will turn it off. No more of this multi-million dollar robot BS.
Um, or, we could put a couple temp probes on the thing and let the computer control the heater. That'll save about $983 billion or more from your plan.
Please realize that when I started writing this comment, there were 10 or so replies, and mine wasn't redundant.
Just because at the time I hit "submit" there was an insightful comment similar to my informative comment doesn't make your useless AC note anything other than "redundant troll".
What do you want - a locking system that permits only one post at a time? That's stupid.
I seriously doubt that George Bush -has- a desktop. What is he going to do with it? Write a reply to the Secretary of State via eMail? Look at the budget on Excel? Put together the state of the union with PowerPOint?
Come on, people in powerful places don't waste their time with this kind of crap. They have lots of people doing "stuff" for them.
The exception is likely those in the computer industry - like Gates and Jobs. Those folks have a technical background, and want to experience their own industry (obviously, having a computer on your desktop can be a help if you're a leader in the world of technology).
CEOs and other people of power are not like you and me. They have people like you and me. Or, more likely, they have people that have people like you and me. Well, twice more removed.
Wow, that's pretty good useful life! I still have my Apple II+, but I haven't really used it since 1986 or so. Nice machine, but your //e is a lot more useful.
I have some interesting hardware with that too... Profile hard drive (from a Lisa), Videx Enhanser II (for a "complete" keyboard), CP/M card, Language card (of course), A multi-function card (clock, serial, parallel, 128k RAM), Videx 80 column card, a Disk II and a classic Panasonic 9" B&W monitor.
It's funny that the Apple II was such a great machine for such a long time. I still remember some things like "call -151", PR#6, etc, but I forget how to run a program. Oh I do remember: "brun", "run", etc.
As I recall, there were two popular types of hard drives for the original Mac:
1) Floppy drive port. Several vendors sold HDDs that plugged into the Floppy port. All these drives were known to be very s-l-o-w.
2) Hardware modification. I owned a Hyperdrive for my Mac M0001. In a nutshell, a daughter board was attached to the CPU. My Hyperdrive was a 3.5" hard drive, 10 MB capacity. The Hyperdrive upped my RAM to 512k, and a small fan was added to the case to keep it cooler (the fan exhausted thru the top left rear vent).
Despite the fan added by the Hyperdrive folks, my Mac had a heat problem on hot days.
In any case, my Mac with Hyperdrive was the envy of the Apple universe. Later I upgraded my Mac to 512kE specs when the Mac Plus came out - that upgrade consisted of new ROMs and a 800k floppy.
In all, that Mac lasted me from 1984 until 1990. Pretty darn good, athough at the end I was really hot for a SE/30. In 1990, I sold it via a classified ad for something like $600!
You got it - the best example of democracy gone haywire is California. The voters in California can vote for crazy things that simply don't make sense. And sadly, they often pass, leading to things like a impossibly chaotic budget situation (like "last year we had a 30 billion dollar surplus. This year, even costs are virtually identical to last year, we have a 50 billion dollar deficit").
Alas, even with a federal republic, it's clear that there are some major loopholes - as shown recently, the Supreme Court is now a political vehicle no matter which side you look at it from.
However, it's clear that the electoral college system no longer addresses any real-world problems - instead, it just makes people feel even less democracy, and provides no real safety (as seen in the last election).
A hydrogen-powered military tank wouldn't make any more of a bang than a diesel powered tank. Heck, the Hindenberg, with an incredibly large volume of hydrogen held in an unsafe container, didn't even make a huge bang - it simply burned quickly, and there were may survivors. If you ever see the pictures, note that the metal tower next to the air ship wasn't even knocked down by the so-called "explosion".
Then again, hollywood often makes things "more exciting" than physical reality. I've seen lots of cars "blow up" in the movies. But for all the car fires I've seen, I've never seen a car explode. Or even heard of one exploding. Except in the movies and Grand Theft Auto.
Remember, most of Hollywood is based on entertainment, not science.
Yum! I remember when my Mom used to make me a big glass of Olivine when I got home from school. Just add it into a glass warm milk, and yum! Wholesome and delicious, rich in essential vitamins and minerals!
Just imagine all that Olivine on Mars! Certainly it'd be worthwhile to travel to Mars, given an unbounded supply of ready-made food already on the surface. This, my friends, could cure world hunger!
In fact, now that they've found that Mars has a lot of Olivine, I'd start speculating that the dust is being bound together by Tang.
WARNING! Do you own a car, know how to read, or view photographs? Then you may be using some of my intellectual property, and I may file a lawsuit against you, claiming hundreds or even billions in damages.
Are you concerned? YOU SHOULD BE! Intellectual Property Theft is one of the most notorious crimes facing life on this planet. Terrorists often use Intellectual Property Theft to further their own evil goals. Stealling my intellectual propery is unAmerican.
What can you do? Well, you can either give up on life, or you can buy a license from me! Feel comfortable driving, reading, or seeing things. Have no fear of turning into an unamerican terrorist. And all it costs is $350 per person!
Isn't that a fair price for a piece of mind?
Errr, yeah, I do realize the expense. I worked on some components for ISS.
;-). Heck, a billion$ didn't even buy a one half of a B2 bomber.
Sorry, I should clarify: when I wrote that we should get something out of a $1 billion investment, like a fleet of moon landers to do real science, I was talking a fleet of unmanned landers. Yeah, it's hard to build a fleet of manned moon landers for a billion
But for a billion dollars you can do a lot of quality science, AND as a nice side effect you can do a lot of engineering. Both of which can be of use iff human moon or mars landings are determined to be cost-effective in terms of science.
I'd rather see a couple small teams be organized to pull off incremental science missions. When their work looks promising, and we have the technology and reason to sit on Mars or the moon, great!
If we spend $1 billion this year on this goal, then I want SOMETHING that we can show for it. Either a fleet of moon landers that do real science, or a working, low-cost rocket system that can carry nice sized payloads outside of earth orbit, etc.
I just don't want to spend $1 billion for a bunch of soon-to-be-obsolete technical drawings of a prototype lander that'll bring 2 guys to poke around the moon for a few days and then call it quits.
In other words, this should be about the science of it FIRST. We need practical deliverables OTHER THAN just being able to watch TV on Mars or the Moon.
I dunno, I still like my Kodak Retina. But they stopped making those 40+ years ago.
Actually, tracking down the leak is the right way to handle this.
Which leak - the Academy leak to the LA Times fingering Caridi, or the leak of the (lousy) movie onto the internet?
Clearly the Academy is full of internal holes. If the Academy couldn't keep the name of Caridi out of the press before it's full investigation, then how could the Academy keep thousands of videos from leaking?
WHY would I want TWO digital restriction management file types to deal with?
This is a bad move.
I don't give a damn about what restriction software other players that I don't own support. I'm not going to use crappy music services anyhow. If they want to sell to me, sell me in the restriction format that my player supports. AAC. If you want to support WMA too, great. Go for it. I don't care.
Now, if you want me to CARE, then support MP3 and OGG!
Sorry, I disagree that it's useless without QoS information.
I have three local high bandwidth ISP options. The cheapest is about $35/month. The most expensive is Comcast running which starts at an incredible $52.91 per month.
It is true that QoS is interesting, but it is also informative to learn that it isn't possible to get broadband for less than $35 per month in my area.
In addition, it is interesting to note that Comcast charges $53 per month for their service where I live.
And, by the way, none of those options include a static IP.
That's pretty good... does that price include "fees"? and other reoccuring charges?
I seem to remember reading about Comcast raising rates this year.
Normally they say "our providers raised the rates, so we have to raise them too".
This year, they just said something like "we're raising rates because our service is so valuable".
They know they have a lock on their customers.
Oh, one more thing: I provide my own modem. So I don't rent a modem. I think modem rental is an additional $3/month.
I pay US$52.91 per month for Internet service via Comcast. That includes $0.56 in "taxes & fees". I do not get cable TV service, only Internet.
Pretty expensive, and it just went up AGAIN. If I had a landline telephone, I'd swap to DSL in about 12 seconds. I still might do that so I can share speakeasy dsl with my neighbors.