My motorbike has an oil light on it.
It comes on when the bike is running out of oil so I know when to put more in. To run a motorbike I mush know how to do this and (basicly) how the engine works. (Unless I want to be totaly reliant on a mechanic)
A computer is exactly the same.
To use it, you must know basicly how it works.....such as what a hard disk is!
You cant oversimplify!
But of course you'll be able to do that easily once IBM releases it's first quantum computer....
You mean the Men In Black will be able to do that. Since by definition, a quantum computer can produce an absolutely unbreakable (no shit!) cypertext, and at the same time be able to crack any current cryptosystem (Read Simon Singhs "The code book" for a simple explination of how and why). I don't think us mortals will be alowed near one for many years to come.
Intersetingly, I know people who are working on 'spintronics' (a way of using electron spin up/down to convay info over a laser signal). They are being steered away from doing to much work into the quantum cryptography aspect of this.
I wonder why?
I wonder where they're getting the funding for this outlay
Errrm
From the users!:-P
Seriously though. In Europe the mobile phone companies paid billions for their licences (The governments auctioned them off to the highest bidder) The direct result of this is more expensive mobile calls and companies that now have 3g licences but no monney to build a decent 3g network!
Added to which, *puts on flame-proof y-fronts* WAP never took off. What makes people think 3g will interest Joe user? (although maybe mobile p0rn will.... I'll take some of that back)
Sorry matey - read about the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
I know!
Jack Straw was a wanker.
Fortunately this WILL be overturned by the European courts as it is breach of the human rights act. We are waiting for the first test case.
now also implementing a new counterterrorist law
According to a Wired article and BBC news article I read [see my sig for my opinion of reporters!] This was partly brought about by preasure from Bush. We all know that where ever the US goes, Europe is sure to follow!
impossible to _not_ be recorded by CCTV
Agreed!
Being part of the most watched nation on earth is very bad
Quite a few European countries have had problems with terrorosts for years. The UK with the IRA, the Spanish with the Basque (sp?) seperatists etc etc.
In these countries laws on human rights and free speach prevail. (Albeit precariously sometimes, I admit!)
The US, confronted with some of its first terrorist attacks imediatly goes into panic, ignoring the spirit of its consitution.
I can only hope that over the next few months things will calm down, and the US will realise the importance of human and civil rights laws.
Do you honestly think that every computer that has your personal info on it is a non-windoze system?
We are geeks, our linux boxes are secure.
What about your personal data held by the idiot in personel on an unpatched Win95 box?
This affects everybody
Anyway, I don't use Windows, so this is not my problem. Ask yourself; is it really yours?:-)
I'm a Linux user and it is my problem.
Why?
Because personal data conserning me is stored on a variaty of computer systems (with my permision). I'd be an idiot not to think that at least one of these is a windoze system.
Yes I'm a geek and I know (!) my box is secure. I can't say that for Joe Sixpack working at my universitys personel dept.
Operating wavelength is between 800 and 860 nanometer. Probably a GaAs laserdiode
I thought it might be.
Most space stuff tends to rely on older tried and trusted technology, rather than anything that might go wrong (Its not easy to fly into space to replace a blown diode!) That and I'm sure the bit-rate available over ~830nm is more than adiquate.
I work with free space lasers as part of my PhD and I can assure you they can be an absolute b*stard to align properley, even accross a small lab bench into a detector. Hats off to em! I'd be interested to know what wavelength these devices operate on. (I'm assuming they are semiconductor devices as nothing else would be light enough to launch into space) Blue semicondutor lasers (with nitrogen doping) are becomming cheaper and cheaper and can carry more data (because of the shoter wavelength) per sec but may not be as reliable as "traditional" longer wavelengths.
A few months ago we tried rigging up a "laser ethernet" conection from our physics dept to our house (its line of sight). Only by making teh beam very divergent did we manage to get any sort of alingment, and that was on a clear day! It was nowhere near good enough for us to be able to use the universitys fat pipes from home!
These people have heard of and know all about free software. I'm a physics PhD myself so I'm sure that any physics dept. in the world uses GNUplot, F77 (free fortran compiler), LaTeX etc etc
The problem they have is downloading the software over crap pipes you say?
Why not simply get the people they are colaberating with in the richer countries to post the software!? Its not hard, and if you are posting results and reserch papers to each other all the time, it is not as nieve as it sounds! (These guys do colaberate with other physics depts, right?)
Then there's the possibility of sexual harassment suit after a few cold ones, not to mention making 'politically incorrect' jokes... It all puts a big chill on the so-called 'fun'.
Get a job somewhere else dude
Life is too short to put up with that kind of soulless shit
That will still tie up a shitload of bandwidth. Not good.
The best idea I have seen is finding a few spammers real e-mail addresses. (Go to the site they are spamming for, look at the HTML and you will find an address in one of the forms. Usually billing@... sales@... etc. Dont forget root@...)
Simply put these e-mail addresses in your USENET signature with a note saying "please send spam here" Spam bots will pick up these addresses and spam the crap out of the billing addresses. I've noticed quite a few people doing this on the USENET groups I read.
In the UK our industrial sponsors are more likely to screw us over than our supervisors. Can't afford sue your supervisor? Try taking on Glaxo-Welcome!
Right here, right now, teenagers are being seduced into neo-fascist ideological groups every day.
Right here, right now teenagers are laughing at the pompus little pricks waving swastickas
In France alone, there are local governments which have started banning books and newspapers that oppose them
Is that banning books that oppose the local government? Yes I know you made a typo, but that is exactly the point!
Question: Who gave YOU or anybody else the right to tell me what I can and can't read, can and can't say? I supose you would also like a government that tells us what time to get up in the morning and when to go to the toilet
Maybe a governmnet that bans 1984/Farenheit 451 as subversive books?
I've got a good idea
How about the European parliment passes a law saying that we all have to be nice to each other!
That should solve all our problems!
Anyway, what ever happend to Voltaires "I disprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it"
*Bangs head against the wall*
And what makes you think that every country in Europe has laws to protect self incrimination!
Example: The police "miranda warning" in the UK
"You do not have to say anything unless you wish do do so,
but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in Court"
Then the police will start asking you questions and "putting you on the spot"
Now tell me America, Where is my right to silence and my right to not incriminate myself!
Sorry, I dont want to sound like flame-bait but I must chukkle at your nievety! (sp)
The 5th amendment only applies in the US!
If the US applied its own laws (including the 5th amendment) to other citizens of the world then maybe the US wouldn't have such a sh*te forign policy. (And I didnt say anything about Afghanistan!)
My main point however is that the US uses this to its advantage. Since it is illegal for the US gov. to spy on its own citizens, it gets the UK to do it for them. Since it is illegal (atm) for the UK to spy on its citizens it gets the US to do it for them. They then simply swap the information.
And no I haven't been reading alt.conspiricy! This was mentioned in the European parliments report into ECHELON.
As we all know, wherever America goes, Europe gets dragged along kicking and screeming!
However, I definately couldn't imagine the Duch or the Danes going along with such draconian anti-privacy laws, even if we in the UK seem complacent about our privacy and rights.
Slashdot Mirror
My motorbike has an oil light on it.
It comes on when the bike is running out of oil so I know when to put more in. To run a motorbike I mush know how to do this and (basicly) how the engine works. (Unless I want to be totaly reliant on a mechanic)
A computer is exactly the same.
To use it, you must know basicly how it works.....such as what a hard disk is! You cant oversimplify!
Courtasy of The Register
The article tells you how to download and install a DLL that turns off HTML in M$ Lookout
I can have sex 24 hrs a day
Viagra ? :-P
But of course you'll be able to do that easily once IBM releases it's first quantum computer....
You mean the Men In Black will be able to do that.
Since by definition, a quantum computer can produce an absolutely unbreakable (no shit!) cypertext, and at the same time be able to crack any current cryptosystem (Read Simon Singhs "The code book" for a simple explination of how and why). I don't think us mortals will be alowed near one for many years to come.
Intersetingly, I know people who are working on 'spintronics' (a way of using electron spin up/down to convay info over a laser signal). They are being steered away from doing to much work into the quantum cryptography aspect of this.
I wonder why?
I wonder where they're getting the funding for this outlay
Errrm :-P
From the users!
Seriously though. In Europe the mobile phone companies paid billions for their licences (The governments auctioned them off to the highest bidder) The direct result of this is more expensive mobile calls and companies that now have 3g licences but no monney to build a decent 3g network!
Added to which, *puts on flame-proof y-fronts*
WAP never took off. What makes people think 3g will interest Joe user? (although maybe mobile p0rn will.... I'll take some of that back)
I know!
Jack Straw was a wanker.
Fortunately this WILL be overturned by the European courts as it is breach of the human rights act. We are waiting for the first test case.
According to a Wired article and BBC news article I read [see my sig for my opinion of reporters!] This was partly brought about by preasure from Bush. We all know that where ever the US goes, Europe is sure to follow!
impossible to _not_ be recorded by CCTV
Agreed!
Being part of the most watched nation on earth is very bad
Quite a few European countries have had problems with terrorosts for years. The UK with the IRA, the Spanish with the Basque (sp?) seperatists etc etc.
In these countries laws on human rights and free speach prevail. (Albeit precariously sometimes, I admit!)
The US, confronted with some of its first terrorist attacks imediatly goes into panic, ignoring the spirit of its consitution.
I can only hope that over the next few months things will calm down, and the US will realise the importance of human and civil rights laws.
Do you honestly think that every computer that has your personal info on it is a non-windoze system?
We are geeks, our linux boxes are secure.
What about your personal data held by the idiot in personel on an unpatched Win95 box?
This affects everybody
Anyway, I don't use Windows, so this is not my problem. Ask yourself; is it really yours?
I'm a Linux user and it is my problem.
Why?
Because personal data conserning me is stored on a variaty of computer systems (with my permision). I'd be an idiot not to think that at least one of these is a windoze system.
Yes I'm a geek and I know (!) my box is secure. I can't say that for Joe Sixpack working at my universitys personel dept.
Operating wavelength is between 800 and 860 nanometer. Probably a GaAs laserdiode
I thought it might be.
Most space stuff tends to rely on older tried and trusted technology, rather than anything that might go wrong (Its not easy to fly into space to replace a blown diode!) That and I'm sure the bit-rate available over ~830nm is more than adiquate.
I work with free space lasers as part of my PhD and I can assure you they can be an absolute b*stard to align properley, even accross a small lab bench into a detector. Hats off to em!
I'd be interested to know what wavelength these devices operate on. (I'm assuming they are semiconductor devices as nothing else would be light enough to launch into space) Blue semicondutor lasers (with nitrogen doping) are becomming cheaper and cheaper and can carry more data (because of the shoter wavelength) per sec but may not be as reliable as "traditional" longer wavelengths.
A few months ago we tried rigging up a "laser ethernet" conection from our physics dept to our house (its line of sight). Only by making teh beam very divergent did we manage to get any sort of alingment, and that was on a clear day! It was nowhere near good enough for us to be able to use the universitys fat pipes from home!
These people have heard of and know all about free software. I'm a physics PhD myself so I'm sure that any physics dept. in the world uses GNUplot, F77 (free fortran compiler), LaTeX etc etc
The problem they have is downloading the software over crap pipes you say?
Why not simply get the people they are colaberating with in the richer countries to post the software!? Its not hard, and if you are posting results and reserch papers to each other all the time, it is not as nieve as it sounds! (These guys do colaberate with other physics depts, right?)
Then there's the possibility of sexual harassment suit after a few cold ones, not to mention making 'politically incorrect' jokes... It all puts a big chill on the so-called 'fun'.
Get a job somewhere else dude
Life is too short to put up with that kind of soulless shit
Frank Zappa must be turning in his grave
We've seen stuff like this on TV and in movies
I think you answered your own question there mate
Whoever said TV was reality FFS!
You dont ever see films of people sat watching the TV do you
That will still tie up a shitload of bandwidth. Not good.
The best idea I have seen is finding a few spammers real e-mail addresses. (Go to the site they are spamming for, look at the HTML and you will find an address in one of the forms. Usually billing@... sales@... etc. Dont forget root@...)
Simply put these e-mail addresses in your USENET signature with a note saying "please send spam here"
Spam bots will pick up these addresses and spam the crap out of the billing addresses. I've noticed quite a few people doing this on the USENET groups I read.
In the UK our industrial sponsors are more likely to screw us over than our supervisors.
Can't afford sue your supervisor? Try taking on Glaxo-Welcome!
Any writing is good, so long as it is not boring
I disprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it
The fact that this post was moded down as a troll makes me think somebody has never heard of SARCASM!
Now kids, which large nation do we know of that has a complete inablity to understand irony and sarcasm?
Answers on the back of a 20quid note to my home address please
Right here, right now, teenagers are being seduced into neo-fascist ideological groups every day.
Right here, right now teenagers are laughing at the pompus little pricks waving swastickas
In France alone, there are local governments which have started banning books and newspapers that oppose them
Is that banning books that oppose the local government?
Yes I know you made a typo, but that is exactly the point!
Question: Who gave YOU or anybody else the right to tell me what I can and can't read, can and can't say?
I supose you would also like a government that tells us what time to get up in the morning and when to go to the toilet
Maybe a governmnet that bans 1984/Farenheit 451 as subversive books?
I've got a good idea
How about the European parliment passes a law saying that we all have to be nice to each other!
That should solve all our problems!
Anyway, what ever happend to Voltaires "I disprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it"
*Bangs head against the wall*
And what makes you think that every country in Europe has laws to protect self incrimination!
Example: The police "miranda warning" in the UK
Then the police will start asking you questions and "putting you on the spot"
Now tell me America, Where is my right to silence and my right to not incriminate myself!
Sorry, I dont want to sound like flame-bait but I must chukkle at your nievety! (sp)
The 5th amendment only applies in the US!
If the US applied its own laws (including the 5th amendment) to other citizens of the world then maybe the US wouldn't have such a sh*te forign policy. (And I didnt say anything about Afghanistan!)
My main point however is that the US uses this to its advantage.
Since it is illegal for the US gov. to spy on its own citizens, it gets the UK to do it for them.
Since it is illegal (atm) for the UK to spy on its citizens it gets the US to do it for them.
They then simply swap the information.
And no I haven't been reading alt.conspiricy! This was mentioned in the European parliments report into ECHELON.
This Wired Article makes interesting reading. It gives the impression that the preasure to alter Europes (mainly very strict) privacy laws has come from as high up as Bush Himself
As we all know, wherever America goes, Europe gets dragged along kicking and screeming!
However, I definately couldn't imagine the Duch or the Danes going along with such draconian anti-privacy laws, even if we in the UK seem complacent about our privacy and rights.
Thats why some firms went to shielding the buildings to keep the signal from reaching the street.
Meep!
Surely it would be easier and cheaper just to install a conventional network!
The world is mad!