Apple is doing it wrong. On their homepage, at http://www.apple.com/itunes/ there's a link "Buy Music Now." It doesn't say "buy a personal license" or "license music", It says "buy"
We have laws that define what a sale is, and incidentally the Norwegian word for "buy" is clearly defined in that law. It definitely doesn't coincide with what Apple thinks it means.
I'll consult a lawyer friend of mine to ensure that I'm not on thin ice (he's an insurance lawyer, but he can probably point me in the right direction), and alert the proper authorities. Nothing will happen, but I will have made an effort:)
Apple calls it consistently PURCHASING! NOT LIFETIME RENTING or some bullshit like that. it's a consumer rights thing to call things what they are..
Which is interesting, as in my country we have very precise laws which define what a "Purchase" is, as opposed to a lease or limited licence. Even using "Buy" on the buy-button in a netshop (which everyone does) would probably invalidate any subsequent licence requirements, as "Buy" has a very clearly defined legal meaning here. User "Kjella" could probably expound:)
Consumers not only perceive that they are buying the digital content permanently, they might be backed by law as long as the transaction is called a "purchase" by the vendor. Sadly no-one has yet gone to court over this, as the real action as perceived by purveyors is licencing, and this is obviously deceptive to consumers.
Virtually every paid service any human being does for another takes advantage of their stupidity, lack of talent, laziness, ignorance, etc.
They cannot or will not do it themselves, so they pay someone else. Only in the imaginary-world of pampered idiots is this not true. Utopia does not exist. GTFU.
Interesting to see that you expanded stupidity to "lack of ignorance and talent".
If I'm restructuring my house and need to move load-bearing walls, I consult someone knowledgdeable in order to not fuck it up and have my ceiling crash down onto my head. If I need to replace my electricity cabling in order to support a dryer, I'm obliged by law to consult a pro, and that's reasonable as I don't have the knowledge to do it safely. If I messed with amateur plumbing instead of calling a plumber and flooded the cellar I'd be held responsible by my insurance company. I *could* spend a few years to replicate the education and experience of these guys, but I prefer not to. By the way, I don't consider myself stupid.
If those professionals decided to overcharge me for having to go back to their base to retrieve a left-handed blivet, they'd be exploiting my stupidity if I accepted the bill. Do you see the difference?
They can say what they want about "in practice", but in theory he could be back on the streets in 10 years if he pulls a total reformation.
Of course you're correct, but I'll try to clarify a little for our foreign friends:)
What I think satisfies a lot of Norwegians' sense of justice is the knowledge that his punishment will be very emotionally harsh. It also has a high probability of being unlimited in length. For his own safety he will have to be kept in solitude for a *very long* time. There are probably a lot of hardened criminals in the relevant prison who would happily choke him to death with their bare hands. It helps that he was ruled legally sane at the moment of perpetration, although most people consider him batshit crazy he's still deemed responsible for his actions.
He is not even trying to act recanting. This is going to condemn him in the eyes of the parole board even a great many years from now. In addition he's shown an exceptional ability for deception and extremely long-term clandestine planning and maneuvering, this will also work strongly against him. In the event that he's released a long time from now he would still be in grave personal danger, although personally I believe that it will probably never happen.
I'm no expert, but I've discussed penal strategy and philosophy extensively with friends who have worked for years as prison guards, one is now a police officer. The Norwegian penal system does not aim for vengeance, only containment and rehabilitation. The containment part is for the safety of society at large. If he's still considered a risk when his current 21 years run out his detention can be extended five years at a time (this is the meaning of "forvaring", or permanent detention). His punishment is, in effect, lack of freedom. The point is not to make his life a living hell.
While I hesitate to mention capital punishment, it may be of interest to many foreigners in relation to this case. Capital punishment is based on at least a measure of vengeance, or even more cynically viewed, on cost analyses. It simply does not fit in our penal philosophy, or in our society in general. The very few Norwegian outcries that have been made in favour of it "post-Breivik" seems largely to be based on a perceived lack of vengeance in his punishment.
I really don't want to engage in a discussion of penal systems or capital punishment. I post this in the hope that it could explain the nature of his punishment a little bit.
The belief in biblical creation is itself not the problem, but rather one of the most common causes of the problem. It would also be bad if they were taught to reject physics in defense of a geocentric flat earth story.
Exactly. I would go further, the main problem with creationism when it is disguised as science is that it needs to invalidate a great many, if not most, areas of real science. Creationists happily try to do that, this creates a scepticism to all things scientific that can never end well. Seriously, many of these guys outright try to ridicule established science in order to strengthen their pet myth. This is very sad, I would hope that we were finished with such bullshit sometime in the middle ages.
Sweden allows these kinds of interviews to be done via video conference and Assange has suggested the interview take place with him inside of the embassy. The fact that Sweden is so ardent about bringing him in person is highly suspect.
Exactly. I found this evaluation of the prosecution very interesting, link provided by Pav in post #41046379. Points 17-19 cover why a remote interview shouldn't be an issue.
Yeah, but American companies have already extracted a lot of those riches for a pittance by bribing and pressuring officials. No need for a war to get at it. Oh, and they also destroyed huge areas of rainforest while doing so.
With Calibre, it doesn't really matter where you get the books from. [...]...especially when you've run out of your favorite authors and desperately need more to read and therefore start buying anything with a half way decent blurb and not too fawning reviews in hope of finding a new favorite author.
When it comes to books, we are very much alike. My mother was head librarian at our local library, so I learned to enjoy reading early, and I never stopped.
A tip for you regarding discovering new books: since you use Calibre you should import your books to Goodreads, and rate them. It will give you recommendations based on what you rate high, and those recommendations are uncannily good. In this case the crowds are very wise indeed. When I added some of my favourites many of the recommendations were books I'd already read, every one of which I loved. Seriously, not a single dud. I discover quite a few new books and authors that way, give it a try:)
I'll join the E-Ink choir... I read *a lot*, and a 6" E-Ink device really can't be beat for reading novels. I have a Sony reader, and it's just about perfect for its designed purpose, I hear good things about the later Kindle E-Ink models as well. No eye stress, ridiculous battery capacity, and it's very handy for carrying around. PDFs can be somewhat cumbersome on it if they're not designed for a relatively small screen reader, but it works great for reference PDFs if you mainly use it for lookup. PDFs often have substantial margins as they're primarily designed for printing, make sure that you crop yours for use on a reader (goes for tablets as well). Mind you, E-Ink readers are single-purpose devices, but for extended, continuous reading it really beats the pants off any backlit device. Some will advice you to just get a tablet and turn the brightness down, I personally disagree, the reading comfort is in no way comparable. A tablet with the brightness turned all the way up *can*, however, double as a reading light in a pinch:)
If you are determined to read mainly PDFs a tablet might be the way to go, although you're somewhat limiting yourself in that case. PDF is good for fixed layout, but it basically sucks for novels.
I would advice you to get the free library software Calibre, and deDRM all books you buy. I also convert everything to epub for guaranteed forward compatibility. DRM stripping is automatic and completely painless, google "apprentice alf" to obtain the necessary Calibre plugins. That way you're vendor-independent, and don't have to rely on drm-servers which will surely not exist indefinitely. There are also a great selection of classics and a few contemporary novels available for free, and not all classics are heavy. Look into Wodehouse or any number of turn-of-the-century mystery/crime authors for light, free reads. I buy a lot of books as well, and rarely pay more than about $8 for a book, often far less. I won't get into any piracy debate, I really don't care, but I personally find that legally obtained books are very affordable and painless to use when stripped of DRM.
As for rediscovering the delight of reading: focus on light, enjoyable novels for starters, and don't force yourself to read. I see that you plan to set aside a fixed amount of time for reading, but never do it as a "chore". Take a break if you get tired or don't feel like reading. I very rarely abandon a book, but don't be afraid to jump ship if you don't enjoy a particular work. Your reading speed will pick up fairly quickly, and you will probably find that you read even more as you get into the habit. If you travel, reading is a great way to while away the hours on each stretch. Digital reading also lends itself well to "reading of opportunity", I always carry my reader in my pocket and whip it out whenever I have five minutes of dead time.
Finally, good luck, there are innumerable tales, settings, and good times awaiting you:)
I suspect Ben Wade is a fucking moron, and not qualified to do his job, let alone even speak on the complex nature of evolution, biology, chemistry, math, cosmology.
Anyone doubting evolution is just dumb. Read a fucking book Ben Wade... and no, NOT THAT STUPID FUCKING BIBLE.
That's a very reasonable first impression to get, but it's probably not that simple. He's likely not stupid, on the other hand he's certainly delusional. It's very dangerous to dismiss these people as mere morons.
Most (all?) people are delusional to some degree regarding various areas of their lives or world views. What is really, really scary, is when a subset of the population tries to argue that their arbitrary delusions are truths, and to push them on other people (kids in this case) to the detriment of proven science. I could understand this happening in, say, an isolated aboriginal tribe in Papa New Guinea, but when I observe it happen in the most powerful nation on Earth, it frankly scares the shit out of me.
As a mineral collector, one of the things that has irked me is constantly running into auctions for crystals that are supposed to "do" something: increase your libido, etc. For example:
Yeah, I have even gotten some incredible samples (a sunstone, a moonstone and a tourmaline crystal, to be exact) from a guy who was respected by the geologic communtiy in the country, as he regularly provided samples that were extremely valuable (Sadly, he died prematurely without revealing his locations. While living, he provided a steady supply). He claimed that the samples I got had healing properties, which obviously must be correct since my health and physical state since I got them are (is? Sig) way above average. Apart from that he was a brilliant collector, whose knowledge in some areas surpassed the "serious" mineralogists in the country. Sometimes I wonder about how delusions work:)
This is the opposite of trickle down economics. Trickle down says that you should give money to rich people first, so that eventually it finds its way to poorer people.
Tesla's model is to take money from rich people first, to fund research that eventually helps poorer people too. That sounds a lot more like a progressive stance when put that way, right?
While I don't know anyting about economics, my impression seems to back you up. I saw a Tesla Roadster for the first time in my life today. It looked amazing. I spotted it while out on the town in Oslo, Norway, I can tell you that it turned a few heads. It looks like a muscle car (which it is), what also drew attention whas that it was completely silient.
Here, driving one is a statement saying "I have money and my second car is a Porsche (my third is a Bentley, and my driver will pick us up)", at least as of yet. I hope that it'll be available as a decent second-car-as-a-sports-car for people who would otherwise buy a Porsche or a Jaguar.
Indeed. Governments are keen to sign contracts like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but they are also equally happy to ignore them as soon as they're even a little in the way of what they want to do.
It's very sad that said declaration has so little weight behind it. The US, for instance, blatantly ignores it, yet they're not punished in any way. They should be booted from the UN and trade-sanctioned to hell and back for their behaviour. Lots of other countries are in violation as well, but they generally don't adopt the holier-than-thou attitude of the US. Do your worst, mods, I have plenty of karma to burn, but please at least have a look at articles 5-11 first.
They'll survive because nobody with two brain cells to rub together enjoys reading on a backlit and always-refreshing screen.
Spoken by a person reading slashdot on a "backlit and always-refreshing screen".
Completely different use cases. Last christmas I slept in a bedroom without a reading light, and I decided to give the iPad provided by my employer a whirl for reading an epub. I quickly found that it works better as reading light for my Pearl-based reader than as a reader in its own right (seriously -- the brightness on that thing is amazing). If I wanted to browse Slashdot the tablet would obviously be the better tool.
The tablet is not useless for reading, but IMO the specialised reader is far superior for what it's designed for.
The point of the E-ink devices are the longer battery life, specifically because they don't have to be recharged every night.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the virtues of E-Ink. The weeks-long battery life is probably just a very nice side effect of its main selling point -- the best display there is for extended reading. With an image that persists without power it's so easy to implement instantaneous sleep while maintaining instant input response that there's no reason for manufacturers not to do it. I have no idea what kind of accumulated reading time I get, because I've seldom been close to exhausting it. That only happens if I forget to charge it for a few weeks, and I've never actually depleted it.
It's the only device I have for which charging inconvenience is a complete non-issue -- maybe apart from my Spektrum R/C transmitter, which also seems to run on pure air while ignoring the fact that it has batteries available:)
I tried Crysis 2 with 3D glasses in a store -- it was amazing. The perception of depth was flawless and added a lot to the experience as long as you don't move your head too much. As I only played for a few minutes I'm a bit sceptical regarding fatigue during longer sessions, but 3D is something I'll definitely consider for my next monitor upgrade, even if I don't particularly enjoy 3D movies.
were I rich, I would be all over autonomous vehicle for a few reasons: 1) you can probably drive it yourself if you want to speed 2) I could hit the pub and get wrecked and have the car drive me home without worrying about getting arrested for DUI
Everyone seems to mention the "free" taxi ride from the pub (which would be brilliant), but I see a few other possibilities:
* Personal transport for people who don't/can't have a driver's licence * A family needs only a single vehicle (pick up kids from school, then mom and dad from different workplaces) * Extending the idea above, a whole neighbourhood could have a car pool comprising just a few vehicles. Not everyone will be needing a car at any one time * Even further, public transport could be replaced/augmented by small individual, autonomous, self-charging electric vehicles. Just order one to your location from a gps-enabled phone. * Local goods/package delivery service for businesses. These vehicles wouldn't even have to accommodate human passengers. * Large vehicles for efficient long haul of goods * Long range traffic could be planned by a central traffic control, and diverted to avoid congestion. This would be effective even if just a part of traffic is autonomous (it could have some unpleasant privacy issues, though).
Our job, as IT professionals, is to come up with solutions. On the same bent, I suppose you'd also cut the link to the Internet.
So, chew on this: where I live, collaboration between companies competing for a government contract is illegal. Suppose two companies, X and Y, compete. You are a criminal, and you knock the CEO of X over the head and steal his (not screen-locked at the time) phone. At this point you could offer Y an insight in the strategy of X (for instance their lowest limit) in exchange for money. Or you could blackmail the CEO of Y which any illicit info you can access. Or blackmail him to not share all his secrets with his competitors. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities, but as I'm not a criminal I'm just giving a few examples.
So, as a question to you as an IT pro, is enabling that attack vector a sensible move? Remember that you're hired for your expertise in these matters.
Translation: I didn't give a shit about security and worked around it for my convience.
That's the rub. Security will always be traded for convenience. Some employees have a very real need to be able to work with confidential stuff on the go, but for most it's just "I want to have my email just appear on my iPhone instead of having to turn on my PC and log in to that VPN shit".
A dedicated and knowledgeable attacker *will* get passwords (almost) no matter what you do to prevent it, but it's easier when you have easily stealable access points in the wild. Of course, an offer of a bit of money to the underpaid cleaning people emptying their carts outside early in the morning, in exchange for installing/retrieving a hw keylogger, will accomplish the same thing.
When a C-level executive says they want something, do you really think a rank-and-file IT worker, or even the IT manager, is going to get to tell them "no"?
Presumably the company employs the IT worker for his skills and knowledge in this particular field, while the requirements of a C-level exec probably and rightfully involves more admin skills than technical ones. The task of the IT-worker is to inform them of why this is a bad idea. Explain the risks, document that you've done so, and if they still demand it and the shit hits the fan you're in the clear, at least if you live in a civilised country (as opposed to for instance Ecuador, where you'd still be successfully posted as a scapegoat).
Since I'm not technically in the IT dept of my employer I've informed them (IT) that while I gladly help coworkers configure Exchange connetions on their iDevices, I strongly discourage the organisation to allow it. Reaction from IT varies from utter non-understanding to "the risk is small". That's wrong, the probability of success approaches 1 for a targeted attack where they steal the phone from an exec while it's not locked.
Slightly tangential, but: an SSN (or whichever national equivalent) should be less dangerous to publish than, say, your name and address. It baffles me that it needs to be kept secret in the U.S., furthermore I trust that slashdotters know the difference between identification and authentification. Who where the geniuses that decided that a valid SSN is authentication, and suffices to seriously compromise your personal security? The question is not in jest, quoth the Wiki:... because it is assumed that no one except the person to whom it was issued will know it.. Of course I understand the motivation of credit institutions who want to make it very easy to get a credit card (and interest-generating debt), and other similar businesses which have invested financial interests in making it easy, but how on earth did it fly under the radar of your authorities?
I'm genuinely interested in this, Google yields little on the historic origins of SSN as authentication.
Saying science and religion don't overlap is simply compartmentalisation. If religions makes certain claims about reality, and science has claims that refute those claimed by religion, then I don't see how they don't overlap.
The mere idea of an omnipotent and omniscient god (as the one in Christianity and most other religions) basically throws science out the window; when such an entity is potentially meddling with your observations and experiments all bets are off. Religious scientists must assume that this entity does not interfere at all, otherwise their science is meaningless. Religion simply can not be a part of science, and it's probably not possible to disprove the existence of a god with scientific means.
Slashdot Mirror
Apple is doing it wrong. On their homepage, at http://www.apple.com/itunes/ there's a link "Buy Music Now." It doesn't say "buy a personal license" or "license music", It says "buy"
We have laws that define what a sale is, and incidentally the Norwegian word for "buy" is clearly defined in that law. It definitely doesn't coincide with what Apple thinks it means.
I'll consult a lawyer friend of mine to ensure that I'm not on thin ice (he's an insurance lawyer, but he can probably point me in the right direction), and alert the proper authorities. Nothing will happen, but I will have made an effort :)
and that's what the beef is.
Apple calls it consistently PURCHASING! NOT LIFETIME RENTING or some bullshit like that. it's a consumer rights thing to call things what they are..
Which is interesting, as in my country we have very precise laws which define what a "Purchase" is, as opposed to a lease or limited licence. Even using "Buy" on the buy-button in a netshop (which everyone does) would probably invalidate any subsequent licence requirements, as "Buy" has a very clearly defined legal meaning here. User "Kjella" could probably expound :)
Consumers not only perceive that they are buying the digital content permanently, they might be backed by law as long as the transaction is called a "purchase" by the vendor. Sadly no-one has yet gone to court over this, as the real action as perceived by purveyors is licencing, and this is obviously deceptive to consumers.
Virtually every paid service any human being does for another takes advantage of their stupidity, lack of talent, laziness, ignorance, etc.
They cannot or will not do it themselves, so they pay someone else. Only in the imaginary-world of pampered idiots is this not true. Utopia does not exist. GTFU.
Interesting to see that you expanded stupidity to "lack of ignorance and talent".
If I'm restructuring my house and need to move load-bearing walls, I consult someone knowledgdeable in order to not fuck it up and have my ceiling crash down onto my head. If I need to replace my electricity cabling in order to support a dryer, I'm obliged by law to consult a pro, and that's reasonable as I don't have the knowledge to do it safely. If I messed with amateur plumbing instead of calling a plumber and flooded the cellar I'd be held responsible by my insurance company. I *could* spend a few years to replicate the education and experience of these guys, but I prefer not to. By the way, I don't consider myself stupid.
If those professionals decided to overcharge me for having to go back to their base to retrieve a left-handed blivet, they'd be exploiting my stupidity if I accepted the bill. Do you see the difference?
They can say what they want about "in practice", but in theory he could be back on the streets in 10 years if he pulls a total reformation.
Of course you're correct, but I'll try to clarify a little for our foreign friends :)
What I think satisfies a lot of Norwegians' sense of justice is the knowledge that his punishment will be very emotionally harsh. It also has a high probability of being unlimited in length. For his own safety he will have to be kept in solitude for a *very long* time. There are probably a lot of hardened criminals in the relevant prison who would happily choke him to death with their bare hands. It helps that he was ruled legally sane at the moment of perpetration, although most people consider him batshit crazy he's still deemed responsible for his actions.
He is not even trying to act recanting. This is going to condemn him in the eyes of the parole board even a great many years from now. In addition he's shown an exceptional ability for deception and extremely long-term clandestine planning and maneuvering, this will also work strongly against him. In the event that he's released a long time from now he would still be in grave personal danger, although personally I believe that it will probably never happen.
I'm no expert, but I've discussed penal strategy and philosophy extensively with friends who have worked for years as prison guards, one is now a police officer. The Norwegian penal system does not aim for vengeance, only containment and rehabilitation. The containment part is for the safety of society at large. If he's still considered a risk when his current 21 years run out his detention can be extended five years at a time (this is the meaning of "forvaring", or permanent detention). His punishment is, in effect, lack of freedom. The point is not to make his life a living hell.
While I hesitate to mention capital punishment, it may be of interest to many foreigners in relation to this case. Capital punishment is based on at least a measure of vengeance, or even more cynically viewed, on cost analyses. It simply does not fit in our penal philosophy, or in our society in general. The very few Norwegian outcries that have been made in favour of it "post-Breivik" seems largely to be based on a perceived lack of vengeance in his punishment.
I really don't want to engage in a discussion of penal systems or capital punishment. I post this in the hope that it could explain the nature of his punishment a little bit.
The belief in biblical creation is itself not the problem, but rather one of the most common causes of the problem. It would also be bad if they were taught to reject physics in defense of a geocentric flat earth story.
Exactly. I would go further, the main problem with creationism when it is disguised as science is that it needs to invalidate a great many, if not most, areas of real science. Creationists happily try to do that, this creates a scepticism to all things scientific that can never end well. Seriously, many of these guys outright try to ridicule established science in order to strengthen their pet myth. This is very sad, I would hope that we were finished with such bullshit sometime in the middle ages.
Sweden allows these kinds of interviews to be done via video conference and Assange has suggested the interview take place with him inside of the embassy. The fact that Sweden is so ardent about bringing him in person is highly suspect.
Exactly. I found this evaluation of the prosecution very interesting, link provided by Pav in post #41046379. Points 17-19 cover why a remote interview shouldn't be an issue.
Do they have any oil?
Yeah, but American companies have already extracted a lot of those riches for a pittance by bribing and pressuring officials. No need for a war to get at it. Oh, and they also destroyed huge areas of rainforest while doing so.
With Calibre, it doesn't really matter where you get the books from. [...] ...especially when you've run out of your favorite authors and desperately need more to read and therefore start buying anything with a half way decent blurb and not too fawning reviews in hope of finding a new favorite author.
When it comes to books, we are very much alike. My mother was head librarian at our local library, so I learned to enjoy reading early, and I never stopped.
A tip for you regarding discovering new books: since you use Calibre you should import your books to Goodreads, and rate them. It will give you recommendations based on what you rate high, and those recommendations are uncannily good. In this case the crowds are very wise indeed. When I added some of my favourites many of the recommendations were books I'd already read, every one of which I loved. Seriously, not a single dud. I discover quite a few new books and authors that way, give it a try :)
I'll join the E-Ink choir... I read *a lot*, and a 6" E-Ink device really can't be beat for reading novels. I have a Sony reader, and it's just about perfect for its designed purpose, I hear good things about the later Kindle E-Ink models as well. No eye stress, ridiculous battery capacity, and it's very handy for carrying around. PDFs can be somewhat cumbersome on it if they're not designed for a relatively small screen reader, but it works great for reference PDFs if you mainly use it for lookup. PDFs often have substantial margins as they're primarily designed for printing, make sure that you crop yours for use on a reader (goes for tablets as well). Mind you, E-Ink readers are single-purpose devices, but for extended, continuous reading it really beats the pants off any backlit device. Some will advice you to just get a tablet and turn the brightness down, I personally disagree, the reading comfort is in no way comparable. A tablet with the brightness turned all the way up *can*, however, double as a reading light in a pinch :)
If you are determined to read mainly PDFs a tablet might be the way to go, although you're somewhat limiting yourself in that case. PDF is good for fixed layout, but it basically sucks for novels.
I would advice you to get the free library software Calibre, and deDRM all books you buy. I also convert everything to epub for guaranteed forward compatibility. DRM stripping is automatic and completely painless, google "apprentice alf" to obtain the necessary Calibre plugins. That way you're vendor-independent, and don't have to rely on drm-servers which will surely not exist indefinitely. There are also a great selection of classics and a few contemporary novels available for free, and not all classics are heavy. Look into Wodehouse or any number of turn-of-the-century mystery/crime authors for light, free reads. I buy a lot of books as well, and rarely pay more than about $8 for a book, often far less. I won't get into any piracy debate, I really don't care, but I personally find that legally obtained books are very affordable and painless to use when stripped of DRM.
As for rediscovering the delight of reading: focus on light, enjoyable novels for starters, and don't force yourself to read. I see that you plan to set aside a fixed amount of time for reading, but never do it as a "chore". Take a break if you get tired or don't feel like reading. I very rarely abandon a book, but don't be afraid to jump ship if you don't enjoy a particular work. Your reading speed will pick up fairly quickly, and you will probably find that you read even more as you get into the habit. If you travel, reading is a great way to while away the hours on each stretch. Digital reading also lends itself well to "reading of opportunity", I always carry my reader in my pocket and whip it out whenever I have five minutes of dead time.
Finally, good luck, there are innumerable tales, settings, and good times awaiting you :)
I suspect Ben Wade is a fucking moron, and not qualified to do his job, let alone even speak on the complex nature of evolution, biology, chemistry, math, cosmology.
Anyone doubting evolution is just dumb. Read a fucking book Ben Wade... and no, NOT THAT STUPID FUCKING BIBLE.
That's a very reasonable first impression to get, but it's probably not that simple. He's likely not stupid, on the other hand he's certainly delusional. It's very dangerous to dismiss these people as mere morons.
Most (all?) people are delusional to some degree regarding various areas of their lives or world views. What is really, really scary, is when a subset of the population tries to argue that their arbitrary delusions are truths, and to push them on other people (kids in this case) to the detriment of proven science. I could understand this happening in, say, an isolated aboriginal tribe in Papa New Guinea, but when I observe it happen in the most powerful nation on Earth, it frankly scares the shit out of me.
As a mineral collector, one of the things that has irked me is constantly running into auctions for crystals that are supposed to "do" something: increase your libido, etc. For example:
Yeah, I have even gotten some incredible samples (a sunstone, a moonstone and a tourmaline crystal, to be exact) from a guy who was respected by the geologic communtiy in the country, as he regularly provided samples that were extremely valuable (Sadly, he died prematurely without revealing his locations. While living, he provided a steady supply). He claimed that the samples I got had healing properties, which obviously must be correct since my health and physical state since I got them are (is? Sig) way above average. Apart from that he was a brilliant collector, whose knowledge in some areas surpassed the "serious" mineralogists in the country. Sometimes I wonder about how delusions work :)
This is the opposite of trickle down economics. Trickle down says that you should give money to rich people first, so that eventually it finds its way to poorer people.
Tesla's model is to take money from rich people first, to fund research that eventually helps poorer people too. That sounds a lot more like a progressive stance when put that way, right?
While I don't know anyting about economics, my impression seems to back you up. I saw a Tesla Roadster for the first time in my life today. It looked amazing. I spotted it while out on the town in Oslo, Norway, I can tell you that it turned a few heads. It looks like a muscle car (which it is), what also drew attention whas that it was completely silient.
Here, driving one is a statement saying "I have money and my second car is a Porsche (my third is a Bentley, and my driver will pick us up)", at least as of yet. I hope that it'll be available as a decent second-car-as-a-sports-car for people who would otherwise buy a Porsche or a Jaguar.
(4) The word 'scam' is an english word hence it must have originated from England and other english-speaking countries
Hey, brainiac, I'll have you know that "svindel" is a Scandinavian word, hence it must rather have originated from Scandinavia.
Indeed. Governments are keen to sign contracts like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but they are also equally happy to ignore them as soon as they're even a little in the way of what they want to do.
It's very sad that said declaration has so little weight behind it. The US, for instance, blatantly ignores it, yet they're not punished in any way. They should be booted from the UN and trade-sanctioned to hell and back for their behaviour. Lots of other countries are in violation as well, but they generally don't adopt the holier-than-thou attitude of the US. Do your worst, mods, I have plenty of karma to burn, but please at least have a look at articles 5-11 first.
They'll survive because nobody with two brain cells to rub together enjoys reading on a backlit and always-refreshing screen.
Spoken by a person reading slashdot on a "backlit and always-refreshing screen".
Completely different use cases. Last christmas I slept in a bedroom without a reading light, and I decided to give the iPad provided by my employer a whirl for reading an epub. I quickly found that it works better as reading light for my Pearl-based reader than as a reader in its own right (seriously -- the brightness on that thing is amazing). If I wanted to browse Slashdot the tablet would obviously be the better tool.
The tablet is not useless for reading, but IMO the specialised reader is far superior for what it's designed for.
The point of the E-ink devices are the longer battery life, specifically because they don't have to be recharged every night.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the virtues of E-Ink. The weeks-long battery life is probably just a very nice side effect of its main selling point -- the best display there is for extended reading. With an image that persists without power it's so easy to implement instantaneous sleep while maintaining instant input response that there's no reason for manufacturers not to do it. I have no idea what kind of accumulated reading time I get, because I've seldom been close to exhausting it. That only happens if I forget to charge it for a few weeks, and I've never actually depleted it.
It's the only device I have for which charging inconvenience is a complete non-issue -- maybe apart from my Spektrum R/C transmitter, which also seems to run on pure air while ignoring the fact that it has batteries available :)
Check out http://eyes.nasa.gov/
That tool is brilliant, already watching Live. Also following a live stream with commentary at twit.tv.
I tried Crysis 2 with 3D glasses in a store -- it was amazing. The perception of depth was flawless and added a lot to the experience as long as you don't move your head too much. As I only played for a few minutes I'm a bit sceptical regarding fatigue during longer sessions, but 3D is something I'll definitely consider for my next monitor upgrade, even if I don't particularly enjoy 3D movies.
were I rich, I would be all over autonomous vehicle for a few reasons:
1) you can probably drive it yourself if you want to speed
2) I could hit the pub and get wrecked and have the car drive me home without worrying about getting arrested for DUI
Everyone seems to mention the "free" taxi ride from the pub (which would be brilliant), but I see a few other possibilities:
* Personal transport for people who don't/can't have a driver's licence
* A family needs only a single vehicle (pick up kids from school, then mom and dad from different workplaces)
* Extending the idea above, a whole neighbourhood could have a car pool comprising just a few vehicles. Not everyone will be needing a car at any one time
* Even further, public transport could be replaced/augmented by small individual, autonomous, self-charging electric vehicles. Just order one to your location from a gps-enabled phone.
* Local goods/package delivery service for businesses. These vehicles wouldn't even have to accommodate human passengers.
* Large vehicles for efficient long haul of goods
* Long range traffic could be planned by a central traffic control, and diverted to avoid congestion. This would be effective even if just a part of traffic is autonomous (it could have some unpleasant privacy issues, though).
I'm sure I missed a bunch, but you get the idea.
Our job, as IT professionals, is to come up with solutions. On the same bent, I suppose you'd also cut the link to the Internet.
So, chew on this: where I live, collaboration between companies competing for a government contract is illegal. Suppose two companies, X and Y, compete. You are a criminal, and you knock the CEO of X over the head and steal his (not screen-locked at the time) phone. At this point you could offer Y an insight in the strategy of X (for instance their lowest limit) in exchange for money. Or you could blackmail the CEO of Y which any illicit info you can access. Or blackmail him to not share all his secrets with his competitors. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities, but as I'm not a criminal I'm just giving a few examples.
So, as a question to you as an IT pro, is enabling that attack vector a sensible move? Remember that you're hired for your expertise in these matters.
just forwarding the stuff to my gmail account
Translation: I didn't give a shit about security and worked around it for my convience.
That's the rub. Security will always be traded for convenience. Some employees have a very real need to be able to work with confidential stuff on the go, but for most it's just "I want to have my email just appear on my iPhone instead of having to turn on my PC and log in to that VPN shit".
A dedicated and knowledgeable attacker *will* get passwords (almost) no matter what you do to prevent it, but it's easier when you have easily stealable access points in the wild. Of course, an offer of a bit of money to the underpaid cleaning people emptying their carts outside early in the morning, in exchange for installing/retrieving a hw keylogger, will accomplish the same thing.
When a C-level executive says they want something, do you really think a rank-and-file IT worker, or even the IT manager, is going to get to tell them "no"?
Presumably the company employs the IT worker for his skills and knowledge in this particular field, while the requirements of a C-level exec probably and rightfully involves more admin skills than technical ones. The task of the IT-worker is to inform them of why this is a bad idea. Explain the risks, document that you've done so, and if they still demand it and the shit hits the fan you're in the clear, at least if you live in a civilised country (as opposed to for instance Ecuador, where you'd still be successfully posted as a scapegoat).
Since I'm not technically in the IT dept of my employer I've informed them (IT) that while I gladly help coworkers configure Exchange connetions on their iDevices, I strongly discourage the organisation to allow it. Reaction from IT varies from utter non-understanding to "the risk is small". That's wrong, the probability of success approaches 1 for a targeted attack where they steal the phone from an exec while it's not locked.
s/authentification/authentication/g. I'm ashamed, and shall go to bed after finishing my beer :)
Should SSN's be flying around unencrypted?
Slightly tangential, but: an SSN (or whichever national equivalent) should be less dangerous to publish than, say, your name and address. It baffles me that it needs to be kept secret in the U.S., furthermore I trust that slashdotters know the difference between identification and authentification. Who where the geniuses that decided that a valid SSN is authentication, and suffices to seriously compromise your personal security? The question is not in jest, quoth the Wiki: ... because it is assumed that no one except the person to whom it was issued will know it.. Of course I understand the motivation of credit institutions who want to make it very easy to get a credit card (and interest-generating debt), and other similar businesses which have invested financial interests in making it easy, but how on earth did it fly under the radar of your authorities?
I'm genuinely interested in this, Google yields little on the historic origins of SSN as authentication.
Saying science and religion don't overlap is simply compartmentalisation. If religions makes certain claims about reality, and science has claims that refute those claimed by religion, then I don't see how they don't overlap.
The mere idea of an omnipotent and omniscient god (as the one in Christianity and most other religions) basically throws science out the window; when such an entity is potentially meddling with your observations and experiments all bets are off. Religious scientists must assume that this entity does not interfere at all, otherwise their science is meaningless. Religion simply can not be a part of science, and it's probably not possible to disprove the existence of a god with scientific means.