Yeah, but you're missing the most interesting thing about that. It took frigging years to sequence the human genome. Can you wait that long to access your porn? Hell, it's worse than a dialup.
In the UK, the BBC used to show M*A*S*H without the laugh track. It came across as funny, but with some serious points. Whenever I see it with the laugh track it's virtually unwatchable.
Yup - the BBC is actually pretty damn good (especially Radio 4).
On the commercial TV side, I think they upped the number/time of commercials allowed in exchange for ITV putting the News at Ten back. Notice how and hour-long Millionaire used to have 3 breaks and now has 4.
The times I've been to the USA, I've found the TV totally unwatchable due to the sheer amount of commercials. I remember one evening trying to watch an old Morse episode on some channel (thinking - "blimey, this is a bit heavy for the yanks") and they managed to pack half an episode into 2 hours. For those who don't know, one episode is two hours in the UK - and that's with commercials.
Frankly, the idea of even more commercials (on US TV) and less programming is insane.
Granted. Again, the stupidity factor will strike eventually. Nothing is ever totally secure.
BTW I remember when ATMs were new, there were a couple of cases of folks setting up a "temporary ATM" (mutant offspring of a PC and a filing cabinet) locked to the outside of a (closed) bank which just read cards and recorded PINs (giving back the cards with a "sorry no money" message). People fell for it, and with the PIN + all the card info, the bastards were well away. Stupidity strikes again.
I think that's what I meant. The crappy jobs still need to be done so the people who do them should have respect (which includes decent pay and conditions). If all the CEOs went on strike tomorrow, how long would it take anyone to notice? If the guys stuffing boxes or garbage trucks did the same, how long would it take anyone to notice that? I can put up with a lack of "mission statements" for quite a long time. The idea that by taking 10% off salaries and increasing workload by 10% in the warehouse, the board can afford even bigger yachts is obscene.
No, I'm not a communist, but just as corporation can sell its product to whoever it wants for the best price, a group of people (union?) should be able to sell their labour to whoever they want at the best price. Market forces work both ways.
Someone still has to do the shitty jobs (putting stuff in boxes etc.). I've got news for you, but not everyone can do Ron Jeremy's job for Bill Gates' salary. Who would clean up afterwards, staff the video rental store or do the fluffing?
Would you think it was better if the guys who take away your trash all went and got jobs as beer tasters? Everyone has their place - show some respect.
BTW Nearly a week later and this is still being modded down. 24 hours ago it was +5.
... is people. How many people are going to go for a dump, leaving their keycard on their desk? Practically everyone where I work wanders off at some point leaving their PC logged with their (Notes) mail running. This could lead to hours of fun. Similarly, passwords/phrases get shared, borrowed etc.
Unless you use biometrics (I don't generally leave my fingers on my desk when I go to lunch), the stupid-factor will always play a part. The legal status of digital signatures will only really be clarified when the first case comes to court with the defense: "someone else must have used my key".
(OT) Oh, and would people please learn to spell "definite". It's like "finite" with a "de" on the front (quickly checks for typos).
Re:copy protection only hurts legitimate users.
on
Future of Music Summit
·
· Score: 2, Informative
This is true. I think people are so used to media they can play on more than one device, music they can tape and listen to in the car (with no CD), software they can just install and use on the new PC when they replace the old one (and so on) that market forces will actually work for the good. People will return CDs that don't work on their PCs. It's already happening.
The stupid thing is that the record companies could make money out of the Internet model. If they charged $1 for a CD download then a lot of poeple would pay it. I would pay it - my local record store has fuck-all beyond the top 40. People wouldn't be bothered to pirate to save $1. That would then be $1 which the record companies wouldn't otherwise have. If they charge $10 for something which can only be played on that PC (while it's connected to the Internet) and only for 3 months, people will pirate.
Oh yeah, and you should be able to get a free preview (maybe lower bit-rate) to decide if you want to buy the thing in the first place. There a loads of CDs which I would buy if:
I could find them in the stores (not in stores == not on the radio either)
I could check them out first.
Currently, I use Morpheus because there is no other way I can obtain much of this music.
Re. your point about users not running above normal user level. Yes, absolutely in an ideal world this should be the case. They wouldn't be able to screw the machine - no way for them to write to HKLM so installing bad stuff can't be done. The problem is that so many badly written applications will not run without write access to HKLM.
At my workplace we've been trying to devise a standard rollout for 2K and so many "standard" applications just will not work without the user having local administrator access. It's a crock of shit as we've got notoriously "curious" users so denying them the rights to fuck up anything would be a Good Thing.
For the record, if anyone is writing Win32 apps, would you please test at normal user level. And, and will you not use RegOpenKey with REG_ALL_ACCESS unless you really need it. That's an easy way to make your app fail when not running as local admin. Grr.
XP Is, allegedly, multi-user. With 2K, you can't unlock & switch users without terminating the original user session and everything in it. With XP, they seem to have integrated the Terminal Services code from 2K so you can leave all the user sessions running and switch between them. Having had some experience with WTS, I reckon you are going to need a shedload of RAM for this to work well.
The person writing the story obviously got some out of date marketing material - fitting an ADSL modem into an MCA bus should indeed work on your PS/2.
Aye - it is self limiting. There is the issue in the first generation though. Farmers have to be careful about the proportion of seed they keep for re-planting (I think it's about 15% in rice) as against selling. Contamination which caused even a small proportion of that seed to be infertile could have bad consequences.
I think someone else mentioned on the thread that this probably wouldn't affect the 3rd world too much as that's not where Monsatan are aiming their product. It's like the big pharmacuticals - although millions of people are killed by diseases like malaria, it's millions of poor people. Heart disease, Alzheimers (spelling?), cancer etc. affect people with enough money to pay for expensive drugs so get many times the amount of research dollars. The GM crops will generally be aimed at 1st world farmers who are already subsidised to the hilt (something which the World Bank/WTO denies to developing countries). Mind you, just like the big drugs companies do (I can back this up - if I could be bothered to find the story), I can see the GM corps using the 3rd world as a testing ground because the regulations are, largely, non-existent.
Re:Prison Sentences are a reasonable response
on
Monsanto and PCBs
·
· Score: 1
IIRC there was a short article in the UK computing press about some cabling conference. They got this guy from Singapore up to speak because they have the lowest rate of cable cuts (where company B digs up the pavement and cuts company A's cable) in the world. Apparently this guy spoke for about 45 minutes going on about the techniques they used (plans, detectors etc.) - which were exactly the same as everyone else's. At the end, some guys asked why he (the Singapore guy) thought they had such as low rate of cuts. The answer "well, whoever cuts a cable gets 25 year in jail and their supervisor gets 5".
The point being, if there's a chance people will actually be punished for corporate crimes, then they might not do it. Of course, this story might be complete crap.
It still produces pollen. AFAIK, that pollen will still hit other plants and make them act like they've been fertilised - ie produce a seed (which is generally what you're after in the case of grain, beans etc.). That seed will not develop if planted. If you plant a field of this stuff next to some other farmer's field of ordinary stuff, then some of the pollen is going to drift and fertilise the non-GM field. If the conventional farmer is planning to save some of his seed to plant next year, he's going to get a shock when only 80% of it germinates. Given the low profit margins in farming (all the money goes to the big stores and companies like Monsanto), this could well make the difference between sinking or swimming.
Not sure about this, but remembering my Mendelev stuff from school, it could be that the "terminator" gene could be passed on without expressing itself (depending upon whether it's dominant or regressive). If this was the case, it would affect the fertility of saved seed to years to come. Could be wrong.
After a couple of well publicised incidents in the UK (Hatfield train crash etc.) the subject of "corporate mansluaghter" (manslaughter in the UK is, I think, similar to 2nd degree murder in the states). Obviously not popular with big companies because it could actually mean executives going to jail when their negilgence results in someone getting killed. It doesn't make a lot of sense that if you drive a car dangerously and kill someone, you go down; if you drive a company carelessly and kill someone, you might get a fine of 0.0000001% of your turnover.
One thing I've noticed in the UK, is since the privatisation of our railways, almost all incidents have been blamed on the driver - who is normally dead so can't fight back. This way nobody can sue the company. Hatfield was one of the first ones where they couldn't do that 'cos unless the driver stopped the train, got out, broke the rail himself, got back in, backed up to get some speed and then drove round the corner he couldn't possibly be at fault.
If corporations want the same rights as citizens, they should have the same responsibilities. Mind you, when they do send execs down (fraud or whatever), they get a nice open prison with full access to laptops, cellphones etc. so they can just carry on working. There is no justice.
Most posters overlook the fact that personal ownership of firearms is also proscribed in such wondrous places to live as Cuba, the former U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China, North Korea
IIRC, it's also illegal in these places to cut of your mother's head and shit down the neck. Because these countries are "evil" then all of their laws must be as well. Obvious really.
Against unarmed victims, one is as efficient as the other.
That's part of the NRA's argument which I've never understood. They make the following statements:
If you ban guns, you should ban baseball bats because you can just as easily kill someone with one of them.
We need guns to protect ourselves because nothing else will do.
I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Like any bunch of loonies, their arguments make no sense when you look at them closely.
The sad thing is, in the US people scream if anyone tries to take away their guns. If anyone tries to take away their information or their right to privacy, only a few/.ers complain.
In an unusual outbreak of reasonableness, the UK government is allowing all pubs to stay open from 11am on 31st until 11pm on the 1st. That's 36 hours of pub opening. You might need a couple of gramms of speed to get through it, but it is a challenge.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but you're missing the most interesting thing about that. It took frigging years to sequence the human genome. Can you wait that long to access your porn? Hell, it's worse than a dialup.
Similar as in just as shit?
Has nobody got a sense of humour any more? (Well, I know Mastercard haven't.)
Soon it wont be possible to satirise anything without getting a nastygram?
Agreed.
In the UK, the BBC used to show M*A*S*H without the laugh track. It came across as funny, but with some serious points. Whenever I see it with the laugh track it's virtually unwatchable.
Yup - the BBC is actually pretty damn good (especially Radio 4).
On the commercial TV side, I think they upped the number/time of commercials allowed in exchange for ITV putting the News at Ten back. Notice how and hour-long Millionaire used to have 3 breaks and now has 4.
The times I've been to the USA, I've found the TV totally unwatchable due to the sheer amount of commercials. I remember one evening trying to watch an old Morse episode on some channel (thinking - "blimey, this is a bit heavy for the yanks") and they managed to pack half an episode into 2 hours. For those who don't know, one episode is two hours in the UK - and that's with commercials.
Frankly, the idea of even more commercials (on US TV) and less programming is insane.
Granted. Again, the stupidity factor will strike eventually. Nothing is ever totally secure.
BTW I remember when ATMs were new, there were a couple of cases of folks setting up a "temporary ATM" (mutant offspring of a PC and a filing cabinet) locked to the outside of a (closed) bank which just read cards and recorded PINs (giving back the cards with a "sorry no money" message). People fell for it, and with the PIN + all the card info, the bastards were well away. Stupidity strikes again.
I think that's what I meant. The crappy jobs still need to be done so the people who do them should have respect (which includes decent pay and conditions). If all the CEOs went on strike tomorrow, how long would it take anyone to notice? If the guys stuffing boxes or garbage trucks did the same, how long would it take anyone to notice that? I can put up with a lack of "mission statements" for quite a long time. The idea that by taking 10% off salaries and increasing workload by 10% in the warehouse, the board can afford even bigger yachts is obscene.
No, I'm not a communist, but just as corporation can sell its product to whoever it wants for the best price, a group of people (union?) should be able to sell their labour to whoever they want at the best price. Market forces work both ways.
(The parent is a troll - right?)
Someone still has to do the shitty jobs (putting stuff in boxes etc.). I've got news for you, but not everyone can do Ron Jeremy's job for Bill Gates' salary. Who would clean up afterwards, staff the video rental store or do the fluffing?
Would you think it was better if the guys who take away your trash all went and got jobs as beer tasters? Everyone has their place - show some respect.
BTW Nearly a week later and this is still being modded down. 24 hours ago it was +5.
... is people. How many people are going to go for a dump, leaving their keycard on their desk? Practically everyone where I work wanders off at some point leaving their PC logged with their (Notes) mail running. This could lead to hours of fun. Similarly, passwords/phrases get shared, borrowed etc.
Unless you use biometrics (I don't generally leave my fingers on my desk when I go to lunch), the stupid-factor will always play a part. The legal status of digital signatures will only really be clarified when the first case comes to court with the defense: "someone else must have used my key".
(OT) Oh, and would people please learn to spell "definite". It's like "finite" with a "de" on the front (quickly checks for typos).
Well, people reckon they can see a Face on Mars. Dirk Benedict will do anything for publicity.
Now that's insightful.
The stupid thing is that the record companies could make money out of the Internet model. If they charged $1 for a CD download then a lot of poeple would pay it. I would pay it - my local record store has fuck-all beyond the top 40. People wouldn't be bothered to pirate to save $1. That would then be $1 which the record companies wouldn't otherwise have. If they charge $10 for something which can only be played on that PC (while it's connected to the Internet) and only for 3 months, people will pirate.
Oh yeah, and you should be able to get a free preview (maybe lower bit-rate) to decide if you want to buy the thing in the first place. There a loads of CDs which I would buy if:
I could find them in the stores (not in stores == not on the radio either)
I could check them out first.
Currently, I use Morpheus because there is no other way I can obtain much of this music.
Re. your point about users not running above normal user level. Yes, absolutely in an ideal world this should be the case. They wouldn't be able to screw the machine - no way for them to write to HKLM so installing bad stuff can't be done. The problem is that so many badly written applications will not run without write access to HKLM.
At my workplace we've been trying to devise a standard rollout for 2K and so many "standard" applications just will not work without the user having local administrator access. It's a crock of shit as we've got notoriously "curious" users so denying them the rights to fuck up anything would be a Good Thing.
For the record, if anyone is writing Win32 apps, would you please test at normal user level. And, and will you not use RegOpenKey with REG_ALL_ACCESS unless you really need it. That's an easy way to make your app fail when not running as local admin. Grr.
XP Is, allegedly, multi-user. With 2K, you can't unlock & switch users without terminating the original user session and everything in it. With XP, they seem to have integrated the Terminal Services code from 2K so you can leave all the user sessions running and switch between them. Having had some experience with WTS, I reckon you are going to need a shedload of RAM for this to work well.
The person writing the story obviously got some out of date marketing material - fitting an ADSL modem into an MCA bus should indeed work on your PS/2.
Opening csc.exe with the dependency walker reveals a direct dependency on MSVCR70.DLL - ie the C++ runtime library.
Does that answer your question?
People are already doing it. Read at -1 and you'll see.
Aye - it is self limiting. There is the issue in the first generation though. Farmers have to be careful about the proportion of seed they keep for re-planting (I think it's about 15% in rice) as against selling. Contamination which caused even a small proportion of that seed to be infertile could have bad consequences.
I think someone else mentioned on the thread that this probably wouldn't affect the 3rd world too much as that's not where Monsatan are aiming their product. It's like the big pharmacuticals - although millions of people are killed by diseases like malaria, it's millions of poor people. Heart disease, Alzheimers (spelling?), cancer etc. affect people with enough money to pay for expensive drugs so get many times the amount of research dollars. The GM crops will generally be aimed at 1st world farmers who are already subsidised to the hilt (something which the World Bank/WTO denies to developing countries). Mind you, just like the big drugs companies do (I can back this up - if I could be bothered to find the story), I can see the GM corps using the 3rd world as a testing ground because the regulations are, largely, non-existent.
IIRC there was a short article in the UK computing press about some cabling conference. They got this guy from Singapore up to speak because they have the lowest rate of cable cuts (where company B digs up the pavement and cuts company A's cable) in the world. Apparently this guy spoke for about 45 minutes going on about the techniques they used (plans, detectors etc.) - which were exactly the same as everyone else's. At the end, some guys asked why he (the Singapore guy) thought they had such as low rate of cuts. The answer "well, whoever cuts a cable gets 25 year in jail and their supervisor gets 5".
The point being, if there's a chance people will actually be punished for corporate crimes, then they might not do it. Of course, this story might be complete crap.
It still produces pollen. AFAIK, that pollen will still hit other plants and make them act like they've been fertilised - ie produce a seed (which is generally what you're after in the case of grain, beans etc.). That seed will not develop if planted. If you plant a field of this stuff next to some other farmer's field of ordinary stuff, then some of the pollen is going to drift and fertilise the non-GM field. If the conventional farmer is planning to save some of his seed to plant next year, he's going to get a shock when only 80% of it germinates. Given the low profit margins in farming (all the money goes to the big stores and companies like Monsanto), this could well make the difference between sinking or swimming.
Not sure about this, but remembering my Mendelev stuff from school, it could be that the "terminator" gene could be passed on without expressing itself (depending upon whether it's dominant or regressive). If this was the case, it would affect the fertility of saved seed to years to come. Could be wrong.
After a couple of well publicised incidents in the UK (Hatfield train crash etc.) the subject of "corporate mansluaghter" (manslaughter in the UK is, I think, similar to 2nd degree murder in the states). Obviously not popular with big companies because it could actually mean executives going to jail when their negilgence results in someone getting killed. It doesn't make a lot of sense that if you drive a car dangerously and kill someone, you go down; if you drive a company carelessly and kill someone, you might get a fine of 0.0000001% of your turnover.
One thing I've noticed in the UK, is since the privatisation of our railways, almost all incidents have been blamed on the driver - who is normally dead so can't fight back. This way nobody can sue the company. Hatfield was one of the first ones where they couldn't do that 'cos unless the driver stopped the train, got out, broke the rail himself, got back in, backed up to get some speed and then drove round the corner he couldn't possibly be at fault.
If corporations want the same rights as citizens, they should have the same responsibilities. Mind you, when they do send execs down (fraud or whatever), they get a nice open prison with full access to laptops, cellphones etc. so they can just carry on working. There is no justice.
Most posters overlook the fact that personal ownership of firearms is also proscribed in such wondrous places to live as Cuba, the former U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China, North Korea
IIRC, it's also illegal in these places to cut of your mother's head and shit down the neck. Because these countries are "evil" then all of their laws must be as well. Obvious really.
Not a forum for adults? I think they may have come to that conclusion after reading /. at -1.
That's part of the NRA's argument which I've never understood. They make the following statements:
If you ban guns, you should ban baseball bats because you can just as easily kill someone with one of them.
We need guns to protect ourselves because nothing else will do.
/.ers complain.
I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Like any bunch of loonies, their arguments make no sense when you look at them closely.
The sad thing is, in the US people scream if anyone tries to take away their guns. If anyone tries to take away their information or their right to privacy, only a few
In an unusual outbreak of reasonableness, the UK government is allowing all pubs to stay open from 11am on 31st until 11pm on the 1st. That's 36 hours of pub opening. You might need a couple of gramms of speed to get through it, but it is a challenge.