... since now anyone with nefarious goals can simply look for blurred spots on any satellite view, and conclude that the blur is a target. No need for any further data.
One might make an argument that the singular thinkers may have to some degree inhibited parallel development -- since there's always a tendency to flock to whatever is the latest and greatest, rather than do independent research.
In that context, were they good or bad for science? We can't really know, but consider how Edison eclipsed Tesla, and wonder how many times that happened historically.
[laughing] After I get done here, I'll be heading over a BBS myself... telnet://techware.dynip.com:) (Wildcat 6, telnet, web, and NNPT access; ILink network and some other stuff)
Absolutely. But then how would law enforcement terrorize the citizenry into behaving, without the threat of jail time? See, that's the mentality we're dealing with... not to mention the huge money machine that LE and prisons have become.
The U.S. population has roughly doubled over the course of that chart, but the "criminal" segment of the population is now more than four times as large. This despite that violent crime, per FBI stats, is about 1/3rd what it used to be.
So according to the FBI's crime stats, we should actually have FEWER people in prison despite the population increase.
Yep, there is something *seriously* wrong with this picture.
War on drugs, tough on crime, zero-tolerance, privatized prison systems... yeah, I see *exactly* what's wrong with this picture.
Simple solution: Next time you're at a long dull meeting, draw flowcharts. Encapsulate the meeting in a flowchart doodle, and you'll be perceived as the most attentive bootlicker there, given a promotion and a raise, and will be able to kick the asses of anyone you catch doodling during long dull meetings, which you now get to hold for others!
Boredom is also a problem with some people of lower intelligence, who have trouble understanding basic concepts. What they don't grok becomes noise, tuned out, and they turn to small timefilling activities (like doodling) instead of trying to learn.
As to doodling itself, listening to music while you work has much the same function -- fills up the cracks the mind would otherwise wander off to.
I suggested elsewhere that EVERY law and civil regulation (and lets add treaties to the list) should be required to withstand a Constitutional challenge before being put into effect. It would sure get rid of the frivolous laws designed only to criminalize some class of people, eh?
That's a good point. Grow and train your operatives in a "clean" environment, where they won't pick up contaminants... send the old people from "before the war" through to confuse the sensors with their embedded traces of antique incindiaries... Like any profiling system, it's easily gamed.
I think it's because if they can "reliably" tie odors to certain behaviours (lying, terrorism, viewing kiddie porn, whatever) then they can justify snooping *everyone* with the appropriate detector, be that technological or just a dog trained to look for certain odors. (But remember, a dog can look for multiple signatures at once, and can distinguish overlays, by the nature of their olfactory equipment.)
However, as the article notes, what odor markers your body emits is greatly dependent on your diet and environment. That means it's inherently unreliable as an identity check -- unless you're a dog and can sort that all out without needing to be programmed for a new odor.
It occurs to me that an "identity sample" taken at birth could retain sufficient odor factors for a dog to be able to tell if it's the same person a few decades later (given that a dog can sort out overlaying odors). The advantage over a DNA sample taken at birth is that an odor-marker sample could be ID'd on the spot by a good dog, no special equipment or laboratory time needed. I'm sure LE would love that -- an excuse to snoop everyone with an intimidating attack-trained sniffer dog, and it's not just for drugs anymore! Every totalitarian's wet dream......
[laughing] I've done the same math. Two minutes more or less isn't the end of time. And as a general rule, my destination isn't going to get up and run off.
A small observation of my own, while we're on this side topic (which sounds suspiciously like bridge crew on the Enterprise arguing about whether they need to dodge some incoming obstacle):
You trust your fellow man. In fact, you trust him with your very life. -- Don't think so? You drive on two-lane roads, don't you??
Last time I did a backup to DVD, I went thru an entire 100-unit spindle. At which point I decided this was for the birds. The fact is, reasonably-priced and consumer-friendly backup methods just don't keep up with data volume, and never have.:(
The current answer seems to be multiple HDs of similar size -- fortunately current pricing makes that a more attractive alternative. But they still lack durable-portability, in that if you drop that backup HD, it may well be headcrashed and therefore toast (or at least pricey to recover your data). Flash drives should fix that issue, but they're still too expensive if you've got multiple terabytes of data to back up.
Once upon a time we had a very nice Circuit City here. It was in an older strip mall across the street from the Walmart. The store was comfortable, the selection was good, and the employees knew their business. It was a good place to pick up this and that, even if you weren't looking for a big ticket item.
The store upped and moved 20 miles away to a new mall. Prices went up, the available selection of products went downhill, and all the knowledgeable sales people vanished. And after one very disappointing visit, I went away and never returned.
If my experience is typical... no freakin' wonder they went out of business.
There's a whole group of animal rights vigilantes that patrol CL and kill any such ads, because didn't you know, it's just another "exploitation of helpless animals".
I'm surprised there isn't a similar "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" group patrolling CL in pursuit of Naughty Ads, and trying to get them all taken off... but it would be unethical for CL to take even their token fee and then allow any random vigilante to kill your ad.
Considering that per FBI stats, the crime rate has dropped considerably in recent years... I'd say the furor over "rampant crime in the streets" is just another way for police departments to justify 1) their budgets, 2) desired increases to those budgets, and most important 3) more stringent regulation of citizens' behaviour, leading to 4) more "crime" so the cops can continue to justify their budgets.
And funny how before the "war on drugs" a lot of people felt no need to lock their doors.
The third party contractors who now do a great deal of street maintenance ARE making money from the potholes in the street.... isn't that kindof the same thing?
Also, the mortgage isn't your sole expense. With insurance and property tax, I pay the equivalent of *18* mortgage payments every year, not 12 (yes, tax and insurance are that high, and I bought before the rush).
Slashdot Mirror
... since now anyone with nefarious goals can simply look for blurred spots on any satellite view, and conclude that the blur is a target. No need for any further data.
One might make an argument that the singular thinkers may have to some degree inhibited parallel development -- since there's always a tendency to flock to whatever is the latest and greatest, rather than do independent research.
In that context, were they good or bad for science? We can't really know, but consider how Edison eclipsed Tesla, and wonder how many times that happened historically.
[laughing] After I get done here, I'll be heading over a BBS myself ... telnet://techware.dynip.com :)
(Wildcat 6, telnet, web, and NNPT access; ILink network and some other stuff)
Absolutely. But then how would law enforcement terrorize the citizenry into behaving, without the threat of jail time? See, that's the mentality we're dealing with... not to mention the huge money machine that LE and prisons have become.
The U.S. population has roughly doubled over the course of that chart, but the "criminal" segment of the population is now more than four times as large. This despite that violent crime, per FBI stats, is about 1/3rd what it used to be.
So according to the FBI's crime stats, we should actually have FEWER people in prison despite the population increase.
Yep, there is something *seriously* wrong with this picture.
War on drugs, tough on crime, zero-tolerance, privatized prison systems... yeah, I see *exactly* what's wrong with this picture.
Simple solution: Next time you're at a long dull meeting, draw flowcharts. Encapsulate the meeting in a flowchart doodle, and you'll be perceived as the most attentive bootlicker there, given a promotion and a raise, and will be able to kick the asses of anyone you catch doodling during long dull meetings, which you now get to hold for others!
Boredom is also a problem with some people of lower intelligence, who have trouble understanding basic concepts. What they don't grok becomes noise, tuned out, and they turn to small timefilling activities (like doodling) instead of trying to learn.
As to doodling itself, listening to music while you work has much the same function -- fills up the cracks the mind would otherwise wander off to.
I suggested elsewhere that EVERY law and civil regulation (and lets add treaties to the list) should be required to withstand a Constitutional challenge before being put into effect. It would sure get rid of the frivolous laws designed only to criminalize some class of people, eh?
Gov't in gridlock? Well, that's the idea, eh?
That's a good point. Grow and train your operatives in a "clean" environment, where they won't pick up contaminants... send the old people from "before the war" through to confuse the sensors with their embedded traces of antique incindiaries... Like any profiling system, it's easily gamed.
The REAL moral of this story:
Always let the OTHER guy wish FIRST.
They decided to take "History Repeats Itself" rather literally. They just need to rename DHT and we're all set.
If I ever had a Vista/Win7 machine, I'm afraid my wallpaper would be the UAC logo... for that very reason!!
You can, sortof -- you just have to take the bus from Bakersfield to Lancaster, and from there the commuter train will take you into downtown L.A.
I admit it's rather silly, considering that the tracks already exist. Rail freight uses 'em every day.
I think it's because if they can "reliably" tie odors to certain behaviours (lying, terrorism, viewing kiddie porn, whatever) then they can justify snooping *everyone* with the appropriate detector, be that technological or just a dog trained to look for certain odors. (But remember, a dog can look for multiple signatures at once, and can distinguish overlays, by the nature of their olfactory equipment.)
However, as the article notes, what odor markers your body emits is greatly dependent on your diet and environment. That means it's inherently unreliable as an identity check -- unless you're a dog and can sort that all out without needing to be programmed for a new odor.
It occurs to me that an "identity sample" taken at birth could retain sufficient odor factors for a dog to be able to tell if it's the same person a few decades later (given that a dog can sort out overlaying odors). The advantage over a DNA sample taken at birth is that an odor-marker sample could be ID'd on the spot by a good dog, no special equipment or laboratory time needed. I'm sure LE would love that -- an excuse to snoop everyone with an intimidating attack-trained sniffer dog, and it's not just for drugs anymore! Every totalitarian's wet dream......
[laughing] I've done the same math. Two minutes more or less isn't the end of time. And as a general rule, my destination isn't going to get up and run off.
A small observation of my own, while we're on this side topic (which sounds suspiciously like bridge crew on the Enterprise arguing about whether they need to dodge some incoming obstacle):
You trust your fellow man. In fact, you trust him with your very life. -- Don't think so? You drive on two-lane roads, don't you??
... give them to me instead. I like that one much better!
Last time I did a backup to DVD, I went thru an entire 100-unit spindle. At which point I decided this was for the birds. The fact is, reasonably-priced and consumer-friendly backup methods just don't keep up with data volume, and never have. :(
The current answer seems to be multiple HDs of similar size -- fortunately current pricing makes that a more attractive alternative. But they still lack durable-portability, in that if you drop that backup HD, it may well be headcrashed and therefore toast (or at least pricey to recover your data). Flash drives should fix that issue, but they're still too expensive if you've got multiple terabytes of data to back up.
Once upon a time we had a very nice Circuit City here. It was in an older strip mall across the street from the Walmart. The store was comfortable, the selection was good, and the employees knew their business. It was a good place to pick up this and that, even if you weren't looking for a big ticket item.
The store upped and moved 20 miles away to a new mall. Prices went up, the available selection of products went downhill, and all the knowledgeable sales people vanished. And after one very disappointing visit, I went away and never returned.
If my experience is typical... no freakin' wonder they went out of business.
There's a whole group of animal rights vigilantes that patrol CL and kill any such ads, because didn't you know, it's just another "exploitation of helpless animals".
I'm surprised there isn't a similar "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" group patrolling CL in pursuit of Naughty Ads, and trying to get them all taken off... but it would be unethical for CL to take even their token fee and then allow any random vigilante to kill your ad.
Considering that per FBI stats, the crime rate has dropped considerably in recent years... I'd say the furor over "rampant crime in the streets" is just another way for police departments to justify 1) their budgets, 2) desired increases to those budgets, and most important 3) more stringent regulation of citizens' behaviour, leading to 4) more "crime" so the cops can continue to justify their budgets.
And funny how before the "war on drugs" a lot of people felt no need to lock their doors.
Nah, he's just Thinking Of The Children. After all if there are no ads for child sex, no children will have sex, didn't you know that??
Didn't you know? It's where men are men, women are scarce, and sheep are afraid....
[cue a million geeks asking where you live and when they can come visit]
The third party contractors who now do a great deal of street maintenance ARE making money from the potholes in the street.... isn't that kindof the same thing?
Also, the mortgage isn't your sole expense. With insurance and property tax, I pay the equivalent of *18* mortgage payments every year, not 12 (yes, tax and insurance are that high, and I bought before the rush).