Actually, I would be sad to see them go down. Not because I feel sorry for a bunch of idiots who can't manage a business, but because I am sure that there is actually a good amount of music on EMI that IS worth listening to.
I wouldn't be sad at all to see the major labels go down. I doubt the music would simply be lost - when companies go bust, they are generally bought up, often rather cheaply, any assets (here: music) would presumably be taken over by somebody who might even be able to handle it responsibly. Ideally, it be bought up by one of the big libraries and made available for free - far too much music, literature and film is not available to the public because some idiots can't think of a way to make money out of it.
A much better alternative would be if EMI were actually able to market their products in a sustainable way.
And there, I feel, we are at the nub of the problem, as it were: lack of ability.
Thats what I don't understand about this anti-porn crusade
What anti-porn crusade? As far as I can see - and have been able to for most of my adult life - porn is and has always been a lame and thoroughly sterile, industrial product. You have to be seriously underdeveloped in certain departments to find that interesting, let alone "able to lead you astray". So, I don't think there is an "anti-porn crusade" - certainly not outside the more extreme, religious circles. But I can understand why most people don't want to have it encroach on their living space or that of their children - one, because the advertising methods encomapss all the worst practises: it is intrusive, tries to pirate your desktop and use your modem to call premium rate numbers etc etc; and the product is so far below any reasonable expectation that taking money for it is tantamount to fraud.
And, two, you don't want your children to grow up imagining that sex is actually so stiff, artificial, plasticky etc etc. as what you see in porn movies. But you are right - it is the duty of parents (and school) to educate children about all aspects of life; only the materials should reflect what it is really like, rather than depict a Barbie and Ken type of concept. There is a lot of good quality erotica out there - let them use that; it's supposed to be both fun and beautiful.
... with the yank of a power cord,...
Sorry, what "power cord" were you referring to there?
If you are a political activist in any country (not just China), don't post things publicly that are unrelated to your cause. Don't post things electronically that are or could be considered illegal, or be used as blackmail material. Remember that you are not representing yourself anymore, you are representing your cause. Everything you say and do will be put under a microscope, and the internet never forgets and never forgives mistakes.
All good advice, no doubt.
China, you suck.
Possibly; but they don't swallow.
Honestly, if you live in a country, it is common sense to know at least the basics of the legislation; and in China it seems to be considered a crime to criticise the government. And if you knowingly commit that crime, whose fault is that actually?
Before you start the usual shouting match against China, take a moment to consider the sometimes bizarre "crimes" in other countries: in Singapore you can arrested for spitting in public; and to quote http://www.ahajokes.com/strlaw.html: "In Carrizozo, N.M., it's forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public". One may not always appreciate the value and significance of laws in other countries, but perhaps we just don't understand the background?
It would lend more credibility to your grammar nazi'ing if you didn't commit such sloppy errors as misspelling criticize and failing other random punctuation issues.
- and it would lend more credibility to your reply, if you had checked whether or not "criticise" was not in fact a legimitimate spelling in UK;-)
Get a guy and a girl drunk, let them have sex, and if the girl regrets it in the morning it's "rape".
You seem to have some experience with this - would you care to elaborate?
I know that you have a thing called "statutory rape" in the States, where it is rape if you sleep with a girl under a certain age, even if she consented and is willing to give evidence in court to that effect. That, of course, is an idiotic piece of legislation constructed by puritans or the like; but elsewhere, rape simply means exploiting another person's weakness to have sex with them that you would not otherwise have had. That obviously includes getting a girl drunk or spiking her drink with something.
Thank Israel indeed. Now that they have unleashed this easily modifiable contraption on the world, where it will go on to cause damage for who knows how long? And for what reason did they do it? In order to cause some minor irritation to the Iranians - is that a worthy reason to do something so potentially damaging to us all?
If the schools realized that it's 2010, not 1810, and if teachers actually were a bit more passionated about learning than a corpse i'm certain cheating would drop a fair bit.
I don't normally criticise people for language and grammar, since it is beside the point, but I think since you are criticising university teaching quality and seem to imply that you are a student on one, it is fair in this case. So, don't you mean to say something like "If teachers were a bit more passionate (note the form of the word) about teaching (teacher may learn, but they are supposed to teach)"? It would lend more credibility to your arguments if you didn't commit such sloppy errors.
Apart from that - this is a university you are talking about. You are supposed to be an adult, who takes responsibility for what you learn, at least to the extent that you read and try to understand the day's subject before the lecture, so you can pick up the presumably few points you didn't quite understand. Lectures are only meant to be a minor part of your effort, so I think your rant is misplaced.
I think it is too simple - although I sympathise with the sentiment.
What I'd really like to see is a phone that that offers me exactly the things that are useful: calls, phonebook, calendar, sms, fully programmable, robust screen, the ability to attach external USB keyboard, network and harddisk, - and nothing else. No half-baked camera, no half-brained games, no semi-useful applications. Oh, and the ability to block SMS and calls from unwanted sources.
And one more thing: a GPS based "location alarm" to remind to go and do whatever next time I come to a certain place.
What I mean is, there's almost no expensive components in this phone. Heck, it doesn't even have a screen. All it needs is the simplest or the cheapest microprocessors that is capable of making a call. Yet, it still costs £60 to £80.
An iPhone costs something like USD 400 - 500 if you buy it with no subscription directly from Apple, so the price isn't actually all that unreasonable. Also, it seems that older components don't actually get cheaper just because newer ones offer more performance; you can get a 1TB harddisk for about 70 GBP, but if you ask for a 5 years old 100GB disk, it costs almost as much. Perhaps on that background it isn't so surprising that a dumbphone costs this much.
So it was basically a scam to gain access to technology, and the promises of long-term contracts never materialized.
Business is business, even when it turns out that America doesn't have the upper hand. Being Danish, I have grown up on this sort of complaints; but against American companies.
You know, for an American, you whine an awful lot; don't you believe in freedom? The free movement of knowledge can not be limited to only "the good guys", whatever that means - freedom is freedom, and sometimes it hurts. The Chinese have learnt well; and the great teacher was none other than the good ol' US of A.
I think you are barking up the wrong tree; a programming language is only a tool that enables you to program. If you can program well enough to earn a living, then you can pick up any new language more or less as you go along.
If you want to learn something new, go and learn something like new methods. The languages you list suggest that you have been working with application servers and J2EE, so perhaps you know all about web aplications - then, perhaps you should move towards embedded or drivers, if you are fed up with what you are doing? Or mainframes; that is seriously different, and not going to die any time soon.
I can't speak for Mac OSX, as I have never actually used it. To me it looks a bit too shiny, not like an actual tool, but perhaps that is just me; I haven't had any reason to learn it.
That aside, I do have long experience with making Linux and Windows cooperate. In many ways I think Fedora and Redhat are the least useful of the Linuxes; I have tried most of them (Redhats, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo etc), and Debian has come out on top for me - it's apt that does it for me, and Ubuntu looks too much like a toy (which is not to imply that it is).
It isn't too difficult to cooperate across Linux and Windows, just follow a few, easy rules:
1. Save docs and spreadsheets in "xp format" - ie, don't fall for the docx crap. Openoffice handles doc xp very well, and it is still fine when it is opened on Windows. You can tell openoffice to use that format by default, and presumably you can do the same in Windows.
2. Keep all shared data on genuine linux servers; otherwise you risk having the UNIX user ID and permission flags messed up, since Windows NFS servers don't really know or care.
3. You would in my view be better off putting mail server, DNS etc on Linux. Things are much more easy to script on Linux (AFAIK) and the DNS servers I have seen on Windows are far too cumbersome - GUI only interface, binary files etc. If you've ever set up 1000 addresses only to realise that they should have been prefixed with "xyz", then you know what I mean.
Finally, if you have to get your email served elsewhere, make sure that they allow you to use POP3 or IMAP, so you are not bound to crap like Outlook and Evolution; your life will be happier that way.
The truth is, the PRC is completely clueless about PR (public relations) and will continue to be roundly slaughtered in the court of public opinion because of this.
Far from it; they are very competent, as you will understand if you look at eg the Olympics and their efforts in space. PR is not always about saying "Please love me, I am sooo nice" - when the Chinese government seem to be oblivious to how we in the West see them, it is to send a message about strength and independence.
Look at the way they handle the criticism of their human rights record. Objectively, they are doing more or less as much as a nation can sensibly do; a responsible government will not just introduce "democracy and freedom" overnight - there are enough examples of what can happen: normally complete chaos, where only gangsters and psychopaths stand to gain, and everybody else loses out. That kind of things have to be introduced in small steps.
They could try to appease the West by producing plans etc for how they will introduce these things - but why should they? If they did, it would signal subservience and weakness, so they don't. We in the West are not going to stop trading with them or stop talking to them, whatever they do, and by putting on this display of strength, they tell the Chinese people "Look, you are part of The Winning Team", something that is hugely important for morale. I think it is very clever of them.
Hey, what's going on here? Do you know what you have just done? Praised a government decision, that's what! I mean, surely the man is corrupt or something...
Hmm, I have been burned by smartphones in the past - too big and chunky, slow, complicated to use for simple tasks, fragile touch screens, proprietary-only interfaces and connectors,... Have they actually got better? What I want to know about any new smartphone is:
- Is it possible to access ALL functions without using touch-screen/stylo? - Can you connect to it using a simply USB cable? - Can it connect to my wirewless router? - Can I attach an external standard keyboard? - And of course, is basic functionality available without having to go through three layers of menus?
Finally, if it runs Linux, can I ssh to it over a simple, standard wireless connection?
Someone _will_ get sent to jail by some idiot jury because the real burglar -- who, for example, is an employee and didn't even need to synthetise anything: he just nicked the bottle that the PHB cleverly hid in his desk drawer -- sprayed them with it.
I don't think so; it will not be enough on its own to convict a person on its own; but that is not the point either. The point is to 1) make objects traceable, and 2) make it easier to link people with places in a criminal investigation. So, the police can prove that person was (or was VERY likely to have been) in contact with a marked object.
And of course, if things are marked with a bespoke DNA that nobody else can (easily) get hold of, you can't just buy a can of the stuff and frame somebody. I imagine they can (and will) sell unique DNA profiles in individual cans marked with a serial number, so each new can will be different.
Seriously? I'm no scientist, but it seems like a good scrubbing and you'd make a clean getaway. Har har...
Good joke; but since you are no scientist, perhaps you wouldn't know that they even think about these trivial, blindingly obvious things and test for them.
Nope, mate, what you see here is a bloody clever thing, and not something you can easily find a way out of. DNA sequences can be purpose built nowadays, and soon it will be cheap enough for everybody to buy. The number of variations are practically unlimited, so you could more or less mark every brick in London with their own, individual marker, and you can't just wash it off and be sure not to carry it around with you; plus of course they don't put a big sticker on the outside of marked objects to warn you. If you want to avoid carrying this stuff around with you, you will have to put on a full environment suit, and since you never know where you can come across this stuff, you will have to do it every time you do something you don't want to be nicked for. The problem with environment suits is, they tend to stand out, of course.
The age of privacy may be over - but seeing how people of all ages eagerly embrace things like Faecesbook and Twitter, it would appear that this is what they want, so what is the problem? Is it just that some are being prudish in the sense that "I don't like that, so I don't want to see others liking it"?
Personally, I find it hard to see what I would want to use facebook for, but I am old. When I grew up, I wanted to have long hair and smoke cannabis, and those of my my parents' age were scared that we would all go to hell - but here I am, with high stats in the game of life, and the only hell around is what people create for themselves. So, stop whining about those "useless hippies" or whatever they are called now; if you don't like their way of life, don't live that way.
And, honestly - how can you spy on what people do on a website that is designed to put your things out in the public view? Is the government also spying when they read newspapers?
Just make a limited government like the framers of the US constitution were planning and the majority of real issues go away.
Hi - is that the Teatime Party speaking again?
If only things were that simple out here in reality - but they aren't. You can't solve things just by discarding government - they provide far more, and things of far more importance, than the Military. Such as reasonably uniform legislation across the whole nation - all countries in Europe, at least, have been through a time in their history where laws were not the same across the whole of the country, so in one city they would hang you for an offense whereas in another they would let you pay a small fine. Now imagine an American in that situation, considering that most Americans find it increadibly hard to understand that the laws of other countries are not identical to what they are used to home in the good ol' US of A. I don't think it would work well.
But since you talk about limitations - yes, it is a good idea, provided that it is the right kinds of things that are limited, and provided it also covers things like big business and religion. Our current financial crisis was caused, not by "too much government", but by deregulation - ie. "lack of government" if you like.
I am getting a bit sick of hearing you anti-democracy agitators abusing good and honourable words like "freedom" to hide behind. Because when you talk about "freedom", what you mean is "freedom for ME, and to hell with my neighbors". So, you are against anything that means you will have to share and show consideration to others; what will you do when you get old and frail and have to depend on others? I bet you will see things differently then.
How in the world do you prosecute someone for using an induction loop?
What do you mean "how"? "How can you succesfully prosecute a case like that": As any other case, collect evidence that there was an intent to do something naughty and take it from there; shouldn't be too hard - big inductors and appliances using the power generated is all that is needed. If you mean "Why is this even reasonable?", then consider that energy is never destroyed or created. To demonstrate the effect of tapping energy by induction, try to measure the power consumption on the input side of a transformer when the output is loaded to when it is unloaded.
I mean, sure, you could prosecute them for trespass or something if you move your stuff onto their property/airspace, but if it's all on your own land, it's just EM waves flowing through the air. If the land owner has to put up with the radiation they didn't ask for, who is to say that they can't use it to induce a current?
Trespassing is not necessary. You can tap usable amounts of power from a radio- or tv mast if you put up the right kind of aerial. As I noted above, this can have an impact on the power use of the transmitter, but on top of that, if an unqualified person starts handling serious amounts of electrical power, they may cause serious accidents - houses may burn down as a result, innocent people may get electrocuted because things are not set up properly etc.
What you are forgetting is that the system can also be ABUSED or laws can be changed.
Hmm, so anything that can be abused should be avoided? Never take a risk, 'cause it can go wrong?
The thing about CCTV is that it actually helps - a lot. It often helps in identifying suspects of crime; it is very useful on motorways in supervising traffic and spotting problems and so on. And when it comes to tracking the movements of innocent civilians, the capabilities of "The State" are hugely overrated; there simply aren't big enough computers and/or enough personnel around (certainly not in this time of "austerity measures") to track individuals. Yes, they can with some success track car number plates, but that is because it is a whole lot easier than recognising faces on a grainy CCTV image.
So stop howling about "privacy", because there isn't an issue. If you exaggerate thing this way, you just sound like the parent generation did in the sixties, when they told us that even tha faintest whiff of The Weed would inevitably lead you down the path of lifelong drug addiction and depravity.
It WILL happend again. We need to build society with safeguards so we can survive.
And how do you propose to do that? Pass a law against "abuse"? Brainwash people so they will never elect a populist psychopath? Force them to be free? It seems unworkable, if you mind my saying so.
I'm sure they're very good engineers and doctors, but it would be nice to have more information before people start really believing that they can have an artificial heart with a MTBF of 20 to 25 years.
I'm not sure if I agree with what you are saying, but here's my version. From where I stand, the best way not only to approach system administration, but most applications, is to first present all functionality through a CLI interface, then put a GUI wrapper in front. Oh, I realise that this is not always meaningful - it would be difficult to make a WYSIWYG word processor that way - but it is amazing how often this paradigm is very effective. The advantage is of course that the GUI and the functionality are separated which will make it easier to create a new GUI interface - or web interface, if your fancy takes you that way. On top of that, you functionality will be scriptable, and you can access it even if all you can get is a terminal session through a slow modem.
Just as an aside, this construction is not dissimilar to the MVC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-View-Controller) architecture used for enterprise applications, so it is probably good for something.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I would be sad to see them go down. Not because I feel sorry for a bunch of idiots who can't manage a business, but because I am sure that there is actually a good amount of music on EMI that IS worth listening to.
I wouldn't be sad at all to see the major labels go down. I doubt the music would simply be lost - when companies go bust, they are generally bought up, often rather cheaply, any assets (here: music) would presumably be taken over by somebody who might even be able to handle it responsibly. Ideally, it be bought up by one of the big libraries and made available for free - far too much music, literature and film is not available to the public because some idiots can't think of a way to make money out of it.
A much better alternative would be if EMI were actually able to market their products in a sustainable way.
And there, I feel, we are at the nub of the problem, as it were: lack of ability.
Thats what I don't understand about this anti-porn crusade
What anti-porn crusade? As far as I can see - and have been able to for most of my adult life - porn is and has always been a lame and thoroughly sterile, industrial product. You have to be seriously underdeveloped in certain departments to find that interesting, let alone "able to lead you astray". So, I don't think there is an "anti-porn crusade" - certainly not outside the more extreme, religious circles. But I can understand why most people don't want to have it encroach on their living space or that of their children - one, because the advertising methods encomapss all the worst practises: it is intrusive, tries to pirate your desktop and use your modem to call premium rate numbers etc etc; and the product is so far below any reasonable expectation that taking money for it is tantamount to fraud.
And, two, you don't want your children to grow up imagining that sex is actually so stiff, artificial, plasticky etc etc. as what you see in porn movies. But you are right - it is the duty of parents (and school) to educate children about all aspects of life; only the materials should reflect what it is really like, rather than depict a Barbie and Ken type of concept. There is a lot of good quality erotica out there - let them use that; it's supposed to be both fun and beautiful.
... with the yank of a power cord, ...
Sorry, what "power cord" were you referring to there?
If you are a political activist in any country (not just China), don't post things publicly that are unrelated to your cause. Don't post things electronically that are or could be considered illegal, or be used as blackmail material. Remember that you are not representing yourself anymore, you are representing your cause. Everything you say and do will be put under a microscope, and the internet never forgets and never forgives mistakes.
All good advice, no doubt.
China, you suck.
Possibly; but they don't swallow.
Honestly, if you live in a country, it is common sense to know at least the basics of the legislation; and in China it seems to be considered a crime to criticise the government. And if you knowingly commit that crime, whose fault is that actually?
Before you start the usual shouting match against China, take a moment to consider the sometimes bizarre "crimes" in other countries: in Singapore you can arrested for spitting in public; and to quote http://www.ahajokes.com/strlaw.html: "In Carrizozo, N.M., it's forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public". One may not always appreciate the value and significance of laws in other countries, but perhaps we just don't understand the background?
It would lend more credibility to your grammar nazi'ing if you didn't commit such sloppy errors as misspelling criticize and failing other random punctuation issues.
- and it would lend more credibility to your reply, if you had checked whether or not "criticise" was not in fact a legimitimate spelling in UK ;-)
Get a guy and a girl drunk, let them have sex, and if the girl regrets it in the morning it's "rape".
You seem to have some experience with this - would you care to elaborate?
I know that you have a thing called "statutory rape" in the States, where it is rape if you sleep with a girl under a certain age, even if she consented and is willing to give evidence in court to that effect. That, of course, is an idiotic piece of legislation constructed by puritans or the like; but elsewhere, rape simply means exploiting another person's weakness to have sex with them that you would not otherwise have had. That obviously includes getting a girl drunk or spiking her drink with something.
Thank Israel indeed. Now that they have unleashed this easily modifiable contraption on the world, where it will go on to cause damage for who knows how long? And for what reason did they do it? In order to cause some minor irritation to the Iranians - is that a worthy reason to do something so potentially damaging to us all?
If the schools realized that it's 2010, not 1810, and if teachers actually were a bit more passionated about learning than a corpse i'm certain cheating would drop a fair bit.
I don't normally criticise people for language and grammar, since it is beside the point, but I think since you are criticising university teaching quality and seem to imply that you are a student on one, it is fair in this case. So, don't you mean to say something like "If teachers were a bit more passionate (note the form of the word) about teaching (teacher may learn, but they are supposed to teach)"? It would lend more credibility to your arguments if you didn't commit such sloppy errors.
Apart from that - this is a university you are talking about. You are supposed to be an adult, who takes responsibility for what you learn, at least to the extent that you read and try to understand the day's subject before the lecture, so you can pick up the presumably few points you didn't quite understand. Lectures are only meant to be a minor part of your effort, so I think your rant is misplaced.
I think it is too simple - although I sympathise with the sentiment.
What I'd really like to see is a phone that that offers me exactly the things that are useful: calls, phonebook, calendar, sms, fully programmable, robust screen, the ability to attach external USB keyboard, network and harddisk, - and nothing else. No half-baked camera, no half-brained games, no semi-useful applications. Oh, and the ability to block SMS and calls from unwanted sources.
And one more thing: a GPS based "location alarm" to remind to go and do whatever next time I come to a certain place.
What I mean is, there's almost no expensive components in this phone. Heck, it doesn't even have a screen. All it needs is the simplest or the cheapest microprocessors that is capable of making a call. Yet, it still costs £60 to £80.
An iPhone costs something like USD 400 - 500 if you buy it with no subscription directly from Apple, so the price isn't actually all that unreasonable. Also, it seems that older components don't actually get cheaper just because newer ones offer more performance; you can get a 1TB harddisk for about 70 GBP, but if you ask for a 5 years old 100GB disk, it costs almost as much. Perhaps on that background it isn't so surprising that a dumbphone costs this much.
So it was basically a scam to gain access to technology, and the promises of long-term contracts never materialized.
Business is business, even when it turns out that America doesn't have the upper hand. Being Danish, I have grown up on this sort of complaints; but against American companies.
You know, for an American, you whine an awful lot; don't you believe in freedom? The free movement of knowledge can not be limited to only "the good guys", whatever that means - freedom is freedom, and sometimes it hurts. The Chinese have learnt well; and the great teacher was none other than the good ol' US of A.
I think you are barking up the wrong tree; a programming language is only a tool that enables you to program. If you can program well enough to earn a living, then you can pick up any new language more or less as you go along.
If you want to learn something new, go and learn something like new methods. The languages you list suggest that you have been working with application servers and J2EE, so perhaps you know all about web aplications - then, perhaps you should move towards embedded or drivers, if you are fed up with what you are doing? Or mainframes; that is seriously different, and not going to die any time soon.
I can't speak for Mac OSX, as I have never actually used it. To me it looks a bit too shiny, not like an actual tool, but perhaps that is just me; I haven't had any reason to learn it.
That aside, I do have long experience with making Linux and Windows cooperate. In many ways I think Fedora and Redhat are the least useful of the Linuxes; I have tried most of them (Redhats, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo etc), and Debian has come out on top for me - it's apt that does it for me, and Ubuntu looks too much like a toy (which is not to imply that it is).
It isn't too difficult to cooperate across Linux and Windows, just follow a few, easy rules:
1. Save docs and spreadsheets in "xp format" - ie, don't fall for the docx crap. Openoffice handles doc xp very well, and it is still fine when it is opened on Windows. You can tell openoffice to use that format by default, and presumably you can do the same in Windows.
2. Keep all shared data on genuine linux servers; otherwise you risk having the UNIX user ID and permission flags messed up, since Windows NFS servers don't really know or care.
3. You would in my view be better off putting mail server, DNS etc on Linux. Things are much more easy to script on Linux (AFAIK) and the DNS servers I have seen on Windows are far too cumbersome - GUI only interface, binary files etc. If you've ever set up 1000 addresses only to realise that they should have been prefixed with "xyz", then you know what I mean.
Finally, if you have to get your email served elsewhere, make sure that they allow you to use POP3 or IMAP, so you are not bound to crap like Outlook and Evolution; your life will be happier that way.
The truth is, the PRC is completely clueless about PR (public relations) and will continue to be roundly slaughtered in the court of public opinion because of this.
Far from it; they are very competent, as you will understand if you look at eg the Olympics and their efforts in space. PR is not always about saying "Please love me, I am sooo nice" - when the Chinese government seem to be oblivious to how we in the West see them, it is to send a message about strength and independence.
Look at the way they handle the criticism of their human rights record. Objectively, they are doing more or less as much as a nation can sensibly do; a responsible government will not just introduce "democracy and freedom" overnight - there are enough examples of what can happen: normally complete chaos, where only gangsters and psychopaths stand to gain, and everybody else loses out. That kind of things have to be introduced in small steps.
They could try to appease the West by producing plans etc for how they will introduce these things - but why should they? If they did, it would signal subservience and weakness, so they don't. We in the West are not going to stop trading with them or stop talking to them, whatever they do, and by putting on this display of strength, they tell the Chinese people "Look, you are part of The Winning Team", something that is hugely important for morale. I think it is very clever of them.
Hey, what's going on here? Do you know what you have just done? Praised a government decision, that's what! I mean, surely the man is corrupt or something...
... Android ... N900 ...
Hmm, I have been burned by smartphones in the past - too big and chunky, slow, complicated to use for simple tasks, fragile touch screens, proprietary-only interfaces and connectors, ... Have they actually got better? What I want to know about any new smartphone is:
- Is it possible to access ALL functions without using touch-screen/stylo?
- Can you connect to it using a simply USB cable?
- Can it connect to my wirewless router?
- Can I attach an external standard keyboard?
- And of course, is basic functionality available without having to go through three layers of menus?
Finally, if it runs Linux, can I ssh to it over a simple, standard wireless connection?
Someone _will_ get sent to jail by some idiot jury because the real burglar -- who, for example, is an employee and didn't even need to synthetise anything: he just nicked the bottle that the PHB cleverly hid in his desk drawer -- sprayed them with it.
I don't think so; it will not be enough on its own to convict a person on its own; but that is not the point either. The point is to 1) make objects traceable, and 2) make it easier to link people with places in a criminal investigation. So, the police can prove that person was (or was VERY likely to have been) in contact with a marked object.
And of course, if things are marked with a bespoke DNA that nobody else can (easily) get hold of, you can't just buy a can of the stuff and frame somebody. I imagine they can (and will) sell unique DNA profiles in individual cans marked with a serial number, so each new can will be different.
Seriously? I'm no scientist, but it seems like a good scrubbing and you'd make a clean getaway. Har har...
Good joke; but since you are no scientist, perhaps you wouldn't know that they even think about these trivial, blindingly obvious things and test for them.
Nope, mate, what you see here is a bloody clever thing, and not something you can easily find a way out of. DNA sequences can be purpose built nowadays, and soon it will be cheap enough for everybody to buy. The number of variations are practically unlimited, so you could more or less mark every brick in London with their own, individual marker, and you can't just wash it off and be sure not to carry it around with you; plus of course they don't put a big sticker on the outside of marked objects to warn you. If you want to avoid carrying this stuff around with you, you will have to put on a full environment suit, and since you never know where you can come across this stuff, you will have to do it every time you do something you don't want to be nicked for. The problem with environment suits is, they tend to stand out, of course.
The age of privacy may be over - but seeing how people of all ages eagerly embrace things like Faecesbook and Twitter, it would appear that this is what they want, so what is the problem? Is it just that some are being prudish in the sense that "I don't like that, so I don't want to see others liking it"?
Personally, I find it hard to see what I would want to use facebook for, but I am old. When I grew up, I wanted to have long hair and smoke cannabis, and those of my my parents' age were scared that we would all go to hell - but here I am, with high stats in the game of life, and the only hell around is what people create for themselves. So, stop whining about those "useless hippies" or whatever they are called now; if you don't like their way of life, don't live that way.
And, honestly - how can you spy on what people do on a website that is designed to put your things out in the public view? Is the government also spying when they read newspapers?
Just make a limited government like the framers of the US constitution were planning and the majority of real issues go away.
Hi - is that the Teatime Party speaking again?
If only things were that simple out here in reality - but they aren't. You can't solve things just by discarding government - they provide far more, and things of far more importance, than the Military. Such as reasonably uniform legislation across the whole nation - all countries in Europe, at least, have been through a time in their history where laws were not the same across the whole of the country, so in one city they would hang you for an offense whereas in another they would let you pay a small fine. Now imagine an American in that situation, considering that most Americans find it increadibly hard to understand that the laws of other countries are not identical to what they are used to home in the good ol' US of A. I don't think it would work well.
But since you talk about limitations - yes, it is a good idea, provided that it is the right kinds of things that are limited, and provided it also covers things like big business and religion. Our current financial crisis was caused, not by "too much government", but by deregulation - ie. "lack of government" if you like.
I am getting a bit sick of hearing you anti-democracy agitators abusing good and honourable words like "freedom" to hide behind. Because when you talk about "freedom", what you mean is "freedom for ME, and to hell with my neighbors". So, you are against anything that means you will have to share and show consideration to others; what will you do when you get old and frail and have to depend on others? I bet you will see things differently then.
How in the world do you prosecute someone for using an induction loop?
What do you mean "how"? "How can you succesfully prosecute a case like that": As any other case, collect evidence that there was an intent to do something naughty and take it from there; shouldn't be too hard - big inductors and appliances using the power generated is all that is needed. If you mean "Why is this even reasonable?", then consider that energy is never destroyed or created. To demonstrate the effect of tapping energy by induction, try to measure the power consumption on the input side of a transformer when the output is loaded to when it is unloaded.
I mean, sure, you could prosecute them for trespass or something if you move your stuff onto their property/airspace, but if it's all on your own land, it's just EM waves flowing through the air. If the land owner has to put up with the radiation they didn't ask for, who is to say that they can't use it to induce a current?
Trespassing is not necessary. You can tap usable amounts of power from a radio- or tv mast if you put up the right kind of aerial. As I noted above, this can have an impact on the power use of the transmitter, but on top of that, if an unqualified person starts handling serious amounts of electrical power, they may cause serious accidents - houses may burn down as a result, innocent people may get electrocuted because things are not set up properly etc.
What you are forgetting is that the system can also be ABUSED or laws can be changed.
Hmm, so anything that can be abused should be avoided? Never take a risk, 'cause it can go wrong?
The thing about CCTV is that it actually helps - a lot. It often helps in identifying suspects of crime; it is very useful on motorways in supervising traffic and spotting problems and so on. And when it comes to tracking the movements of innocent civilians, the capabilities of "The State" are hugely overrated; there simply aren't big enough computers and/or enough personnel around (certainly not in this time of "austerity measures") to track individuals. Yes, they can with some success track car number plates, but that is because it is a whole lot easier than recognising faces on a grainy CCTV image.
So stop howling about "privacy", because there isn't an issue. If you exaggerate thing this way, you just sound like the parent generation did in the sixties, when they told us that even tha faintest whiff of The Weed would inevitably lead you down the path of lifelong drug addiction and depravity.
It WILL happend again. We need to build society with safeguards so we can survive.
And how do you propose to do that? Pass a law against "abuse"? Brainwash people so they will never elect a populist psychopath? Force them to be free? It seems unworkable, if you mind my saying so.
Wow - the ultimate reality tv: really watch reality, on tv! I don't know if this is funny or just sad.
I'm sure they're very good engineers and doctors, but it would be nice to have more information before people start really believing that they can have an artificial heart with a MTBF of 20 to 25 years.
Also, does it come with BlueTooth (TM)?
I'm not sure if I agree with what you are saying, but here's my version. From where I stand, the best way not only to approach system administration, but most applications, is to first present all functionality through a CLI interface, then put a GUI wrapper in front. Oh, I realise that this is not always meaningful - it would be difficult to make a WYSIWYG word processor that way - but it is amazing how often this paradigm is very effective. The advantage is of course that the GUI and the functionality are separated which will make it easier to create a new GUI interface - or web interface, if your fancy takes you that way. On top of that, you functionality will be scriptable, and you can access it even if all you can get is a terminal session through a slow modem.
Just as an aside, this construction is not dissimilar to the MVC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-View-Controller) architecture used for enterprise applications, so it is probably good for something.
There are two words describing those who run untested changes directly on production systems: Former employees.
- or managers.