Only a relatively small percentage of shoplifters get caught. Should the few who get caught be penalized for the crimes of all the uncaught shoplifters??
That's all well and good -- I know a lot of lawyers, and as you say by and large they don't support stupid laws or overbearing tactics. But clearly there are also far too many lawyers who put the job (and the paycheck) ahead of personal ethics -- after all, your client didn't put a gun to your head and force you to engage in slimeball tactics against people who cannot reasonably defend themselves.
It occurs to me that this is much like the situation of a military grunt receiving an illegal order from his commanding officer. The grunt's legal and ethical duty is to refuse such an order. Likewise, it should be a lawyer's ethical duty to refuse orders from a slimeball client who uses coercive, illegal, or legal-but-unfair tactics.
Perhaps if more lawyers would stand up against such clients (despite the enticing mega-fees), lawyers would be perceived as heroes rather than as demon familiars.
But it had more opportunity for amused reply with the FDA cited instead:)
Yep, I'm familiar with "A Modest Proposal" (and what a wonderful site for classic lit! thanks for the link.) It's not just about, um, feeding the poor; it's more about how every last dinket is being sucked out of the masses, for the enrichment of their, ah, betters.
But remember this dictum when selecting a carcass: Eat the rich. The poor are tough and stringy.
If it's a felony, file charges with your local district attorney, and let the DA's office take it from there (you may be called as a witness, but you don't have to defend yourself or hire a lawyer, tho doing so might not hurt). Criminal prosecutions aren't like a civil suits, where you have to finance the operation yourself. In criminal cases, your tax dollars have already funded it, and the other guy is on the defensive by default.
Interesting thought: what if, propelled by enough such prosecutions, DRM alone became grounds for "reasonable suspicion of criminal activity"??
I read all the reviews. Some of the totally-positive reviews smell suspiciously like astroturf, or to be exact, like press releases. One has to wonder if that's an attempt to counter the flood of reviews that are negative solely by reason of the DRM/rootkit.
[sics Getright on link] http://www.hxdef.org/download/brilliant.php ================= HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 05:02:59 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 PHP/4.3.9 FrontPage/5.0.2.2634a mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7a X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.9 Content-disposition: attachment; filename="Brilliant Hacker defender presentation movie MSV1.rar" Content-Length: 843679 ==============
[downloads file, extracts contents, discovers 12mb.AVI inside, sends it to Photopaint for disassembly]
The AVI consists of 1930 frames, all textmode screenshots (far as I looked), which is why it compressed so well. It would be somewhat smaller if only unique frames were represented and you played it one frame at a time (as can be done in an image editor). On peering at it with LIST, I learned that it was built with VirtualDub build 18160/release. Anyway, it doesn't seem to contain anything malicious.
Actually, that's a good point -- but I think the reason no one mentioned Carter is because she is NOT first and foremost a female, as is the case with 99% of the female characters in SF. Carter is first and foremost a real person, so we react to her personhood rather than to her femininity. She's never played as "just another pair of tits" or as "by damn we're going to have sexual equality", unfortunate failings of too many female characters in SF/F.
Much more typical is Lost In Trek's Janeway -- we're beat over the head with the fact of a FEMALE captain, rather than being shown a captain who happens to be incidentally female.
-------- Dear Starfleet: Hate you, Hate Alpha Quadrant. Took Voyager.--Janeway
The problem here is that most people who read or watch (or even write) fantasy and SF just don't give a shit about what's scientifically possible and what's not. They just want to escape from reality for a while. Vampires and spaceships, magic and time travel - it's all the same to them. And to someone like that, any precise definition of what's SF and what's not is boring, dweebish nitpicking.
Exactly. While we can eternally nitpick about what is or isn't SF, and what belongs in one subgenre or another, as you say the real point is that it's all some species of escapism, and that's why we read, watch, and write it. BTW a similar argument can be heard in the Romance camp re whether "Paranormal and Fantasy Romance" (Krinard et al.) is "real" romance or not, but the bottom line is still that people read it for escapism, and debate over what qualifies or not is just "boring, dweebish nitpicking". -- Nonetheless, the argument manages to claim our interest every time slashdot mentions SF.:)
As to the nominal topic, having been involved in SF/F fandom for over 30 years, my observation is that there have always been at least as many femfen as males, but at least half the fanac and 90% of fanfic is done by femfen, whereas males are more likely to be just passive consumers (ie. TV watchers). I think what TFA's sources are really seeing is a shift in the level of passivity among femfen, rather than a shift in their numbers.
It is possible to transfer an early-stage fetus to another host (a fetus might be viewed as a very specialized parasite, and is generally not picky about its host's identity, or even about being inside a uterus, so long as there is a good blood supply available).
But I've never heard an anti-choice adherent volunteer to become a host for an unwanted fetus, nor even offer to adopt the unwanted child after birth.
"The female downloads the executable to her ovum and attempts to insert it into the Egg OS... the HIRA (VM) runs the male code and translates it into the local Egg OS opcodes so the egg can run it..."
[puts on professional dog trainer hat] The notion that only humans have free will and self-awareness is a too-limited view (I'da said "bunk", but didn't want to seem flamey:) In my observation, these traits are much like intelligence: every creature with a brain has some, however minimal; where they are on the scale is a matter of degree, rather than presence vs absence.
Anyone who's seen a dog pull an "I can't HEAR you" rapidly becomes aware of just how free-willed and self-aware they really are (on average, about the same as a 5 year old human child). Same with other critters, to varying degrees and expressions.
I've even seen chickens make conscious "er, maybe not" decisions, which clearly required that it act against its inclinations.
Actually, such anti-tamper devices exist -- the one I've seen was an otherwise-ordinary hard drive with a block of explosive attached, and the idea was that if it was powered up on the 'wrong' machine, it would explode (taking out not only the HD but the entire area).
Likely so. Similar to how if you fire a shotgun out in the open, your gundog gets all excited and thinks the noise is wonderful. But fire the same gun in an enclosed space, and the poor dog will cringe away from the barrage of reflected noise.
Might also be some individuals that have been conditioned to react negatively. Much as how if you repeatedly bang away right by your dog's ears, pretty soon he'll become gunshy, even if he wasn't by nature inclined to it.
But barring such events, noise shyness in dogs is entirely inherited (typically as one symptom of a sort of autism). There are probably whales that likewise suffer from such inherited issues, thus exhibit abnormal behaviour without readily-visible cause.
There's not much that isn't superior to roofmount solutions... having some decades ago had to regularly haul stuff atop my car's roof, I can attest to this!
How to astonish other drivers: carry several 18' fence panels and 3 or 4 doghouses atop a sport-sedan. (Which could be done, back in the day of solid metal construction. Now, the whole car would collapse, or at least tip sideways at the first turn.)
You came to/. for the intelligent conversation? you must be new here!:) Originally I did mark a few "friends" but quickly realised that I know over 1000 people here by handle, sig, or other contact, and marking them all would be at best unwieldy... it's easier to consider all my "fans" as "friends" too!!
Is there a way to permanently turn off a stuck pixel?
Don't know enough about 'em to know if I'm making stuff up, but presumably the pixels are mapped; could this be sync'd with a tool that would let the user turn off individual pixels? (or turn them back on, if they picked the wrong one)
Oh! didn't realise you were talking about space-shifting the trunk outside the vehicle entirely. Workable for some people, not for others (hardest when a small car is also the family car for shopping trips and the like). But there's a lot of vacant if irregularly shaped space inside frames, under fenders, etc. that could be utilized right now. And it's already been done, in the form of rooftop carriers, which are widely available but no more popular than necessity dictates, being comparatively a PITA.
Actually, slow speeds are transient phenomena in L.A. -- so it is in certain places at certain times, but not generally so. And between slow spots, everyone rips right along. Having compared driving skills all over the western U.S., L.A. drivers are absolutely the best -- of necessity!
I've also observed that driving behaviour differs acto how many yuppies are on the road. Frex, in WestLA, hotbed of yuppie-style business, using your turn signal is like waving a red flag, and immediately someone will leap into the spot you intended to occupy. Conversely downtown, which is more "old business" that's been there for decades, chances are that in response to your signal, someone will give you room to change lanes. I conclude from this disparity that yuppie business interests are indeed prone to get up and run off, perhaps fleeing from the yuppies. Wouldn't you?;)
Whereas steady old business folk evidently follow this wise dictum:
"Throw strikes. Home plate don't move." -- Satchel Paige
Oh yes, I knew exactly the type of trailer you had in mind -- we see them behind motorcycles often enough. But very small trailers can be even more unsafe, because with their lack of obviousness, drivers tend to forget they're towing the little beasts, plus they're hard for other drivers to see (can't see it over the rest of the car, so you don't realise it's there until you're about to hit it).
As to L.A. driving habits -- considering how many cars are on the road in L.A. (15 years ago the figure was 2M cars every day, it's probably 4x that now) and how few wrecks (at the time a daily average of 8 fenderbenders, and no fatalities -- wrecks sufficient to make the news happen about once a month) -- I'd say rather that drivers here are very much more skilled, of necessity, than are drivers in less-congested venues. Even so -- significantly change the dynamics, and until a whole new generation of drivers is accustomed to tow-behind fuel units, the whole concept would be a significant hazard. (Much as happened during the transition from large slow-manuevering vehicles to small quick-handling models.)
Of course, if we killed off all the yuppies, it would end this pressing need to get wherever folk are going before someone else can sneak in ahead of you, which presently rules the freeways.:/
(Me, I figure where I'm going probably isn't going to get up and run off, so no point being in a rush; then again, I seldom have to be anywhere on a deadline.)
The other problem with trailers of ANY sort is that they're required to have lights, and most states require licensing for 'em too (and you can bet cash-strapped states would eye a new "you gotta have one" trailer with avaricious glee). Design considerations for the car itself would include a pigtail for the light hookup, changes in braking balance (you don't slam on the car's brakes when towing, unless you enjoy being jackknifed), and going back to fully-extended frames, rather than truncating it at the rear axle as is currently common to save weight (and mfg'ing cost). All in all, a much larger can of worms than it first appears. Also, I'd guess that extra length would skyrocket the fender-bender incidence in high-traffic areas, due to people getting clipped when someone changes lanes on the quick. (In L.A., we think 5 feet of clearance at 70mph is "plenty".:)
As to storage alternatives that could be built into a default-model car without adversely affecting handling characteristics, maybe long skinny tubes inside the frame's channel iron -- there's a fair amount of "waste space" under there which could be put to some such use, and is reasonably protected in the event of a crash (or at least no worse off than the gas tank). And for handling, you want extra weight evenly distributed and ideally not above the center of gravity, which using the frame could accomplish.
[On that note, winter driving trick applicable to most vehicles: keep the gas tank full for better weight distribution and safer handling on ice and snow.]
I'd hate to see little trailers behind the average driver's car -- pulling a trailer isn't so hard once you learn to compensate for your extra length, but backing a trailer (especially a small one) is a skill with a fairly steep learning curve. We won't even discuss parallel parking, or the new crime wave in fuel-trailer theft!
In short, I don't think that's practical. If the vehicle and its fuel can't be entirely self-contained, it just won't wash.
As to where business is located -- what with all the regulations, cost to rebuild, cost to re-establish supply lines, etc. it's just not practical for businesses to pack up and move from where they've been centered since before urban sprawl was a problem. When they DO move, they usually leave the metro area entirely -- because if you're going to all that expense, you might as well re-establish the business somewhere that labour costs are cheaper, which generally means in a rural state (not only for reduced labour costs, but also for lower insurance rates, workman's comp, etc.)
Even so, eventually aluminum corrodes all the way through, as many a person with "guaranteed forever" aluminum house siding can attest. Anodized aluminum lasts better than painted aluminum, but even so...
I've got a 40 year old travel trailer out back, with an aluminum skin that has become so age-porous that it leaks kinda everywhere, despite multiple coats of roof tar and other sealants. Where you can see the Al skin from the backside, the reason is obvious -- it's micro-pitted even on the side never exposed to the weather.
Conversely, yonder sits a 50 year old travel trailer with a stainless steel skin, which does not leak despite a remarkable lack of paint or sealants.
Slashdot Mirror
Only a relatively small percentage of shoplifters get caught. Should the few who get caught be penalized for the crimes of all the uncaught shoplifters??
That's all well and good -- I know a lot of lawyers, and as you say by and large they don't support stupid laws or overbearing tactics. But clearly there are also far too many lawyers who put the job (and the paycheck) ahead of personal ethics -- after all, your client didn't put a gun to your head and force you to engage in slimeball tactics against people who cannot reasonably defend themselves.
It occurs to me that this is much like the situation of a military grunt receiving an illegal order from his commanding officer. The grunt's legal and ethical duty is to refuse such an order. Likewise, it should be a lawyer's ethical duty to refuse orders from a slimeball client who uses coercive, illegal, or legal-but-unfair tactics.
Perhaps if more lawyers would stand up against such clients (despite the enticing mega-fees), lawyers would be perceived as heroes rather than as demon familiars.
But it had more opportunity for amused reply with the FDA cited instead :)
Yep, I'm familiar with "A Modest Proposal" (and what a wonderful site for classic lit! thanks for the link.) It's not just about, um, feeding the poor; it's more about how every last dinket is being sucked out of the masses, for the enrichment of their, ah, betters.
But remember this dictum when selecting a carcass: Eat the rich. The poor are tough and stringy.
Only problem is, all the harvested meat would be graded "U.S. Condemned"....
(Yes, that's a real USDA grade!)
FDA?? Oh, I see... cuz all the lobbyists must be on crack!!
So be smart enough to use a "disposable" PC for the purpose.
If it's a felony, file charges with your local district attorney, and let the DA's office take it from there (you may be called as a witness, but you don't have to defend yourself or hire a lawyer, tho doing so might not hurt). Criminal prosecutions aren't like a civil suits, where you have to finance the operation yourself. In criminal cases, your tax dollars have already funded it, and the other guy is on the defensive by default.
Interesting thought: what if, propelled by enough such prosecutions, DRM alone became grounds for "reasonable suspicion of criminal activity"??
More like getting a tapeworm with your pizza, which you don't realise you have until it's already firmly attached to your gut.
I read all the reviews. Some of the totally-positive reviews smell suspiciously like astroturf, or to be exact, like press releases. One has to wonder if that's an attempt to counter the flood of reviews that are negative solely by reason of the DRM/rootkit.
[sics Getright on link]
.AVI inside, sends it to Photopaint for disassembly]
http://www.hxdef.org/download/brilliant.php
=================
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 05:02:59 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) mod_auth_passthrough/1.8 mod_log_bytes/1.2 mod_bwlimited/1.4 PHP/4.3.9 FrontPage/5.0.2.2634a mod_ssl/2.8.22 OpenSSL/0.9.7a
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.9
Content-disposition: attachment; filename="Brilliant Hacker defender presentation movie MSV1.rar"
Content-Length: 843679
==============
[downloads file, extracts contents, discovers 12mb
The AVI consists of 1930 frames, all textmode screenshots (far as I looked), which is why it compressed so well. It would be somewhat smaller if only unique frames were represented and you played it one frame at a time (as can be done in an image editor). On peering at it with LIST, I learned that it was built with VirtualDub build 18160/release. Anyway, it doesn't seem to contain anything malicious.
Actually, that's a good point -- but I think the reason no one mentioned Carter is because she is NOT first and foremost a female, as is the case with 99% of the female characters in SF. Carter is first and foremost a real person, so we react to her personhood rather than to her femininity. She's never played as "just another pair of tits" or as "by damn we're going to have sexual equality", unfortunate failings of too many female characters in SF/F.
Much more typical is Lost In Trek's Janeway -- we're beat over the head with the fact of a FEMALE captain, rather than being shown a captain who happens to be incidentally female.
--------
Dear Starfleet: Hate you, Hate Alpha Quadrant. Took Voyager.--Janeway
Exactly. While we can eternally nitpick about what is or isn't SF, and what belongs in one subgenre or another, as you say the real point is that it's all some species of escapism, and that's why we read, watch, and write it. BTW a similar argument can be heard in the Romance camp re whether "Paranormal and Fantasy Romance" (Krinard et al.) is "real" romance or not, but the bottom line is still that people read it for escapism, and debate over what qualifies or not is just "boring, dweebish nitpicking". -- Nonetheless, the argument manages to claim our interest every time slashdot mentions SF. :)
As to the nominal topic, having been involved in SF/F fandom for over 30 years, my observation is that there have always been at least as many femfen as males, but at least half the fanac and 90% of fanfic is done by femfen, whereas males are more likely to be just passive consumers (ie. TV watchers). I think what TFA's sources are really seeing is a shift in the level of passivity among femfen, rather than a shift in their numbers.
It is possible to transfer an early-stage fetus to another host (a fetus might be viewed as a very specialized parasite, and is generally not picky about its host's identity, or even about being inside a uterus, so long as there is a good blood supply available).
But I've never heard an anti-choice adherent volunteer to become a host for an unwanted fetus, nor even offer to adopt the unwanted child after birth.
"The female downloads the executable to her ovum and attempts to insert it into the Egg OS... the HIRA (VM) runs the male code and translates it into the local Egg OS opcodes so the egg can run it..."
Sounds like a Trojan to me!!
[puts on professional dog trainer hat] The notion that only humans have free will and self-awareness is a too-limited view (I'da said "bunk", but didn't want to seem flamey
Anyone who's seen a dog pull an "I can't HEAR you" rapidly becomes aware of just how free-willed and self-aware they really are (on average, about the same as a 5 year old human child). Same with other critters, to varying degrees and expressions.
I've even seen chickens make conscious "er, maybe not" decisions, which clearly required that it act against its inclinations.
Actually, such anti-tamper devices exist -- the one I've seen was an otherwise-ordinary hard drive with a block of explosive attached, and the idea was that if it was powered up on the 'wrong' machine, it would explode (taking out not only the HD but the entire area).
Likely so. Similar to how if you fire a shotgun out in the open, your gundog gets all excited and thinks the noise is wonderful. But fire the same gun in an enclosed space, and the poor dog will cringe away from the barrage of reflected noise.
Might also be some individuals that have been conditioned to react negatively. Much as how if you repeatedly bang away right by your dog's ears, pretty soon he'll become gunshy, even if he wasn't by nature inclined to it.
But barring such events, noise shyness in dogs is entirely inherited (typically as one symptom of a sort of autism). There are probably whales that likewise suffer from such inherited issues, thus exhibit abnormal behaviour without readily-visible cause.
There's not much that isn't superior to roofmount solutions... having some decades ago had to regularly haul stuff atop my car's roof, I can attest to this!
/. for the intelligent conversation? you must be new here! :) Originally I did mark a few "friends" but quickly realised that I know over 1000 people here by handle, sig, or other contact, and marking them all would be at best unwieldy... it's easier to consider all my "fans" as "friends" too!!
How to astonish other drivers: carry several 18' fence panels and 3 or 4 doghouses atop a sport-sedan. (Which could be done, back in the day of solid metal construction. Now, the whole car would collapse, or at least tip sideways at the first turn.)
You came to
Is there a way to permanently turn off a stuck pixel?
Don't know enough about 'em to know if I'm making stuff up, but presumably the pixels are mapped; could this be sync'd with a tool that would let the user turn off individual pixels? (or turn them back on, if they picked the wrong one)
Oh! didn't realise you were talking about space-shifting the trunk outside the vehicle entirely. Workable for some people, not for others (hardest when a small car is also the family car for shopping trips and the like). But there's a lot of vacant if irregularly shaped space inside frames, under fenders, etc. that could be utilized right now. And it's already been done, in the form of rooftop carriers, which are widely available but no more popular than necessity dictates, being comparatively a PITA.
Actually, slow speeds are transient phenomena in L.A. -- so it is in certain places at certain times, but not generally so. And between slow spots, everyone rips right along. Having compared driving skills all over the western U.S., L.A. drivers are absolutely the best -- of necessity!
I've also observed that driving behaviour differs acto how many yuppies are on the road. Frex, in WestLA, hotbed of yuppie-style business, using your turn signal is like waving a red flag, and immediately someone will leap into the spot you intended to occupy. Conversely downtown, which is more "old business" that's been there for decades, chances are that in response to your signal, someone will give you room to change lanes. I conclude from this disparity that yuppie business interests are indeed prone to get up and run off, perhaps fleeing from the yuppies. Wouldn't you?
Whereas steady old business folk evidently follow this wise dictum:
"Throw strikes. Home plate don't move." -- Satchel Paige
Oh yes, I knew exactly the type of trailer you had in mind -- we see them behind motorcycles often enough. But very small trailers can be even more unsafe, because with their lack of obviousness, drivers tend to forget they're towing the little beasts, plus they're hard for other drivers to see (can't see it over the rest of the car, so you don't realise it's there until you're about to hit it).
:/
As to L.A. driving habits -- considering how many cars are on the road in L.A. (15 years ago the figure was 2M cars every day, it's probably 4x that now) and how few wrecks (at the time a daily average of 8 fenderbenders, and no fatalities -- wrecks sufficient to make the news happen about once a month) -- I'd say rather that drivers here are very much more skilled, of necessity, than are drivers in less-congested venues. Even so -- significantly change the dynamics, and until a whole new generation of drivers is accustomed to tow-behind fuel units, the whole concept would be a significant hazard. (Much as happened during the transition from large slow-manuevering vehicles to small quick-handling models.)
Of course, if we killed off all the yuppies, it would end this pressing need to get wherever folk are going before someone else can sneak in ahead of you, which presently rules the freeways.
(Me, I figure where I'm going probably isn't going to get up and run off, so no point being in a rush; then again, I seldom have to be anywhere on a deadline.)
The other problem with trailers of ANY sort is that they're required to have lights, and most states require licensing for 'em too (and you can bet cash-strapped states would eye a new "you gotta have one" trailer with avaricious glee). Design considerations for the car itself would include a pigtail for the light hookup, changes in braking balance (you don't slam on the car's brakes when towing, unless you enjoy being jackknifed), and going back to fully-extended frames, rather than truncating it at the rear axle as is currently common to save weight (and mfg'ing cost). All in all, a much larger can of worms than it first appears. Also, I'd guess that extra length would skyrocket the fender-bender incidence in high-traffic areas, due to people getting clipped when someone changes lanes on the quick. (In L.A., we think 5 feet of clearance at 70mph is "plenty". :)
As to storage alternatives that could be built into a default-model car without adversely affecting handling characteristics, maybe long skinny tubes inside the frame's channel iron -- there's a fair amount of "waste space" under there which could be put to some such use, and is reasonably protected in the event of a crash (or at least no worse off than the gas tank). And for handling, you want extra weight evenly distributed and ideally not above the center of gravity, which using the frame could accomplish.
[On that note, winter driving trick applicable to most vehicles: keep the gas tank full for better weight distribution and safer handling on ice and snow.]
I'd hate to see little trailers behind the average driver's car -- pulling a trailer isn't so hard once you learn to compensate for your extra length, but backing a trailer (especially a small one) is a skill with a fairly steep learning curve. We won't even discuss parallel parking, or the new crime wave in fuel-trailer theft!
In short, I don't think that's practical. If the vehicle and its fuel can't be entirely self-contained, it just won't wash.
As to where business is located -- what with all the regulations, cost to rebuild, cost to re-establish supply lines, etc. it's just not practical for businesses to pack up and move from where they've been centered since before urban sprawl was a problem. When they DO move, they usually leave the metro area entirely -- because if you're going to all that expense, you might as well re-establish the business somewhere that labour costs are cheaper, which generally means in a rural state (not only for reduced labour costs, but also for lower insurance rates, workman's comp, etc.)
Even so, eventually aluminum corrodes all the way through, as many a person with "guaranteed forever" aluminum house siding can attest. Anodized aluminum lasts better than painted aluminum, but even so...
I've got a 40 year old travel trailer out back, with an aluminum skin that has become so age-porous that it leaks kinda everywhere, despite multiple coats of roof tar and other sealants. Where you can see the Al skin from the backside, the reason is obvious -- it's micro-pitted even on the side never exposed to the weather.
Conversely, yonder sits a 50 year old travel trailer with a stainless steel skin, which does not leak despite a remarkable lack of paint or sealants.
There is one major drawback: the learning curve can be extraordinarily vertical, especially if one misapplies the rapid-acceleration device.
Personally, I find most activists a whole lot scarier than my revolver, or than your sig for that matter :)