As I said, there's misinformation on both sides. Fearmongering is just as bad as saying that there's absolutely nothing to worry about, particularly for people in Japan. The truth is that the outcome is unknown (or was -- things seem to be improving). But honestly, if I didn't need to be in Tokyo right now, I wouldn't be. Chances are things will be fine, but there's a not-insignificant chance that they won't be. If the risk of staying is higher than the risk of leaving, then it makes sense to leave, though unfortunately, the risk of staying is difficult to quantify.
Yes, people on other continents should not be concerned for their safety. While there is a non-zero chance that they could be affected, nothing they can do will mitigate that miniscule risk. Even going to the store to get iodine tables presents its own risk, which is likely far in excess of the risk of inhaling a radioactive particle that traveled halfway around the world. Would you flip a coin for your life to avoid having to spin a roulette wheel? That's what it boils down to.
Just because someone is anti-nuke doesn't mean they're wrong on the facts any more than being pro-nuke makes someone correct. I'm in favor of nuclear power, but I've heard plenty of BS on both sides. And understating the dangers is just as much of a disservice as overstating them IMO.
There's always pressure regardless of whose payroll you're on. The trick isn't so much who writes the check so much as who's receiving it. If someone has high integrity, then they'll do what's right regardless. Likewise, someone with low integrity will bend to any pressure or sell out for any potential personal benefit, like a comfy job in the private sector after they retire from public service.
There's more to it than just ambient radiation levels. Inhalation or consumption of radioactive isotopes greatly increases the risk for cancer and thyroid disease, particularly the isotope cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, and a biological half-life of 70 days. The reason it's particularly dangerous is that the body treats it like potassium, an essential mineral, rather than a toxin, and so retains it for an extended period of time. Granted, cesium is heavier than air, so it's not going to migrate on its own, but particles can become airborne through explosions or fire and enter humans either directly or through the food chain. And it's entirely possible (and plausible) for ambient radiation levels to be perfectly safe while harmful particles are floating around in the air or sitting in contaminated food supplies.
It will reduce piracy, at least among groups that are motivated to pirate based on the price barrier
That's the only group that matters. The other people you describe all fall under the category of "people who won't pay no matter what." These people shouldn't factor into pricing decisions, nor should they factor into product design considerations like DRM. They won't buy no matter how much you wish they would, so just ignore them.
Or coming up with an actual fscking name. Why is this so difficult for OSS? Free Call is uninspired and reminiscent of both built-in Windows card games and, not coincidentally, "fecal." Here's a few alternatives off the top of my head:
3G and 4G are both marketing terms under the guise of technical specifications, using the minimum of actual specifications. It's like defining a particular fastener as "a length of material with a pointy end." Nobody can use that specification to create anything useful, or say anything about the product that technically meets that specification. The standards for both 3G and 4G are so broad as to be essentially useless for anything other than marketing, which is just the way the telcos want it. They want consumers to say "Oh look, a bigger number! I want a phone with the bigger number on it! Do they come in shiny? I'll take two!"
Not to defend the practice by any means, but Comcast does show usage on the customer page, and FWIW, I've never heard so much as a peep even when I've doubled the cap. My friend received a nasty call once, but that was years ago, shortly after the 250GB cap was introduced.
More distressing (to me) is the fact that the cap hasn't been raised once in that time, while bandwidth has gone up more than 6X, from 16Mbit to 100Mbit. Since bandwidth seems to approximate Moore's Law, any cap should as well (if we're to take the rationale of "network load" seriously).
And everyone else is more interested in what you can *do* with the damn thing.
Correction: Everyone else is more interested in what *they* can do with the damn thing which, as you state, isn't much without pre-built and easy to access apps.
I'd need to spend hundreds of pounds upgrading my PC every year.
That hasn't really held true since the early 00s. This is partly because many PC titles are ports of console games now and so don't push the boundaries as hard, but also because the pixel wars tapered off where you no longer have monitors released with ever-increasing DPI. Both of these facts make me sad, but the fact remains that a 4-gen old card can competently play most modern PC games. Even if you may have to turn down some of the eye candy ever so slightly, you'll still get an equal or better experience than on a console, and as a bonus, you're not limited to a controller for your input. Frankly, there should be far more bonuses to using a PC (locally hosted servers, better models and textures, higher resolution), but the aforementioned facts get in the way of this in most cases. The quality of games available on the PC has been dragged down to the level of consoles for the most part, making the choice of platform almost moot. This article speculates that that's about to change, but I'll believe it when I see it.
There's just way too many issues for everybody to vote on everything the way that they do in some smaller countries.
Really only one smaller country, which is Switzerland. And honestly, there's no reason their system couldn't scale. We already have the infrastructure in place for performing direct elections, and it could be easily used for national issues. Not that I think it will happen in my lifetime -- people don't want the responsibility and politicians don't want to relinquish control -- but the arguments against it are little more than excuses.
No, people would still make millions in organ trading (and installation), just not the people who grew them.
I see nothing wrong with people selling their own organs, and I seriously doubt it would diminish what is already a minuscule pool of donors.
Anyway, most people make an explicit choice when they receive their driver's license or state ID, which could just as easily be called "out-out" as "opt-in."
The same is true of compiled code, only with the added step of decompiling and assigning labels to functions that are typically unnamed*. A competent hacker could RE the major components of an entire game in under a week. It's not like RE is terribly difficult; it just has the aura of the dark arts. Any halfway motivated teenager can pick it up in short order, and many do. Sure, civil law in the US provides remedies/penalties if caught, but that may or may not be a deterrent for some company in Thirdworldia. Ultimately the only thing that prevents someone from copying or modifying your code is the honor system.
* Unless your game happens to in an unobfuscated intermediate language, in which case it might as well be source code. And most obfuscation only strips metadata, which is a bit like removing the exit signs from a building -- the doors are still there for anyone who cares to look for them.
As for the sales tax, that varies by state. Buy in all they states I have shopped in recently, food components (beef, cheese, milk) have no sales tax, but prepared foods (McDonald's) does. This makes sense because if you can afford to eat out, you can more afford a tax. But in the case of fuel, you pay the same regardless of if it is for a joy ride, or to get to work.
Which is ridiculous, because it costs less to buy a quarter pounder from McDonalds than it does to buy all the ingredients and cook it oneself. This is partly because burgers are loss leaders on things like fries and soda, but also because restaurants buy and prepare on a much larger scale. Now I won't go so far as to argue that it's a healthy option to eat fast food, but the idea that one will necessarily get more value for their money when buying groceries is idealistic to say the least, particularly when one must maximize his calories per dollar spent.
Slashdot Mirror
As I said, there's misinformation on both sides. Fearmongering is just as bad as saying that there's absolutely nothing to worry about, particularly for people in Japan. The truth is that the outcome is unknown (or was -- things seem to be improving). But honestly, if I didn't need to be in Tokyo right now, I wouldn't be. Chances are things will be fine, but there's a not-insignificant chance that they won't be. If the risk of staying is higher than the risk of leaving, then it makes sense to leave, though unfortunately, the risk of staying is difficult to quantify.
Yes, people on other continents should not be concerned for their safety. While there is a non-zero chance that they could be affected, nothing they can do will mitigate that miniscule risk. Even going to the store to get iodine tables presents its own risk, which is likely far in excess of the risk of inhaling a radioactive particle that traveled halfway around the world. Would you flip a coin for your life to avoid having to spin a roulette wheel? That's what it boils down to.
Actually, if you're guilty, go ahead and talk. If you're innocent, STFU.
Just because someone is anti-nuke doesn't mean they're wrong on the facts any more than being pro-nuke makes someone correct. I'm in favor of nuclear power, but I've heard plenty of BS on both sides. And understating the dangers is just as much of a disservice as overstating them IMO.
Feel free to send me $15/mo to continue reading Slashdot. I'll even throw in access to Google News.
Yes, but how many microseconds are in a microscope?
mm is larger than a nm is larger than a um.
Hah. Way to illustrate the point.
There's always pressure regardless of whose payroll you're on. The trick isn't so much who writes the check so much as who's receiving it. If someone has high integrity, then they'll do what's right regardless. Likewise, someone with low integrity will bend to any pressure or sell out for any potential personal benefit, like a comfy job in the private sector after they retire from public service.
There's more to it than just ambient radiation levels. Inhalation or consumption of radioactive isotopes greatly increases the risk for cancer and thyroid disease, particularly the isotope cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, and a biological half-life of 70 days. The reason it's particularly dangerous is that the body treats it like potassium, an essential mineral, rather than a toxin, and so retains it for an extended period of time. Granted, cesium is heavier than air, so it's not going to migrate on its own, but particles can become airborne through explosions or fire and enter humans either directly or through the food chain. And it's entirely possible (and plausible) for ambient radiation levels to be perfectly safe while harmful particles are floating around in the air or sitting in contaminated food supplies.
I am rich, and yes, we can pay for it all. You're likely not rich, so what's the problem?
Exactly, most people want to be famous. I say give 'em what they want.
It will reduce piracy, at least among groups that are motivated to pirate based on the price barrier
That's the only group that matters. The other people you describe all fall under the category of "people who won't pay no matter what." These people shouldn't factor into pricing decisions, nor should they factor into product design considerations like DRM. They won't buy no matter how much you wish they would, so just ignore them.
Or coming up with an actual fscking name. Why is this so difficult for OSS? Free Call is uninspired and reminiscent of both built-in Windows card games and, not coincidentally, "fecal." Here's a few alternatives off the top of my head:
VoCall, SyndiCall, CryptologiCall, UnequivoCall, etc...
Banter
Speakeasy
Clarity
Teleport
Switchboard
SPL (pronounced "spiel")
Freq. In/Out
Streaming Telephony Framing Utility
uPhone (greek mu, pronounced "microphone" by geeks; "you phone" by idiots; "lawsuit" by Apple)
Really though, there's endless possibilities...
Paraphrasing a quote I can't quite remember:
It's not the fall that kills, it's that sudden stop at the end.
3G and 4G are both marketing terms under the guise of technical specifications, using the minimum of actual specifications. It's like defining a particular fastener as "a length of material with a pointy end." Nobody can use that specification to create anything useful, or say anything about the product that technically meets that specification. The standards for both 3G and 4G are so broad as to be essentially useless for anything other than marketing, which is just the way the telcos want it. They want consumers to say "Oh look, a bigger number! I want a phone with the bigger number on it! Do they come in shiny? I'll take two!"
Not to defend the practice by any means, but Comcast does show usage on the customer page, and FWIW, I've never heard so much as a peep even when I've doubled the cap. My friend received a nasty call once, but that was years ago, shortly after the 250GB cap was introduced.
More distressing (to me) is the fact that the cap hasn't been raised once in that time, while bandwidth has gone up more than 6X, from 16Mbit to 100Mbit. Since bandwidth seems to approximate Moore's Law, any cap should as well (if we're to take the rationale of "network load" seriously).
Correction: Everyone else is more interested in what *they* can do with the damn thing which, as you state, isn't much without pre-built and easy to access apps.
I'd need to spend hundreds of pounds upgrading my PC every year.
That hasn't really held true since the early 00s. This is partly because many PC titles are ports of console games now and so don't push the boundaries as hard, but also because the pixel wars tapered off where you no longer have monitors released with ever-increasing DPI. Both of these facts make me sad, but the fact remains that a 4-gen old card can competently play most modern PC games. Even if you may have to turn down some of the eye candy ever so slightly, you'll still get an equal or better experience than on a console, and as a bonus, you're not limited to a controller for your input. Frankly, there should be far more bonuses to using a PC (locally hosted servers, better models and textures, higher resolution), but the aforementioned facts get in the way of this in most cases. The quality of games available on the PC has been dragged down to the level of consoles for the most part, making the choice of platform almost moot. This article speculates that that's about to change, but I'll believe it when I see it.
There's just way too many issues for everybody to vote on everything the way that they do in some smaller countries.
Really only one smaller country, which is Switzerland. And honestly, there's no reason their system couldn't scale. We already have the infrastructure in place for performing direct elections, and it could be easily used for national issues. Not that I think it will happen in my lifetime -- people don't want the responsibility and politicians don't want to relinquish control -- but the arguments against it are little more than excuses.
No, people would still make millions in organ trading (and installation), just not the people who grew them.
I see nothing wrong with people selling their own organs, and I seriously doubt it would diminish what is already a minuscule pool of donors.
Anyway, most people make an explicit choice when they receive their driver's license or state ID, which could just as easily be called "out-out" as "opt-in."
The same is true of compiled code, only with the added step of decompiling and assigning labels to functions that are typically unnamed*. A competent hacker could RE the major components of an entire game in under a week. It's not like RE is terribly difficult; it just has the aura of the dark arts. Any halfway motivated teenager can pick it up in short order, and many do. Sure, civil law in the US provides remedies/penalties if caught, but that may or may not be a deterrent for some company in Thirdworldia. Ultimately the only thing that prevents someone from copying or modifying your code is the honor system.
* Unless your game happens to in an unobfuscated intermediate language, in which case it might as well be source code. And most obfuscation only strips metadata, which is a bit like removing the exit signs from a building -- the doors are still there for anyone who cares to look for them.
As for the sales tax, that varies by state. Buy in all they states I have shopped in recently, food components (beef, cheese, milk) have no sales tax, but prepared foods (McDonald's) does. This makes sense because if you can afford to eat out, you can more afford a tax. But in the case of fuel, you pay the same regardless of if it is for a joy ride, or to get to work.
Which is ridiculous, because it costs less to buy a quarter pounder from McDonalds than it does to buy all the ingredients and cook it oneself. This is partly because burgers are loss leaders on things like fries and soda, but also because restaurants buy and prepare on a much larger scale. Now I won't go so far as to argue that it's a healthy option to eat fast food, but the idea that one will necessarily get more value for their money when buying groceries is idealistic to say the least, particularly when one must maximize his calories per dollar spent.
Destruction of property and fraud.
Next?
Yeah, no. With more voltage your turn your expensive transistors into 2c fuses.
So your advice is to become a troll. If you can't beat 'em...
When a Glory satellite crashes, does it make a Glory hole?