And conversely, the existence of some valid reason to want to be anonymous in some circumstance does not mean that there is an overriding, inherent right always to be anonymous in any and all circumstances.
Saying that I do not have a right to be anonymous is saying that it is right and proper for an agent of the state to threaten me to make me divulge my name. Are you sure that's a claim you want to make?
If I went around pointing my gun at people to make them tell me their name, that would be insane behavior. Why is it ok if the state does it?
You know: the shit you can get rid of by pressing the delete key, or en masse by installing SpamAssassin. Easy shit...and yet, this guy is an ACTIVIST for it.
You know litter? The shit you can get rid of by picking it up and putting it in a trash can? Did you know littering is a crime and a real ecological hazard?
It's not that one piece of litter, or one spam e-mail, or one instance of graffiti, is a big deal. Large amounts of it are a problem, with a cumulative negative effect on quality of life.
Figure it takes me five minutes a day to sort my spam from my e-mail. At my hourly rate, it costs me over $20 a week. Over $1000 a year. Not even counting the opportunity costs of wasted bandwidth I could be using to download stuff, or the business cost of e-mail lost to false positives on automated blockers.
a receipt which the voter can take out of the polling area opens many doors to new abuses. Imagine the scenario of "show your voting receipt to your union foreman if you ever want another raise in your career."
This can happen already with absentee ballots.
And there are cryptographic schemes which don't allow others to determine how you voted just by seeing your reciept.
"I was only following orders" doesn't cut it as an excuse. LEOs are obligated to either refuse to enforce illegitimate laws, or quit. Separation of powers has a purpose.
"War on drugs": stupid waste of time, but a relatively few losses of liberty.
WTF?!?!?!
Are you not paying attention? Are you unaware of the fact that the United States has far and away the highest prision population, both in absolute and per-capita terms, with over two million people in jail right now, thanks to the War on (Some) Drugs?
Removing people's privacy when they volunteer to enter public places can be used to ensure freedom and SAFE mobility
There's no evidence that cameras do anything to
ensure freedom or safety. There's plenty of evidence that they're used to track those the state considerss "undesirables" - and also to gratify voyeuristic impulses of the watchmen.
We should be free enough to be proud of everything we partake in.
So you won't mind if we wire your home, right? Your bedroom? Your bathroom? After all, you're proud of all you do, right?
If we are going to hide from laws and do the unlawful behavior anyway this means that these are bad laws and they should be striken from the books.
Yes, there are many laws that should be stricken from the books. Sadly it will be a long time before that happens.
I *personally* am willing to give up what you would call "certain freedoms" and "public-privacy" to aid law enforcement if their plans/implementations of technologies are sound.
You are free to give up your freedoms, if you're naive enough to think you can trade liberty for security. You are not free to make that bargain with the devil on my behalf.
Want to aid law enforcement in catching people who pose a threat? Stop having them waste time chasing down drug users, prostitutes, and other people engaging in consensual activity. We'd have more law enforcement resources than we knew what to do with.
(In Baltimore, it would also help if we had police interested in catching bad guys, rather than arresting bicyclists for no reason. But that's beside the point.)
I would imagine that the percentage of complaints about IP infringement being wrongly complained about are close to 0. If someone spends the time to complain about something, odds are it is someone who is particularly bothered by the material being available, and their complaint is valid.
You seem to have a pretty active imagination, then. Yes, a complaint is a sign that someone is particularly bothered by the material being available; that in no way implies that their complaint is valid. (Consider the attempts to silence critics of Scientology.)
People get bothered about other people's speech very easily, and will often make invalid complaints to silence those they disagree with.
There comes a point where the accounting required to charge people for their use becomes a greater cost than the cost to provide the service. It costs a cafe to provide light, HVAC, rest rooms, et cetera for their patrons, but it's cheapest and easiest to roll that all into the category of "overhead". They don't charge customers individually for the water they use in the rest room. Wi-fi will end up the same.
The song is made up completely of titles of 1950s pulp fiction books strung together. It's a great song:)
I've done a performance piece where I read the headings under "Churches" in the Baltimore Yellow Pages, and people loved it. Part of the reaction was just to performance (I was once asked to do a dramatic reading of a soup can label), but it's actually an interesting commentary on man's search for meaning.
As to the raw science of it though, such concerns are negligible with enough foresight
Like the foresight we used when we put lead in gasoline? Or put CFCs in aerosol cans? Or started using fission for electrical power generation without a plan for storing nuclear waste? When profits enter the picture, foresight is a rare commodity.
I don't know about you, but I would merrily risk two or three people in an entire population dying because genetically modified super corn gives them an allergic reaction then watch a few hundred thousand people die because their refuse to grow in the barren land that they live.
First, how about letting us make own own decisions about the risks we want to assume, and labeling GM foods?
Second, there's a huge problem with a socioeconomic system that has people growing modified corn in an area where corn doesn't naturally grow, rather than growing the native crops that can thrive there. (Cf. "golden rice".)
Third, the big risk is not allergic reaction, it's the ecological risks: crop monculture, horizontal gene transfer, increased use of pesticides (think what "Roundup Ready" means), et cetera.
The episode had nothing to do with "title flaws", I mean, the guy literally went back in time and had sexual intercourse with his grandmother.
The "grandfather paradox" (what if I went back in time and killed my grandfather - thus my father would never be born, thus I would never exist, thus I couldn't go back in time and commit the murder, so my grandfather would live, so my father would be born, so...) is a sci-fi cliche. Their take on it was great!
Fry, trying to protect his "grandfather", ends up killing him, only to be seduced by his grandmother (believing, in his half-witted way, that since his "grandfather" is dead, his grandmother can't really be his grandmother) and becomes his own grandather. It's gross, it's ironic, it's funny.
It seems to me that living forever would really suck.
Maybe. Give me a thousand years or so to think it over.:-)
Re:not gonna happen, the lobbies are too powerful
on
Do-It-Yourself VOIP Telco
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
It won't happen - but not because the lobbies are too powerful. It won't happen because its gonna take a long time before we can get five nines reliability and an organized E911 service for VoIP.
Damn straight. Ever had someone's life depending on a 911 call getting through? It'll be a long time before I rely on VoIP for that.
The PSTN (public, switched telephone network) is bulky - requiring about 40 - 60 percent more cost to operate than a typical packet-switching network like the internet.
The PSTN is bulky because it's reliable and backward-compible. It stays up when the power goes down, and you can make a call from your new VoIP service to some guy with a tin can at the end of a string in the middle of the desert. It's amazing. Don't knock it.
Personally, it's not which regulation I object to, it is the fact of regulation to which I object.
Building out an infrastructure like cable (or telephone service) requires easements and rights-of-way to string the copper. Do you want that we should surrender these to private interests without promises in return? You want to turn my neighborhood into a spiderweb of overhead cables, or dig up the streets to run them underground, you'd better make some promises in return.
Is several times the cable-hanging and or road-digging really a solution? "Let the market handle it" is a good theory, but often bumps up against ugly realities.
Your shortsightedness doesn't mean it's a bad idea to turn Iraq upside down in order to flush out regional terrorism
Turning Iraq "upside down" is a live-action recruting poster for groups like Al Quida. Pouring gasoline on a fire to put it out is a piss-poor strategy.
Sure, no one has linked Saddam to Al Qaeda (yet), but why is that necessary
Because there are a whole lot of dead and maimed boys who beleived they were being sent to kill and die in Iraq because of 9/11.
Time is money, and caffine buys you more time that would have been lost to sleep.
Stimulants lets you borrow time, not buy it. You either make it up later with extra rest, or you die earlier from the negative health consequences of drug abuse. (Yes, caffeine is a drug, the most abused drug in the U.S., and its abuse will damage your health.)
People who are addicted are addicted for ever. Their bodies never revert from the need, they just manage it.
Incorrect. Classical addiction has four components: tolerance, withdrawl, continued use in the face of negative consequences, and repeated failed attempts to quit. Some people's use of caffiene fits perfectly.
It has nothing to do with "being addicted forever". In anyone who successfuly overcomes an addiction, the body undoes the changes that resulted in dependance.
There's this book I'm reading that says the Israelis were there first and were dispersed from their land by the Romans in 70AD.
There were Jews there around 70 AD, yes. If the fact that a few of their ancestors lived there there 1800 years ago meant that Zionists of the early 20th century had rights to evict the Arabs living there at the time, then all of us European-decended people need to get out of North American since the American Indians have the same right to this land - indeed, a much stronger claim.
Hell, I want the deeds to every piece of land wrested wrongfully from one of my ancestors. That should make me a reasonably rich man.
And IIRC, the ancient Hebrews had to go out and slay a bunch of "unbeleivers" to take over Judeha.
See, it takes money to put some form of public transportation into place. There are very few forms of public transportation that don't have some form of government subsidy to keep them running.
And cars don't? Roads are expensive and subsidized. So is gasoline - the pump price doesn't come near reflecting the true price of environmental damage, or the foreign policy costs to keep the oil flowing.
Slashdot Mirror
Saying that I do not have a right to be anonymous is saying that it is right and proper for an agent of the state to threaten me to make me divulge my name. Are you sure that's a claim you want to make?
If I went around pointing my gun at people to make them tell me their name, that would be insane behavior. Why is it ok if the state does it?
You know litter? The shit you can get rid of by picking it up and putting it in a trash can? Did you know littering is a crime and a real ecological hazard?
It's not that one piece of litter, or one spam e-mail, or one instance of graffiti, is a big deal. Large amounts of it are a problem, with a cumulative negative effect on quality of life.
Figure it takes me five minutes a day to sort my spam from my e-mail. At my hourly rate, it costs me over $20 a week. Over $1000 a year. Not even counting the opportunity costs of wasted bandwidth I could be using to download stuff, or the business cost of e-mail lost to false positives on automated blockers.
I write poetry for the purpose of learning something, about myself and the Universe. Am I an artist or a craftsman?
I write code "because it's there", for it's own sake. Am I am artist or craftsman?
Creativity, by its nature, transgresses arbitrary boundaries and distinctions.
Here's a different distinction:
By this, one could be both an artist (possessed of creative power) and a craftsman (having skill).
This can happen already with absentee ballots.
And there are cryptographic schemes which don't allow others to determine how you voted just by seeing your reciept.
"I was only following orders" doesn't cut it as an excuse. LEOs are obligated to either refuse to enforce illegitimate laws, or quit. Separation of powers has a purpose.
WTF?!?!?!
Are you not paying attention? Are you unaware of the fact that the United States has far and away the highest prision population, both in absolute and per-capita terms, with over two million people in jail right now, thanks to the War on (Some) Drugs?
There's no evidence that cameras do anything to ensure freedom or safety. There's plenty of evidence that they're used to track those the state considerss "undesirables" - and also to gratify voyeuristic impulses of the watchmen.
So you won't mind if we wire your home, right? Your bedroom? Your bathroom? After all, you're proud of all you do, right?
Yes, there are many laws that should be stricken from the books. Sadly it will be a long time before that happens.
You are free to give up your freedoms, if you're naive enough to think you can trade liberty for security. You are not free to make that bargain with the devil on my behalf.
Want to aid law enforcement in catching people who pose a threat? Stop having them waste time chasing down drug users, prostitutes, and other people engaging in consensual activity. We'd have more law enforcement resources than we knew what to do with.
(In Baltimore, it would also help if we had police interested in catching bad guys, rather than arresting bicyclists for no reason. But that's beside the point.)
You seem to have a pretty active imagination, then. Yes, a complaint is a sign that someone is particularly bothered by the material being available; that in no way implies that their complaint is valid. (Consider the attempts to silence critics of Scientology.)
People get bothered about other people's speech very easily, and will often make invalid complaints to silence those they disagree with.
Make the PC illegal? They can have my computer when they pry the keyboard from my cold dead fingers.
So all of those kids raised by single parents are insane and ill?
Sorry, but simple observation disproves your assertation.
There comes a point where the accounting required to charge people for their use becomes a greater cost than the cost to provide the service. It costs a cafe to provide light, HVAC, rest rooms, et cetera for their patrons, but it's cheapest and easiest to roll that all into the category of "overhead". They don't charge customers individually for the water they use in the rest room. Wi-fi will end up the same.
I've done a performance piece where I read the headings under "Churches" in the Baltimore Yellow Pages, and people loved it. Part of the reaction was just to performance (I was once asked to do a dramatic reading of a soup can label), but it's actually an interesting commentary on man's search for meaning.
Barring mutation (which would explain a lot...), each of my genes can be found in one of my parents. They're shuffled, not modified.
Like the foresight we used when we put lead in gasoline? Or put CFCs in aerosol cans? Or started using fission for electrical power generation without a plan for storing nuclear waste? When profits enter the picture, foresight is a rare commodity.
First, how about letting us make own own decisions about the risks we want to assume, and labeling GM foods?
Second, there's a huge problem with a socioeconomic system that has people growing modified corn in an area where corn doesn't naturally grow, rather than growing the native crops that can thrive there. (Cf. "golden rice".)
Third, the big risk is not allergic reaction, it's the ecological risks: crop monculture, horizontal gene transfer, increased use of pesticides (think what "Roundup Ready" means), et cetera.
The "grandfather paradox" (what if I went back in time and killed my grandfather - thus my father would never be born, thus I would never exist, thus I couldn't go back in time and commit the murder, so my grandfather would live, so my father would be born, so...) is a sci-fi cliche. Their take on it was great!
Fry, trying to protect his "grandfather", ends up killing him, only to be seduced by his grandmother (believing, in his half-witted way, that since his "grandfather" is dead, his grandmother can't really be his grandmother) and becomes his own grandather. It's gross, it's ironic, it's funny.
Maybe. Give me a thousand years or so to think it over. :-)
Damn straight. Ever had someone's life depending on a 911 call getting through? It'll be a long time before I rely on VoIP for that.
The PSTN is bulky because it's reliable and backward-compible. It stays up when the power goes down, and you can make a call from your new VoIP service to some guy with a tin can at the end of a string in the middle of the desert. It's amazing. Don't knock it.
Building out an infrastructure like cable (or telephone service) requires easements and rights-of-way to string the copper. Do you want that we should surrender these to private interests without promises in return? You want to turn my neighborhood into a spiderweb of overhead cables, or dig up the streets to run them underground, you'd better make some promises in return.
Is several times the cable-hanging and or road-digging really a solution? "Let the market handle it" is a good theory, but often bumps up against ugly realities.
But how can you ensure that proper care is taken for thousands of years?
Turning Iraq "upside down" is a live-action recruting poster for groups like Al Quida. Pouring gasoline on a fire to put it out is a piss-poor strategy.
Because there are a whole lot of dead and maimed boys who beleived they were being sent to kill and die in Iraq because of 9/11.
Stimulants lets you borrow time, not buy it. You either make it up later with extra rest, or you die earlier from the negative health consequences of drug abuse. (Yes, caffeine is a drug, the most abused drug in the U.S., and its abuse will damage your health.)
Incorrect. Classical addiction has four components: tolerance, withdrawl, continued use in the face of negative consequences, and repeated failed attempts to quit. Some people's use of caffiene fits perfectly.
It has nothing to do with "being addicted forever". In anyone who successfuly overcomes an addiction, the body undoes the changes that resulted in dependance.
There were Jews there around 70 AD, yes. If the fact that a few of their ancestors lived there there 1800 years ago meant that Zionists of the early 20th century had rights to evict the Arabs living there at the time, then all of us European-decended people need to get out of North American since the American Indians have the same right to this land - indeed, a much stronger claim.
Hell, I want the deeds to every piece of land wrested wrongfully from one of my ancestors. That should make me a reasonably rich man.
And IIRC, the ancient Hebrews had to go out and slay a bunch of "unbeleivers" to take over Judeha.
And cars don't? Roads are expensive and subsidized. So is gasoline - the pump price doesn't come near reflecting the true price of environmental damage, or the foreign policy costs to keep the oil flowing.