All this talk about HOW to deflect an asteriod is wonderful, but I think many people forget that we actually have to SEE the damned thing first. Last I checked we were only monitoring a very, very, very tiny amount of the sky, and NASA's budget is still being attacked by the politicians.
You can't defend against something that you don't know is there. And I'm also willing to bet that thing thing would take some time to be deployed, so we'd probably need to see the asteriod pretty early.
Defence plans are great, but what we really need is to be watching more of the sky.
Couldn't the infantry use these things, or some suped-up version of it? Sounds like it'd be great for recon; let each unit have a couple of these babies, and they could see what was over a hill, or on the other side of a woods, without having to put themselves in danger, or calling in air support.
I honestly don't see who would use these things. They're not PDAs, because they're too large, too heavy, and last time I checked, moving parts in my PDA would absolutly suck (see: break in five seconds). They're essentially a low-grade computer in a small box. I don't see the point: it won't replace the desktop. The only possible use I can see for these things is using them as access points around your house or something, in which case the hardware in these things is overkill.
If (incredibly hypothetical?) the guy/gal who wrote this virus gets caught, can he/she be fined/jailed for each and every call made to 911? If so, how long would you be in jail for/how much would you have to pay?
(23:49:57) Me ok if I like blow a hole through my wall will my insurance cover it? (23:50:12) Leahana: umm if it is intentional.. maybe not (23:50:18) Me::-/ (23:50:26) Me: ok I better go get the dog then (23:50:34) Me: It's better to test on a moving target anyways
Anyone else willing to bet this will be modded -1: Cruel?
I'm all for the free flow of information, expecially in science. But if there isn't an opertunity to make bundles of money, where is the funding going to come from? Government grants only go so far, after all.
Personally, I think that corperate funded science is a must...though I'm glad to see that some scientists are freely sharing information. The best way to do science is to combine both (which will never happen) and show corperations that they can get rich even when they share their data.
I've got to say that sometimes telling someone to RTFM or STFW is the best option. Sometimes, newbies just ask questions that can be answered by copying the question into Google and clicking "I'm feeling lucky."
While I do believe that helping newbies out is a good thing, I also feel that it is important for newbies to learn how to get information through reading the manuals and searching the web on their own.
Basically, the steps for support should go like this: (1) Read the manual (2) Search the web - Note: this includes searching the newsgroups through google. Most of the questions on the newsgroups repeat(sp?) themselves. (3) Ask a friend (4) Ask the newsgroups (5) Ask a developer
I rarely get to four. In fact, most of the time, my problem is solved by one or two.
The job was given to Britney Spears, in hopes that it would attract even more of the teen crowd. Reports say that geeks and nerds everywhere are publicly outraged at this sell-out, but secretly drooling all over their keyboards.
The point of viewing the FAQ seperatly from the EFF comments is that the EEF is, of course, biased, and trying to push an angle (so is the MPAA. And so is everyone else). The idea is that you first see the MPAA's standpoint, and then the EFF's. If you just view the EFF's version, you're viewing the biased comments right along with the original, so it's somewhat unfair.
But then again, when it comes to the MPAA, "fair" doesn't really enter into anything.
Note: I'm not bashing the EFF or the MPAA. Everyone has an angle they're trying to push. I'm just trying to help people get the most objective view they can.
...obviously, you're violating the rights of the Lego Creature. Everyone knows, you're only allowed to detain people without charges and without a lawyer, indefinitely, if they're "enemy combatants." I don't see the little Lego dude exersizing free speech, so he hasn't done anything wrong! You can't do this!
Not to be off-topic - and let me stress that I'm not a Katz basher - but I got pretty much sick of this article right away. Why? Lets say I stopped reading right about here:
"Even greedy capitalists like Bill Gates..."
It seems that capitalism is wrong in america these days. Nobody is preaching socialism, but everybody is dissing capitalism. Yes, Bill Gates is a capitalist. But come to think of it, so am I. And so are almost all Americans. The real problem with Bill Gates is not that he's a capitalist, and not that he controls a monopoly (let me remind you that having a monopoly is not illegal), but that he illegaly uses his monopoly.
Just because Bill Gates was successful doesn't make him an eeeeevil greedy capitalist. Mind you, he's given billions to charities.
I haven't had any experiance with wireless at all, so I was hoping that anyone out there who's used this technology could enlighten me.
I would think (?) that there's got to be some latency with wireless access, but how much is it? Is it as bad as satilite access? Or is it just a little worse than, for instance, a regular cable hookup? (read: can you play quake without getting horrible lag?;) )
Moreover, with all the cable companies limiting the use of cable modem service, and (I'd assume, please correct me if I'm wrong) wireless resources must be a lot more limited, are there large restrictions on what you can do with a wireless connection? For instance, running any sort of servers what-so-ever (I know my cable ISP hates it when I simply have ftpd running to transfer files from another machine). Of course, I doubt you'd run a server off a wireless connection, but, like in my case, sometimes you must, if only for a short period of time.
Anyone who's had experiance, I'd love to have your imput.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm already sick of paying $8 for a movie. If these get installed, the price will go even higher! Yeah, they're cheap...but define "cheap" when it comes to installing it in a large building? Plus the cost of installation, which they'll raise ticket prices for - and believe me, once they cover cost, they're not going to lower their prices.
C'mon, we all know that, no matter how close an asteroid comes, the governments of Earth aren't going to change a single thing about trying to detect them. It's kind of like (srry for this, but it's all I could think of) terrorist attacks...we don't actually do anything about terrorism until we take a gigantic hit.
Until an asteroid actually smacks into Earth, the governments (specificly U.S) will continue to cut back funding for searching for these things. Hopefully, when an asteriod finally DOES hit us, it'll be one of the smaller ones, and only knock out a few thousand/million people.
I don't know about you, but the growing trend seems to be "hospitals kill people, not save them." I live very close to Stonybrook Hospital (think that's the name, not quite positive), which just recently killed a new-born. Incorrect dosage of medicine, I believe it was. Apparently, the entire system is shot - the probably started at the top of the chain, and worked its way down to the nurses, and nobody ever caught it.
IMHO, before we start to implement more technology that requires more training, we need to fix what's already wrong with the system. I understand that this will save lives, but technology is only as good as the hands that it's in.
I had a chance to "shadow" ( read, "follow around" ) a senator for NYS a few months ago. Basically, my advice to you is: be very specific with your questions. Do this for two reasons: it assists with their answer, and if a question is broad, they won't answer it. From what I gather, politicians don't like to say anything broad, unless they're trying to get out of a sticky situation. So give a specific question, and demand a specific answer.
Also, don't insult the man. Believe it or not (don't listen to most Slashdot readers;) he does have a tough job. Even if he is as currupt as Swiss Cheese, show him some respect. He deserves it.
And lastly, if he does refuse to answer a question, find out why. If he's got a good reason, move on - don't try and punch the heck out of him, or he won't be forthcoming in the future. If he constantly refuses to answer questions, however, politely show your displeasure and remind him that he works for you.
Was anyone else disturbed my the "melting ice" portion of this? Is the ice supposed to be melting that far up??? I know that it's summer and it's getting sunlight 24/7, but I didn't think it had that great of an effect on the ice! Can anyone here enlighten me?
Also, I read a while back that (as usual) the north pole is moving...south-west, I believe it was. I wonder if future expeditions will have to take this into account...though I'd assume that the pole moves incredibly slowly...but would a voyage to the "north pole" mean to the magnetic north, or to the top-most point on the planet?
I think the problem with security these days is that many people are looking for a one-solution-fixes-all type of thing. People need to realize that (and geeks know this, we do it on our computers;) there are, and should be, multiple layers of security.
Employing facial recognition is just one thing we can do - granted, we need to get the technology to work better, but we need to realize that it's multiple systems working together that is going to stop terrorists, not one or two "miracle systems."
The stock market crashed today after a military bio-weapon whiped out the entire United States fuel supply, giving Middle Eastern OPEC nations their dream come true. Gas prices are currently at $50 a gallon and climbing, with OPEC saying it will, once again, raises prices. Tonight, the President plans to turn control of the country over to Sadam.
/me gets the feeling this will be modded offtopic;-) though it was meant to be funny
Terrorist possibilities?
on
California Hax0red
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
This may sound paranoid, but what are the chances that, in the future, terrorists will be able to/are going to use identity theft of state employees to help gain access to files and information that would assist in the planning of a terrorist attack? Or worse yet, physical access to locations such as nuclear powerplants? How hard would it be to create a fake identification, get copies of government documents, and drive into a nuclear powerplant's "secure" facilities?
Probably just paranoia talking about the physical access, but I wouldn't be surprised about the documents part.
I don't know about you guys, but it seems to me that it won't really help us much, at least to say it's not going to improve those 5 day forcasts we know are just always right on the 10:00 news.
It's interesting yes, it's important, maybe, but it doesn't really seem like it will affect my everyday life. Just another promise that isn't going to come true. As for global warming, I'll deal with that problem when it's 200 degrees outside.
Slashdot Mirror
All this talk about HOW to deflect an asteriod is wonderful, but I think many people forget that we actually have to SEE the damned thing first. Last I checked we were only monitoring a very, very, very tiny amount of the sky, and NASA's budget is still being attacked by the politicians.
You can't defend against something that you don't know is there. And I'm also willing to bet that thing thing would take some time to be deployed, so we'd probably need to see the asteriod pretty early.
Defence plans are great, but what we really need is to be watching more of the sky.
Of course, you won't get the purty pictures:
: www.rctoys.com/draganflyer3.php+&hl=en&ie=UTF- 8
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:Zcv7fU8bM28C
Couldn't the infantry use these things, or some suped-up version of it? Sounds like it'd be great for recon; let each unit have a couple of these babies, and they could see what was over a hill, or on the other side of a woods, without having to put themselves in danger, or calling in air support.
I honestly don't see who would use these things. They're not PDAs, because they're too large, too heavy, and last time I checked, moving parts in my PDA would absolutly suck (see: break in five seconds). They're essentially a low-grade computer in a small box. I don't see the point: it won't replace the desktop. The only possible use I can see for these things is using them as access points around your house or something, in which case the hardware in these things is overkill.
Am I missing something?
If (incredibly hypothetical?) the guy/gal who wrote this virus gets caught, can he/she be fined/jailed for each and every call made to 911? If so, how long would you be in jail for/how much would you have to pay?
(23:49:57) Me ok if I like blow a hole through my wall will my insurance cover it? :-/
(23:50:12) Leahana: umm if it is intentional.. maybe not
(23:50:18) Me:
(23:50:26) Me: ok I better go get the dog then
(23:50:34) Me: It's better to test on a moving target anyways
Anyone else willing to bet this will be modded -1: Cruel?
I'm all for the free flow of information, expecially in science. But if there isn't an opertunity to make bundles of money, where is the funding going to come from? Government grants only go so far, after all.
Personally, I think that corperate funded science is a must...though I'm glad to see that some scientists are freely sharing information. The best way to do science is to combine both (which will never happen) and show corperations that they can get rich even when they share their data.
I've got to say that sometimes telling someone to RTFM or STFW is the best option. Sometimes, newbies just ask questions that can be answered by copying the question into Google and clicking "I'm feeling lucky."
While I do believe that helping newbies out is a good thing, I also feel that it is important for newbies to learn how to get information through reading the manuals and searching the web on their own.
Basically, the steps for support should go like this:
(1) Read the manual
(2) Search the web - Note: this includes searching the newsgroups through google. Most of the questions on the newsgroups repeat(sp?) themselves.
(3) Ask a friend
(4) Ask the newsgroups
(5) Ask a developer
I rarely get to four. In fact, most of the time, my problem is solved by one or two.
The job was given to Britney Spears, in hopes that it would attract even more of the teen crowd. Reports say that geeks and nerds everywhere are publicly outraged at this sell-out, but secretly drooling all over their keyboards.
*drool*
The point of viewing the FAQ seperatly from the EFF comments is that the EEF is, of course, biased, and trying to push an angle (so is the MPAA. And so is everyone else). The idea is that you first see the MPAA's standpoint, and then the EFF's. If you just view the EFF's version, you're viewing the biased comments right along with the original, so it's somewhat unfair.
But then again, when it comes to the MPAA, "fair" doesn't really enter into anything.
Note: I'm not bashing the EFF or the MPAA. Everyone has an angle they're trying to push. I'm just trying to help people get the most objective view they can.
First tip on giving a good presentation:
Don't have the server with your presentation materials linked on slashdot, for it will not last five minutes into the conference.
...obviously, you're violating the rights of the Lego Creature. Everyone knows, you're only allowed to detain people without charges and without a lawyer, indefinitely, if they're "enemy combatants." I don't see the little Lego dude exersizing free speech, so he hasn't done anything wrong! You can't do this!
Not to be off-topic - and let me stress that I'm not a Katz basher - but I got pretty much sick of this article right away. Why? Lets say I stopped reading right about here:
"Even greedy capitalists like Bill Gates..."
It seems that capitalism is wrong in america these days. Nobody is preaching socialism, but everybody is dissing capitalism. Yes, Bill Gates is a capitalist. But come to think of it, so am I. And so are almost all Americans. The real problem with Bill Gates is not that he's a capitalist, and not that he controls a monopoly (let me remind you that having a monopoly is not illegal), but that he illegaly uses his monopoly.
Just because Bill Gates was successful doesn't make him an eeeeevil greedy capitalist. Mind you, he's given billions to charities.
I haven't had any experiance with wireless at all, so I was hoping that anyone out there who's used this technology could enlighten me.
;) )
I would think (?) that there's got to be some latency with wireless access, but how much is it? Is it as bad as satilite access? Or is it just a little worse than, for instance, a regular cable hookup? (read: can you play quake without getting horrible lag?
Moreover, with all the cable companies limiting the use of cable modem service, and (I'd assume, please correct me if I'm wrong) wireless resources must be a lot more limited, are there large restrictions on what you can do with a wireless connection? For instance, running any sort of servers what-so-ever (I know my cable ISP hates it when I simply have ftpd running to transfer files from another machine). Of course, I doubt you'd run a server off a wireless connection, but, like in my case, sometimes you must, if only for a short period of time.
Anyone who's had experiance, I'd love to have your imput.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm already sick of paying $8 for a movie. If these get installed, the price will go even higher! Yeah, they're cheap...but define "cheap" when it comes to installing it in a large building? Plus the cost of installation, which they'll raise ticket prices for - and believe me, once they cover cost, they're not going to lower their prices.
C'mon, we all know that, no matter how close an asteroid comes, the governments of Earth aren't going to change a single thing about trying to detect them. It's kind of like (srry for this, but it's all I could think of) terrorist attacks...we don't actually do anything about terrorism until we take a gigantic hit.
Until an asteroid actually smacks into Earth, the governments (specificly U.S) will continue to cut back funding for searching for these things. Hopefully, when an asteriod finally DOES hit us, it'll be one of the smaller ones, and only knock out a few thousand/million people.
not to slashdot his computers while he's actually in space. We wouldn't want a systems crash to cause him to crash, would we?
I don't know about you, but the growing trend seems to be "hospitals kill people, not save them." I live very close to Stonybrook Hospital (think that's the name, not quite positive), which just recently killed a new-born. Incorrect dosage of medicine, I believe it was. Apparently, the entire system is shot - the probably started at the top of the chain, and worked its way down to the nurses, and nobody ever caught it.
IMHO, before we start to implement more technology that requires more training, we need to fix what's already wrong with the system. I understand that this will save lives, but technology is only as good as the hands that it's in.
I had a chance to "shadow" ( read, "follow around" ) a senator for NYS a few months ago. Basically, my advice to you is: be very specific with your questions. Do this for two reasons: it assists with their answer, and if a question is broad, they won't answer it. From what I gather, politicians don't like to say anything broad, unless they're trying to get out of a sticky situation. So give a specific question, and demand a specific answer.
;) he does have a tough job. Even if he is as currupt as Swiss Cheese, show him some respect. He deserves it.
Also, don't insult the man. Believe it or not (don't listen to most Slashdot readers
And lastly, if he does refuse to answer a question, find out why. If he's got a good reason, move on - don't try and punch the heck out of him, or he won't be forthcoming in the future. If he constantly refuses to answer questions, however, politely show your displeasure and remind him that he works for you.
Hope that helps - good luck!
Was anyone else disturbed my the "melting ice" portion of this? Is the ice supposed to be melting that far up??? I know that it's summer and it's getting sunlight 24/7, but I didn't think it had that great of an effect on the ice! Can anyone here enlighten me?
Also, I read a while back that (as usual) the north pole is moving...south-west, I believe it was. I wonder if future expeditions will have to take this into account...though I'd assume that the pole moves incredibly slowly...but would a voyage to the "north pole" mean to the magnetic north, or to the top-most point on the planet?
I think the problem with security these days is that many people are looking for a one-solution-fixes-all type of thing. People need to realize that (and geeks know this, we do it on our computers ;) there are, and should be, multiple layers of security.
Employing facial recognition is just one thing we can do - granted, we need to get the technology to work better, but we need to realize that it's multiple systems working together that is going to stop terrorists, not one or two "miracle systems."
The stock market crashed today after a military bio-weapon whiped out the entire United States fuel supply, giving Middle Eastern OPEC nations their dream come true. Gas prices are currently at $50 a gallon and climbing, with OPEC saying it will, once again, raises prices. Tonight, the President plans to turn control of the country over to Sadam.
/me gets the feeling this will be modded offtopic ;-) though it was meant to be funny
This may sound paranoid, but what are the chances that, in the future, terrorists will be able to/are going to use identity theft of state employees to help gain access to files and information that would assist in the planning of a terrorist attack? Or worse yet, physical access to locations such as nuclear powerplants? How hard would it be to create a fake identification, get copies of government documents, and drive into a nuclear powerplant's "secure" facilities?
Probably just paranoia talking about the physical access, but I wouldn't be surprised about the documents part.
And some people have even been known to *gasp* be trusting.
Alright, yeah, some people are trusting. That's usually a good thing, except:
1) Online
2) When money is involved
Maybe an opt out policy is in order? Or an opt in?
I don't know about you guys, but it seems to me that it won't really help us much, at least to say it's not going to improve those 5 day forcasts we know are just always right on the 10:00 news.
It's interesting yes, it's important, maybe, but it doesn't really seem like it will affect my everyday life. Just another promise that isn't going to come true. As for global warming, I'll deal with that problem when it's 200 degrees outside.