Care to elaborate? They are mearly legal constructs. Where did corperations come from if not from our laws?
One could argue that humans have no inherent rights or powers aside from what their government allows. Does that mean that humans are "institutions completely created by the government?"
Hardly. Humans were around long before governments were, and in fact humans control governments. So even if some people are given no rights by their government, the people in the government still have their inherent rights intact.
Correction. From your point of view, I would think that the problem is that the government hasn't restricted corporations enough, not that it has handed them anything.
Corporations are institutions completed created by the government. They have no inherent rights or powers aside from what the government has given them, so it seems to me that not restricting them is the exact same thing as giving them power.
Which is a good argument, IMHO. However, aren't there very similar costs in viewing an advert?
I doubt it. You don't choose whether or not you see an advertisement, they are always just there and you learn to ignore them or you are forced to sit through it. There is no decision made on you're part.
There is a similiar cost in situations where you are forced to click on X number of banner ads to get where you want, but look at how popular that situation is. It's basically limited to warez and pr0n sites.
Another similar choice situation which I've yet to see, but could be possible is making you sit through a flash animated advertisement for X number of seconds before getting to some content. I imagine the number of ads I'd willfully sit through before moving on to find another site free of ads would be pretty low.
The 'expense' that so many people tout as being a liability is not a factor when looked at objectively.
Let's see, I have $200 I can afford to spend on a portable mp3 player. Hmm, iPod is $100 dollars too m... wait a minute! It's not just an mp3 player, it has an address book and doubles as a portable hard drive too! That's awesome, that means I can get one after all!
Ahh damnit, no it's still $100 too much. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
That is a good point. I think it would be worth the effort changing over to a computerized voting system if we were also going to move away from our irreconcilably bad Pick One ballots.
But, since we all know that's not going to happen we should definatly stick with our simple and effective paper ballot systems for the time being. At least until there are computer voting systems out there that have been extensively examined, tested, certified, and whatever else needs to be done to assure 100% reliability.
as long as a solution exists. not matter how improbable, it can be arrived at, as the gates in superposition go through all the possibilities simultaneously.
Well that's the catch. Yeah, a solution exists, but it's impossible to know if you have found it. If you have a message of length N encoded with a one time pad, then any possible message of length N is an equally valid solution. So if I send a message where n is 23, it could be decoded as "We attack at one thirty" or I could be saying "The pizza was real good", or any number of other solutions. To someone without the pad it's impossible to tell which is right.
The fact is, that you don't know what (if any) other pictures the guy took. The guy presented an unreasonable security risk for the value he brought to the company. That's all.
You think this guys bad, what about all the people who don't post the pictures they take at work on public blogs? I mean, if they aren't up to no good, why not post something where their bosses can check up on them? At least this guy isn't trying to hide the fact that he took pictures of their campus like all those other employees may be. Why take that sort of risk?
If I were the head of security at MS, I would immediatly fire anyone who doesn't post their pictures of the Microsoft campus on public sites. After all, who knows what they may be taking pictures of if they don't post anything.
I know that this incident has nothing to do with the fact that the company is MS and the guy likes Macs. The fact is that corporations don't give a shit about people. That guy was a commodity, just like every last one of us is in the eyes of the corporations. Isn't that great? God bless America(C)!
Last time I checked, libraries still had photocopiers. If all you want is one receipe, than it would be easiest just to make a copy and leave the book on the shelves for someone else.
The big problem I have with the argument that the value of human life is dependant on it's experiences and memories is that that implies a continuumm of human worth from conception to old age. If you take that stance, then it would be reasonable to say it's ok to kill a newborn since it's memories and experience are basically indistinguishable from those of a fetus. Naturally the lives of the educated are also more valuable than the illiterate. And the elderly are also more valuable than the young. Of course, that's only until they start to forget stuff.
I think this is a very legitimate concern and so I believe that all human life is equally valuable. Therefore I have a very real problem with abortion, capital punishment, preemptive wars, and the like.
there's a limiting factor in building AI and that's the human brain. though it might be as intelligent, it will never be moreso.
Since when do the things we make suffer the same limitations that we do? Can we not build machines that are stronger than us? Cars that move faster than us? Planes that fly better than us?
Ok, so now you are going to say that these examples are invalid because you think that there's a diffence between making machines that outperform us physically and making machines that outperform us mentally. But is there really? We already do make machines that outperform us mentally in limited areas. Quick, what's 15 factorial? I'm willing to bet that you didn't spit out 1307674368000 faster than my computer did.
Granted, that's just brute force computation beating us out, much like the champion level chess computers. Real intelligence is hard to do, just look at the progress of machine Go players. But they are continually improving. I think that's the key difference, our wetware is relatively stagnent, but as long as we are always able to push out more cycles and constantly tweak the algorithms of our computers I don't see why we need to hit a wall at the level of human intelligence. And if you believe that, then once we have computers smarter than us that can design their own predecessors, we may see an exponential increase in machine intelligence from one generation to the next. Of course, that's only until the machines decide we are a hinderance and decide to eliminate us, but we'll worry about that tomorrow.
What are you going on about? Are you some sort of freak who's never scratched a cd in your whole life? Just to inform you, for us fallible humans discs do get scratched over time. It's inevitable. Usually the damage is minor and goes unnoticed, but we're not always so lucky.
They're made out of polycarbonate, which anyone who works in the optical (we're talking eyeglasses here) field can tell you is EXTREMELY prone to scratching. It's biggest advantage is in how impact resistant it is. I'll tell you one thing; I'd gladly trade the ability to flex a cd almost in half for one that doesn't scratch out of spite when you look at it funny. And the brand of disc doesn't matter; they're all made of polycarbonate.
Why is this? I imagine anyone who made a cd that didn't scratch so easily would make a killing. I'm guessing the reason is that elasticity is necessary to keep the discs from shattering in your drive. Anyone know for sure?
but think of what could be done if their Personal Learning Edition(TM) 5 was open source.
Hmm... remove the watermarking code, give people no reason to ever buy the full version of Maya, put Alias out of business. I'm sure they have though of what could be done, hence we get this.
George Bush said that because he, unlike you, is not a fuzzy brained bunny hugger. If the enemy is predisposed to run himself up onto your bayonet, shout encouragement!
Wow, wouldn't that be great? Meanwhile, back in the real world, that'snotwhattheydo. Damn. For a second there you almost sounded like someone who gave a shit about our soldiers wounded and dying in Iraq.
Yeah, TeleZapper. Neat product, but not equivalent to a sign on your door. Why? According to the web page, your phone will still ring and you or your machine has to answer it. Big improvment, but not the same. If a door to door salesman keeps ringing your door bell, and then leaves when you finally open the door, does that qualify as heeding your "No Solicitors"? Not in my book.
Chance [his] phone number!? You're actually suggesting that someone should have to do that, then go through the process of letting everyone who should know their correct number know that you changed it? All so that people he never has nor never would express an interest in hearing from don't call him just to hawk some crap he doesn't want?
Get a clue. That's not what the Bill of Rights is about.
There's no national "do not ring my doorbell" list.
That's because there's no need for one, you can put up a "No Solicitors" sign on your door, which according to my menial research are legally enforcable in many areas. Natch, The List is the only way something analogous can be done for telephones.
So how exactly do these exceptions disprove entirely dark matter? There may be something else going on in these rare eliptical galaxies, but do we really know enough about it to say dark matter can't exist anywhere because of them?
Slashdot Mirror
Nope.
Care to elaborate? They are mearly legal constructs. Where did corperations come from if not from our laws?
One could argue that humans have no inherent rights or powers aside from what their government allows. Does that mean that humans are "institutions completely created by the government?"
Hardly. Humans were around long before governments were, and in fact humans control governments. So even if some people are given no rights by their government, the people in the government still have their inherent rights intact.
Correction. From your point of view, I would think that the problem is that the government hasn't restricted corporations enough, not that it has handed them anything.
Corporations are institutions completed created by the government. They have no inherent rights or powers aside from what the government has given them, so it seems to me that not restricting them is the exact same thing as giving them power.
When will humanity evolve to the point where they'd rather pay than get it for free?
It'll be the same day humanity evolves to the point where they have no need for money.
Which is a good argument, IMHO. However, aren't there very similar costs in viewing an advert?
I doubt it. You don't choose whether or not you see an advertisement, they are always just there and you learn to ignore them or you are forced to sit through it. There is no decision made on you're part.
There is a similiar cost in situations where you are forced to click on X number of banner ads to get where you want, but look at how popular that situation is. It's basically limited to warez and pr0n sites.
Another similar choice situation which I've yet to see, but could be possible is making you sit through a flash animated advertisement for X number of seconds before getting to some content. I imagine the number of ads I'd willfully sit through before moving on to find another site free of ads would be pretty low.
wtf are sealab 2021 and aqua teen hunger force
They are cartoons on the Cartoon Network Adult Swim
and why on earth would I want to watch either?
because they're funny as hell (YMMV)
The 'expense' that so many people tout as being a liability is not a factor when looked at objectively.
Let's see, I have $200 I can afford to spend on a portable mp3 player. Hmm, iPod is $100 dollars too m... wait a minute! It's not just an mp3 player, it has an address book and doubles as a portable hard drive too! That's awesome, that means I can get one after all!
Ahh damnit, no it's still $100 too much. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
That is a good point. I think it would be worth the effort changing over to a computerized voting system if we were also going to move away from our irreconcilably bad Pick One ballots.
But, since we all know that's not going to happen we should definatly stick with our simple and effective paper ballot systems for the time being. At least until there are computer voting systems out there that have been extensively examined, tested, certified, and whatever else needs to be done to assure 100% reliability.
coat eardrums with metallized layers to pick up EM waves instead of just acoustic pressure waves,
;-)
Oh! And while we're at it, maybe we could put a thin membrane over our pupils to pick up accoustic pressure waves instead of just EM waves
Note: This is a joke. Please only mod down if you *understand* the joke and find it un-funny.
;-)
Isn't the joke supposed to be that fusion power is always only 10 years away? Where are my mod points when I need them
as long as a solution exists. not matter how improbable, it can be arrived at, as the gates in superposition go through all the possibilities simultaneously.
Well that's the catch. Yeah, a solution exists, but it's impossible to know if you have found it. If you have a message of length N encoded with a one time pad, then any possible message of length N is an equally valid solution. So if I send a message where n is 23, it could be decoded as "We attack at one thirty" or I could be saying "The pizza was real good", or any number of other solutions. To someone without the pad it's impossible to tell which is right.
The fact is, that you don't know what (if any) other pictures the guy took. The guy presented an unreasonable security risk for the value he brought to the company. That's all.
You think this guys bad, what about all the people who don't post the pictures they take at work on public blogs? I mean, if they aren't up to no good, why not post something where their bosses can check up on them? At least this guy isn't trying to hide the fact that he took pictures of their campus like all those other employees may be. Why take that sort of risk?
If I were the head of security at MS, I would immediatly fire anyone who doesn't post their pictures of the Microsoft campus on public sites. After all, who knows what they may be taking pictures of if they don't post anything.
I know that this incident has nothing to do with the fact that the company is MS and the guy likes Macs. The fact is that corporations don't give a shit about people. That guy was a commodity, just like every last one of us is in the eyes of the corporations. Isn't that great? God bless America(C)!
Last time I checked, libraries still had photocopiers. If all you want is one receipe, than it would be easiest just to make a copy and leave the book on the shelves for someone else.
Of course, just as you lose the effects of gravity when you jump on earth too. Stay on the surface like everyone else and you won't have a problem.
The big problem I have with the argument that the value of human life is dependant on it's experiences and memories is that that implies a continuumm of human worth from conception to old age. If you take that stance, then it would be reasonable to say it's ok to kill a newborn since it's memories and experience are basically indistinguishable from those of a fetus. Naturally the lives of the educated are also more valuable than the illiterate. And the elderly are also more valuable than the young. Of course, that's only until they start to forget stuff.
I think this is a very legitimate concern and so I believe that all human life is equally valuable. Therefore I have a very real problem with abortion, capital punishment, preemptive wars, and the like.
there's a limiting factor in building AI and that's the human brain. though it might be as intelligent, it will never be moreso.
Since when do the things we make suffer the same limitations that we do? Can we not build machines that are stronger than us? Cars that move faster than us? Planes that fly better than us?
Ok, so now you are going to say that these examples are invalid because you think that there's a diffence between making machines that outperform us physically and making machines that outperform us mentally. But is there really? We already do make machines that outperform us mentally in limited areas. Quick, what's 15 factorial? I'm willing to bet that you didn't spit out 1307674368000 faster than my computer did.
Granted, that's just brute force computation beating us out, much like the champion level chess computers. Real intelligence is hard to do, just look at the progress of machine Go players. But they are continually improving. I think that's the key difference, our wetware is relatively stagnent, but as long as we are always able to push out more cycles and constantly tweak the algorithms of our computers I don't see why we need to hit a wall at the level of human intelligence. And if you believe that, then once we have computers smarter than us that can design their own predecessors, we may see an exponential increase in machine intelligence from one generation to the next. Of course, that's only until the machines decide we are a hinderance and decide to eliminate us, but we'll worry about that tomorrow.
I imagine the reason was simply so the DVD drives could be backwards compatable with CDs.
What are you going on about? Are you some sort of freak who's never scratched a cd in your whole life? Just to inform you, for us fallible humans discs do get scratched over time. It's inevitable. Usually the damage is minor and goes unnoticed, but we're not always so lucky.
They're made out of polycarbonate, which anyone who works in the optical (we're talking eyeglasses here) field can tell you is EXTREMELY prone to scratching. It's biggest advantage is in how impact resistant it is. I'll tell you one thing; I'd gladly trade the ability to flex a cd almost in half for one that doesn't scratch out of spite when you look at it funny. And the brand of disc doesn't matter; they're all made of polycarbonate.
Why is this? I imagine anyone who made a cd that didn't scratch so easily would make a killing. I'm guessing the reason is that elasticity is necessary to keep the discs from shattering in your drive. Anyone know for sure?
but think of what could be done if their Personal Learning Edition(TM) 5 was open source.
Hmm... remove the watermarking code, give people no reason to ever buy the full version of Maya, put Alias out of business. I'm sure they have though of what could be done, hence we get this.
George Bush said that because he, unlike you, is not a fuzzy brained bunny hugger. If the enemy is predisposed to run himself up onto your bayonet, shout encouragement!
Wow, wouldn't that be great? Meanwhile, back in the real world, that's not what they do. Damn. For a second there you almost sounded like someone who gave a shit about our soldiers wounded and dying in Iraq.
Their goal is to turn your world upside down so the change falls out of your pockets.
:-)
So true! Great comment
Yeah, TeleZapper. Neat product, but not equivalent to a sign on your door. Why? According to the web page, your phone will still ring and you or your machine has to answer it. Big improvment, but not the same. If a door to door salesman keeps ringing your door bell, and then leaves when you finally open the door, does that qualify as heeding your "No Solicitors"? Not in my book.
...Change your phone number.
Chance [his] phone number!? You're actually suggesting that someone should have to do that, then go through the process of letting everyone who should know their correct number know that you changed it? All so that people he never has nor never would express an interest in hearing from don't call him just to hawk some crap he doesn't want?
Get a clue. That's not what the Bill of Rights is about.
There's no national "do not ring my doorbell" list.
That's because there's no need for one, you can put up a "No Solicitors" sign on your door, which according to my menial research are legally enforcable in many areas. Natch, The List is the only way something analogous can be done for telephones.
So how exactly do these exceptions disprove entirely dark matter? There may be something else going on in these rare eliptical galaxies, but do we really know enough about it to say dark matter can't exist anywhere because of them?