Why do we rely solely on a "Black Box" to record flight data in the Space Shuttle and commercial aircraft? It's prone to destruction and tampering.
Why not also beam encrypted flight data to command central where it can be safely stored no matter what catastrophe? It would also work as a "mirror" so that if the black box or the data in command central were tampered with, the data could be compared in the other (assuming the black box made it). Or beam the data to two locations for that matter.
The US objects to the protocol on the grounds that it concentrates on emissions from industrialised countries, and refuses at this stage to seek to limit pollution from developing nations.
How valid of an argument is that? The industrialized countries produce the majority of pollution, so that should be the focus of the treaty! Why focus on something that has minimal return globally?
On the other hand, I could see industrialized nations complaining if the majority of other industrialized nations don't comply, simply because it would make competition between them less fair.
The US is and claims to be a global leader. It should set the standard on the environment. The fact that it doesn't live up to that is puzzling.
I have a feeling that the other solutions they are looking for it better ways to live with our worsening atmosphere. "Hey, we could just wear gas masks every day, so there's no need to cut emissions further." That kind of thinking. I surely hope not.
First war post!
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I know, this isn't a joke, but let's pretend the war was taking place in the US. Imagine it in your mind. Then turn on the TV and look at their cute little "Showdown with Saddam" graphics and glitz. I bet many of the people at the television station have absolutely no idea what war is like. It's degrading to anyone fighting the war that it is treated like a game. This is, of course, no game.
Much the same way as the amoeba is one step closer to mankind than a virus.
Speaking of a virus, I'm surprised no M$ lackeyes have spouted off about the GPL being viral.
I bring this up because the MS office document formats are one of the most viral entities in the computing industry. Try and switch to another office suite - go ahead! - but your friends and their friends will keep sending you the proprietary MS Office documents which you need MS Office for to edit/print with absolute reliability. The more people use MS Office, the more this is true.
This is the lamest story I've ever heard on Slashdot. I almost left for good after reading this. If the next week's worth of news doesn't get any less lame, I probably will.
Slashdot, don't be fucking lame. This is news for *nerds*, not for simps and wannabees. XML too hard? Then you shouldn't be a programmer cause that's about as easy as it gets unless you're just a hobbyist.
But anyway, Slashdot could simply ask permission to mirror it before posting the link.
They could, but with the volume of stories the Slashdot editors have to look at, and society's insatiable need for having everything "now", that really seems unlikely (even though it makes perfect sense).
Glow-in-the-dark condoms not enough, now you need glow in the dark balls, too? Sheesh!
But seriously (if it's possible after a comment like that), I've always thought that visual cues are the best way to convey information without you having to mindfully seek that information. It's easy for the brain to see a whole room full of things, but only notice the difference when a moth starts flying around. Likewise, you could be monitoring all kinds of things without much conscious thought, but be on top of it when something changes. Now, if everything changes at once, that's another story.
Excuse the lame question, but is there _any_ computer language out there that can completely prevent buffer overflows and other common attacks?
This possibly endless, iterative procedure for every_single_program_written out there is getting very tiresome. When is a program totally secure, or better yet, is any program ever secure from any future attacks?
At the least, this certainly isn't the FUTURE of computing (I hope!).
Addressable memory != physical memory Pages stored on disk are also addresable, they get swapped in when accessed.
Yes, of course, but I don't know anybody who'd want to run their app relying on swap space. Can you spell SLOW? You'd be better off having many computers with 4GB of RAM per.
Some of the notable features of the new chip are an address space capable of addressing up to 1 Terabyte of memory
That's awesome because, Dude, Dell is having a sale on half terabyte memory modules this week!
But seriously, how could one ever pack that much memory onto a board? It sounds physically impossible unless you have some crazy expansion pack but that would slow the system down so what's the point?
Yeah, because I need an ulterior motive to not put my anti-theft device at the end of a friggin' thread. Come on.
You DO know what an RFID tag is, don't you? It can uniquely identify each customer. From the article:
Phillips says its smart tags will be imperceptible to the wearer. They store information on the style, size and color of the garment and its path through the manufacturing and stock chain... Because the ID is embedded in the clothes -- it's an antenna-bearing chip smaller than a grain of rice that's attached to the clothes' labels... Since the chips contain no power source they can only transmit their data when within 3 feet of a receiver -- either a handheld unit or a shelving monitor in a Benetton store or warehouse... For instance, a sales clerk might be tipped that a person in a pair of RFID-tagged slacks is a frequent customer. The salesperson could give that customer priority, and make sales suggestions based on the company's idea of clothes that match the slacks, Zwibel said.
Such scenarios could lead to protests over "spy clothes" on privacy grounds, said Wayne Madsen of the Electronic Privacy Information Center... "There really needs to be legislation if companies are doing this," Madsen said. "They say it's for internal use. But what would prevent them from sharing it with third parties, with the government or criminal investigators?"
This is a _little_ overkill for a simple anti-theft device. Why not just contain a store location ID? That's all that would be needed -- not a globally unique ID. Also, Anti-theft devices already exist and do a pretty good job.
Since most people are paying with plastic these days, your very personal information (SSN, driver's license, credit history, name, address) can easily be matched with an RFID tag once you purchase clothing containing one.
One step further, it would be easy for your movement throughout your city and country could be tracked as long as you went through the anti-theft scanners which most stores have. As stores in other countries pick up the RFID tags, you can be tracked globally.
Go ahead, scoff all you want. You're the one who needs to do some critical thinking about the ramifications of these decisions.
i think its the worst kind of spam possible. no other spam msg has made me feel so helpless and so angry.
Helpless? You can't be serious! Do what I did - switch to another webmail provider. Send everyone on your contact list your new email address. Done! Sure, it's inconvenient, but soon it'll be ancient history and you'll feel so much better.:)
Right - or why not affix the chip to the usual cardboard tag attached by a plastic "string"? Then you could easily cut off the tag and the chip at the same time.
But that would be too easy. Obviously alterior motives at work here.
Just to be the devil's advocate (literally;), isn't SAMBA just a protocol? Since Linux supports SAMBA, is it not just as vulnerable to this worm?
And second, I wonder why Microsoft hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of enforcing secure passwords (eg. password too easy, try again)? Personally, I think SUSE's restrictions are too much, but there must be a middle ground where at least very weak passwords are prohibited.
Having no idea where this code came from, I'll take a wild guess and say it's a test of some kind. Could be testing the current compiler optimization (most of this could be optimized away), or testing how long it takes to perform some code (where an empty loop isn't desired). Am I close?
I appreciate the points you are trying to make. I agree that someone has to look out for our rights. The last thing I want to do is throw our rights out the door.
I used to think that there should be no compromises when it comes to our civil liberties. Probably a lot of people don't get what I'm trying to say (I noticed I have a few freaks now on my user page, LOL!) but whatever. Arguments like this are bound to be polarized.
I don't understand why it has to be all liberties or no liberties. I believe that times have changed and the landscape of our society is a much different one than it was say 10 years ago. As a result, what used to be effective may not be today. Take for example people's selfish attitudes. How many people would rather take a chance of running you over than stop for 10 seconds and let you cross in front of them?
Common sense is a thing of the past. You now have people blatantly taking advantage of the system. People profiling other people and digging through law books figuring out just what they can get away with.
The legal system is the new central nervous system for the country. If it's not a law, then it doesn't matter because being "good" isn't important. Being on the right side of the law is all that we are _required_ to do. If you happen to live in a town or city where this isn't true, then great for you. That's all I've been seeing, though. Or maybe the bit of news I listen to is enough to bring my outlook down this much.
So what other option do we have than to mandate certain core values through law? Can you honestly say you want things to stay the way they are or get worse for a few more generations? Or can we make some changes to get everyone back on track and thinking along the same lines once again? If our society erodes any more, I fear that future grassroots movements to improve our quality of living will be squashed due to absurd laws being passed today.
Dude, when will your type learn that you CANNOT protect your children from the world... all you can do is PREPARE them for it, and ACCLIMATE them to it.
That's like saying "life sucks, get used to it". I'd rather improve the quality of life for my children.
Even if your children grew up in a world without evil, somebody else's children will invent some new shit to throw at them.
True. That's why saying "parents should decide what's best for their children" isn't good enough. Someone else's parents will inevitably think the beating someone else up is okay, porn is okay, etc...
Trust me, I know that the world is not perfect and that my child will find that out sooner or later. But why fill their minds with trash before they've barely learned to read? Why do people pretend there's a Santa Claus? He's not real, tell the kid. Because the child should get to _be_ a child. It's going to form how they think and act the rest of their lives. They can think with pure hearts or polluted hearts.
Ask yourself one more thing: if we don't try and clean our environment (or at least stop it from getting decayed and decadent), how the hell is the world going to get any better? Right now I see a country full of stressed out and unhappy, but "free" people. What good is free if you can't enjoy it? What is your opinion of other humans in general if you know the world is full of whackos and psychos, etc.. who all have their right to spread their filth? Will you begin to shut out everyone because they might be sick? Food for thought.
Just because they're hatefilled, pathetic excuses for human beings doesn't mean they should be repressed.
Yes, the ACLU has every right to express their opinions. Just as I have every right to disagree with them and put their opinions down.
I'm not going to sit silently while they wave their arms and call attention to their disgusting positions. I'm standing up for what _I_ believe in, and that's all. Don't expect me to hold someone's hand while they disparage what I believe in and attempt to make my beliefs an impossible reality.
No matter what the cause, censoring information does absoultely nothing except shield people from the truth and reality.
Truth and reality... What truth do you speak of? Do you realize that we have the power to _change_ and _define_ what reality is for our children? Why does that reality have to include child pornography, rape, torture, and other mind pollutants?
If you don't have children of your own, then I can understand why you have your view point. If you're still in school, then even more I can understand that you speak of the theory of censorship, not how certain things can rot out one's mind. Do you know what evil is? Imagine what you think evil is and multiply times 1,000. You're still not even close. I can't tell you what it is, but your journey through life will reveal it to you in many ways. I don't want my children subjected to that.
Our children are our future, so let's teach them right. Don't listen to the ACLU - they're hell bent on undoing anything that is good and pure in America. Yes, that includes the minds of our children. Take a good look through their site and see if you disagree. I'll be surprised if it doesn't turn your stomach some of the things they support.
Slashdot Mirror
I hope someone can explain this to me.
Why do we rely solely on a "Black Box" to record flight data in the Space Shuttle and commercial aircraft? It's prone to destruction and tampering.
Why not also beam encrypted flight data to command central where it can be safely stored no matter what catastrophe? It would also work as a "mirror" so that if the black box or the data in command central were tampered with, the data could be compared in the other (assuming the black box made it). Or beam the data to two locations for that matter.
Hey, what do you get when you cross Mandrake 9 (Bamboo) and Red Hat 8 (Limbo)?
Answer: Windows (Bimbo)
How valid of an argument is that? The industrialized countries produce the majority of pollution, so that should be the focus of the treaty! Why focus on something that has minimal return globally?
On the other hand, I could see industrialized nations complaining if the majority of other industrialized nations don't comply, simply because it would make competition between them less fair.
The US is and claims to be a global leader. It should set the standard on the environment. The fact that it doesn't live up to that is puzzling.
I have a feeling that the other solutions they are looking for it better ways to live with our worsening atmosphere. "Hey, we could just wear gas masks every day, so there's no need to cut emissions further." That kind of thinking. I surely hope not.
I know, this isn't a joke, but let's pretend the war was taking place in the US. Imagine it in your mind. Then turn on the TV and look at their cute little "Showdown with Saddam" graphics and glitz. I bet many of the people at the television station have absolutely no idea what war is like. It's degrading to anyone fighting the war that it is treated like a game. This is, of course, no game.
Much the same way as the amoeba is one step closer to mankind than a virus.
Speaking of a virus, I'm surprised no M$ lackeyes have spouted off about the GPL being viral.
I bring this up because the MS office document formats are one of the most viral entities in the computing industry. Try and switch to another office suite - go ahead! - but your friends and their friends will keep sending you the proprietary MS Office documents which you need MS Office for to edit/print with absolute reliability. The more people use MS Office, the more this is true.
This is the lamest story I've ever heard on Slashdot. I almost left for good after reading this. If the next week's worth of news doesn't get any less lame, I probably will.
Slashdot, don't be fucking lame. This is news for *nerds*, not for simps and wannabees. XML too hard? Then you shouldn't be a programmer cause that's about as easy as it gets unless you're just a hobbyist.
But anyway, Slashdot could simply ask permission to mirror it before posting the link.
They could, but with the volume of stories the Slashdot editors have to look at, and society's insatiable need for having everything "now", that really seems unlikely (even though it makes perfect sense).
Glow-in-the-dark condoms not enough, now you need glow in the dark balls, too? Sheesh!
But seriously (if it's possible after a comment like that), I've always thought that visual cues are the best way to convey information without you having to mindfully seek that information. It's easy for the brain to see a whole room full of things, but only notice the difference when a moth starts flying around.
Likewise, you could be monitoring all kinds of things without much conscious thought, but be on top of it when something changes. Now, if everything changes at once, that's another story.
Excuse the lame question, but is there _any_ computer language out there that can completely prevent buffer overflows and other common attacks?
This possibly endless, iterative procedure for every_single_program_written out there is getting very tiresome. When is a program totally secure, or better yet, is any program ever secure from any future attacks?
At the least, this certainly isn't the FUTURE of computing (I hope!).
Aha! I see having a society of mindless sheep is a double-edged sword! *manical laughter*
Here:
http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=dopefish
Addressable memory != physical memory Pages stored on disk are also addresable, they get swapped in when accessed.
Yes, of course, but I don't know anybody who'd want to run their app relying on swap space. Can you spell SLOW? You'd be better off having many computers with 4GB of RAM per.
Some of the notable features of the new chip are an address space capable of addressing up to 1 Terabyte of memory
That's awesome because, Dude, Dell is having a sale on half terabyte memory modules this week!
But seriously, how could one ever pack that much memory onto a board? It sounds physically impossible unless you have some crazy expansion pack but that would slow the system down so what's the point?
Nice - no sugar coating goin' on here baby! (sorry, too many Terry Tate videos) :)
Can't argue with the plain truth.
You DO know what an RFID tag is, don't you? It can uniquely identify each customer. From the article:
This is a _little_ overkill for a simple anti-theft device. Why not just contain a store location ID? That's all that would be needed -- not a globally unique ID. Also, Anti-theft devices already exist and do a pretty good job.
Since most people are paying with plastic these days, your very personal information (SSN, driver's license, credit history, name, address) can easily be matched with an RFID tag once you purchase clothing containing one.
One step further, it would be easy for your movement throughout your city and country could be tracked as long as you went through the anti-theft scanners which most stores have. As stores in other countries pick up the RFID tags, you can be tracked globally.
Go ahead, scoff all you want. You're the one who needs to do some critical thinking about the ramifications of these decisions.
i think its the worst kind of spam possible. no other spam msg has made me feel so helpless and so angry.
:)
Helpless? You can't be serious! Do what I did - switch to another webmail provider. Send everyone on your contact list your new email address. Done! Sure, it's inconvenient, but soon it'll be ancient history and you'll feel so much better.
Right - or why not affix the chip to the usual cardboard tag attached by a plastic "string"? Then you could easily cut off the tag and the chip at the same time.
But that would be too easy. Obviously alterior motives at work here.
Those that refuse this offer will get a $250,000 bounty put on their heads.
:)
:)
Yeah, that's realistic for a publicly traded, American corporation.
I'm sure Ellison would've taken out Gates long ago if that were conceivable.
Either that or an open-source-sponsored PayPal account, LOL.
Argh! I plead guilty to not reading TFA.
Now I will write 100 times "SAMBA is not a protocol... SAMBA is not a protocol..."
Just to be the devil's advocate (literally
And second, I wonder why Microsoft hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of enforcing secure passwords (eg. password too easy, try again)? Personally, I think SUSE's restrictions are too much, but there must be a middle ground where at least very weak passwords are prohibited.
Having no idea where this code came from, I'll take a wild guess and say it's a test of some kind. Could be testing the current compiler optimization (most of this could be optimized away), or testing how long it takes to perform some code (where an empty loop isn't desired).
Am I close?
I appreciate the points you are trying to make. I agree that someone has to look out for our rights. The last thing I want to do is throw our rights out the door.
I used to think that there should be no compromises when it comes to our civil liberties. Probably a lot of people don't get what I'm trying to say (I noticed I have a few freaks now on my user page, LOL!) but whatever. Arguments like this are bound to be polarized.
I don't understand why it has to be all liberties or no liberties. I believe that times have changed and the landscape of our society is a much different one than it was say 10 years ago. As a result, what used to be effective may not be today. Take for example people's selfish attitudes. How many people would rather take a chance of running you over than stop for 10 seconds and let you cross in front of them?
Common sense is a thing of the past. You now have people blatantly taking advantage of the system. People profiling other people and digging through law books figuring out just what they can get away with.
The legal system is the new central nervous system for the country. If it's not a law, then it doesn't matter because being "good" isn't important. Being on the right side of the law is all that we are _required_ to do. If you happen to live in a town or city where this isn't true, then great for you. That's all I've been seeing, though. Or maybe the bit of news I listen to is enough to bring my outlook down this much.
So what other option do we have than to mandate certain core values through law? Can you honestly say you want things to stay the way they are or get worse for a few more generations? Or can we make some changes to get everyone back on track and thinking along the same lines once again? If our society erodes any more, I fear that future grassroots movements to improve our quality of living will be squashed due to absurd laws being passed today.
Dude, when will your type learn that you CANNOT protect your children from the world... all you can do is PREPARE them for it, and ACCLIMATE them to it.
That's like saying "life sucks, get used to it". I'd rather improve the quality of life for my children.
Even if your children grew up in a world without evil, somebody else's children will invent some new shit to throw at them.
True. That's why saying "parents should decide what's best for their children" isn't good enough. Someone else's parents will inevitably think the beating someone else up is okay, porn is okay, etc...
Trust me, I know that the world is not perfect and that my child will find that out sooner or later. But why fill their minds with trash before they've barely learned to read? Why do people pretend there's a Santa Claus? He's not real, tell the kid. Because the child should get to _be_ a child. It's going to form how they think and act the rest of their lives. They can think with pure hearts or polluted hearts.
Ask yourself one more thing: if we don't try and clean our environment (or at least stop it from getting decayed and decadent), how the hell is the world going to get any better? Right now I see a country full of stressed out and unhappy, but "free" people. What good is free if you can't enjoy it? What is your opinion of other humans in general if you know the world is full of whackos and psychos, etc.. who all have their right to spread their filth? Will you begin to shut out everyone because they might be sick?
Food for thought.
Just because they're hatefilled, pathetic excuses for human beings doesn't mean they should be repressed.
Yes, the ACLU has every right to express their opinions. Just as I have every right to disagree with them and put their opinions down.
I'm not going to sit silently while they wave their arms and call attention to their disgusting positions.
I'm standing up for what _I_ believe in, and that's all. Don't expect me to hold someone's hand while they disparage what I believe in and attempt to make my beliefs an impossible reality.
No matter what the cause, censoring information does absoultely nothing except shield people from the truth and reality.
Truth and reality... What truth do you speak of? Do you realize that we have the power to _change_ and _define_ what reality is for our children? Why does that reality have to include child pornography, rape, torture, and other mind pollutants?
If you don't have children of your own, then I can understand why you have your view point. If you're still in school, then even more I can understand that you speak of the theory of censorship, not how certain things can rot out one's mind. Do you know what evil is? Imagine what you think evil is and multiply times 1,000. You're still not even close. I can't tell you what it is, but your journey through life will reveal it to you in many ways. I don't want my children subjected to that.
Our children are our future, so let's teach them right. Don't listen to the ACLU - they're hell bent on undoing anything that is good and pure in America. Yes, that includes the minds of our children. Take a good look through their site and see if you disagree. I'll be surprised if it doesn't turn your stomach some of the things they support.