There is an old saying that is attributed to the Secret Service. They can't stop someone really dedicated from killing the President. All they can do is raise the level of difficulty so high that the average individual won't be able to do it. I think that is applicable to the fingerprint scanners used in American airports. Yes, they can be beat, but they raise the threshold. They won't catch the dedicated/educated terrorists, but it will help against idiots. And stopping idiot terrorists is still a good idea. And don't fool yourselves, a lot of terrorists are idiots. Just look at the Shoe Bomber, not what I would call England's best and brightest.
The page you reference is a great example of how statistics can prove anything. Your page lists school life expentancy. The differences are explained by the fact that many countries require 13 years of compulsory education vice 12 in the US. Look at the numbers here. Now look at average years of schooling which includes non-compulsory eduction. By gosh, the US is number one.
...according to Apple on Wednesday, only about 5 million free songs have been redeemed...
I wonder what the typical redemption rate is for the Pepsi, Coke and other softdrink give aways. I know for paper coupons the redemption rate is about 2 percent. Granted alot of those coupons go straight into the trash. However, when people print coupons from the web only 20 percent are redeemed. And if someone is going to print them, you would think they would use them.
My point, is the Pepsi-iTunes rate of 5 percent unexpected?
You really could get the CD and run it without every knowing it had anything GNU/Linuxy in it
I always finds comments like this interesting. One of the GPL complaints regarding the original BSD license was the "advertising clause." A similar clause in GPL would prevent Sun from doing this.
The real issue seems to be - are people bound by the legal requirements of the GPL or by the moral requirements of giving due credit.
While his heart may have been in the right place, it sounds like he went to far. Once the class action suits started, once the state of Calif. started investigating, there was very little need for his cloak and dagger actions.
The courts could have done the work. If he felt that they were tampering with evidence, destroying evidence, or not providing everything the courts demanded he could have come forward. In my view, he put his own neck on the line in a wreckless way.
The US would be pretty pissed off if they and Australia sign a contract, which AU later says - nope, sorry - it didnt pass through parliment.
I suggest reading your Constitution. Until the treaty is ratified by the Senate, it isn't worth the paper its written on. So the Australians can be pissed off after we sign it and later say sorry, it was ratified.
Closed Format: iTMS uses a closed standard. What is the market share of Apple vs Windows computers? People want a compatible service.
You can play iTMS songs on either Macs or PCs. So relative market share of the two computer systems is irrelevant.
The only place where market share is relevant is in MP3 players, because iPods are the only one that plays AAC with Fairplay DRM. However, in that area, Apple with its iPods have a commanding part of the market.
Based on market share, I would argue that on-line stores should embrace AAC with Fairplay. Note, Apple doesn't own Fairplay, Veridisc does (http://64.244.235.240/)
I hate to destroy part of a good story. But San Antonio is NOT, repeat NOT the spam relay. LANs on ships are NOT connected to the Internet. The military has its own non-public networks for ships. Furthermore, San Antonio has NOT been delivered to the Navy. It is still under construction.
That's the good news. The bad news, is that a Navy site has been compromised. The headers give us some clues. avnavfw.pms317.navy.mil is a Navy address. PMS317 is the Navy program office responsible for building the San Antonio class of ships. Avondale Shipyard is where the ships are built.
The merchants don't touch the card in most of the stores I go into already. In most stores, I swipe the card myself. They use one of the electronic pen pads for me to record my signature. The cashier never even looks at the card. So in that respect it is no real change.
Since fraud is a major expenditure for credit card companies, I would guess that they would worry about the fraud implications of this new type of credit card. If they are seriously considering it, they must not believe it will increase fraud.
I have none, nada, zip experience in big databases. But it surprised me that the peak workloads were measured in 100s of concurrent queries. If I had to make a wild guess, I would have guessed 10s of thousands. My blessed ignorance destroyed.
I think the analysis misses the point of 3-click
on
Web 'Rules' Changing?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
In their analysis they had users complete different tasks and asked them about their experiences. And they noted no difference as a function of number of clicks. I think this misses the point of the 3-click rule.
The 3-click rule gets to the importance of accomplishment -- getting that feeling of moving forward. Your typical e-commerce site takes several pages to enter credit card info, shipping address etc. But as I move thru it, I feel that I am accomplishing the task. On the other hand, if I go to the same site looking for a particular item to buy, I'll give their navigation and search tools about 3 chances to find the item before I move on to another site. If they can't get me close to what I'm wanting in 3 clicks, I'm out of there.
This is the secret that Disney has learned. Their popular rides have LONG lines, but they keep you moving. They entertain you in line. A much better experience than a typical amusement park, where you stand stoically in line.
There will be many comments about people being treated like cattle. This is a real danger. But for many people, this is what they want/need. At my company, we had people that were constantly out of the office -- salesman, techs, etc. Rather than spend money on an office for each one. The company set up a few "hotel" offices that they used when they were in the office. Significant savings for the company, for people who rarely were in offices. Or for the many people on slashdot who want to telecommute, do you really think the company should pay for office space for you also? An office that you see once every couple of weeks for status meetings.
On the other hand, having hotel offices for the person who comes in everyday, works 9-ot-5,... is dumb. And I doubt many companies would do that.
I think paper ballots probably are the best. The process is more transparent. Although fraud can be committed with paper ballots.
...Everyone gets a ballot with a standard design, from Victoria to Halifax...
However, there are some differences between the American and Canadian electoral systems. Please remember, the US Constitution explicitedly puts the responsibility for conducting elections in the hands of the states, for example Section 4, Clause 1 on the election of Senators and Representatives. Furthermore, as witnessed in the last election, we use an Electoral College to pick the President. The selection of the Electoral College members is decided by the individual states. So the Federal government cannot mandate a uniform ballot. (Your statement also ignores the fact that most, if not all, localities use the national elections as opportunities to decide local issues that require some customization of the ballot.)
To do what you propose, while it has merit, would require a Constitutional amendment. One that is not likely to be passed because the states would have to give up some of their power.
What you say is true, but kids will play games with anything. When I was in school, we folded paper into triangles and played football. We played hockey with quarters. We had races on inclined desks with erasers. And when calculators were first introduced into our schools, we played games with the calculators. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Saying kids will play games with something is always true, and is not a good excuse for not doing it. (Not that I think computers are necessarily a good idea.)
...but I'd like something free...and finding something like this is one of the challenges...
Since you are apparently new to Macs, are you familiar with Versiontracker. Its a good place to find programs for the Mac, what the latest version is, and what other people think of them.
...he judiciary did nothing to protect us from those laws...
I wasn't clear in my earlier comment, but that is exactly my point. Since then, the judiciary has taken on the role of protecting us from such laws. When the Alien and Sedition Act were enacted, without a strong judiciary, there was nothing to protect the public. So we want judges to protect us.
...that we must now have our rights placed at the mercy of such a nebulous law where a moron Judge might inadvertently take away a freedom from us....
And this is different from the past? I would argue this is the whole point of Constitutional checks and balances - to prevent dumb laws from infringing on rights. Since the judiciary has always been one of the primary components of this system, nothing has really changed for nearly 200 years. Judges are and have been the public's first line of defense against the government trampling on our rights.
I suggest reading about the "Alien and Seditions Acts of 1798" to see how important the judiciary is to preserving our rights.
If you read the mylastemail website, they give you a printed document that you keep where people will find it when you die (e.g., with your will). When they receive the printed document in the snail-mail, mylastemail will email out your last messages. So if they never receive the snail-mail, they never send your messages. Whereas with Dead Man's Switch, you have to proactively reset a switch to prevent automatic actions from taking place.
Prior art does not mean something generically related. For example, just because lawnmowers have been around forever, doesn't mean that I can't patent a new type of lawnmover. As an example, look at the weedwacker. Lawnmowers existed before it was invented, however, the weedwacker was a new type of lawnmower and, I believe, patentable.
So the question is does IBM have a new and unique way of doing password management.
If I did my math right, the author assumes that 200 million people in the US will use their vouchers -- that gives the 500,000 artists at 40 Grand a year. Does he honestly expect the vast majority of Americans to use their voucher? I think it is safer to assume maybe a few percent of the population will use it.
People who already follow the arts, are donating money to causes such as symphonies, local plays, etc. People who are less interested -- those that just turn on the radio and listen to whatever is played are not going to be bothered with finding an person or group to support.
Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that the changes to internet preferences were made at the request of developers. Instead of a system perference panel, developers wanted to be able to switch this within each application. Hence the new API.
See for example, CNN article dated May 1, 2003. A major point at the time of Bush's carrier speech was that "major combat" was over.
In the speech, Bush will declare that major combat is over in Iraq, but stop short of a formal declaration of victory, according to White House aides.
There are many valid criticisms of the Bush administration, for example, the administration's poor post-war planning. However, there is no need to invent things, in particular, claim he didn't use the caveat "end of major combat" Or are you suggesting that the Bush administration changed the CNN website also?
...possibly to prevent people from finding changes to past statements and information when archived elsewhere...
While anything is possible in politics, is it possible that the web admin is trying to limit the amount of traffic on the site? Is it possible that his analysis of the weblogs show a lot of traffic from robots looking for Iraqi-related info?
Slashdot Mirror
There is an old saying that is attributed to the Secret Service. They can't stop someone really dedicated from killing the President. All they can do is raise the level of difficulty so high that the average individual won't be able to do it. I think that is applicable to the fingerprint scanners used in American airports. Yes, they can be beat, but they raise the threshold. They won't catch the dedicated/educated terrorists, but it will help against idiots. And stopping idiot terrorists is still a good idea. And don't fool yourselves, a lot of terrorists are idiots. Just look at the Shoe Bomber, not what I would call England's best and brightest.
The page you reference is a great example of how statistics can prove anything. Your page lists school life expentancy. The differences are explained by the fact that many countries require 13 years of compulsory education vice 12 in the US. Look at the numbers here. Now look at average years of schooling which includes non-compulsory eduction. By gosh, the US is number one.
I wonder what the typical redemption rate is for the Pepsi, Coke and other softdrink give aways. I know for paper coupons the redemption rate is about 2 percent. Granted alot of those coupons go straight into the trash. However, when people print coupons from the web only 20 percent are redeemed. And if someone is going to print them, you would think they would use them.
My point, is the Pepsi-iTunes rate of 5 percent unexpected?
I always finds comments like this interesting. One of the GPL complaints regarding the original BSD license was the "advertising clause." A similar clause in GPL would prevent Sun from doing this.
The real issue seems to be - are people bound by the legal requirements of the GPL or by the moral requirements of giving due credit.
While his heart may have been in the right place, it sounds like he went to far. Once the class action suits started, once the state of Calif. started investigating, there was very little need for his cloak and dagger actions. The courts could have done the work. If he felt that they were tampering with evidence, destroying evidence, or not providing everything the courts demanded he could have come forward. In my view, he put his own neck on the line in a wreckless way.
I suggest reading your Constitution. Until the treaty is ratified by the Senate, it isn't worth the paper its written on. So the Australians can be pissed off after we sign it and later say sorry, it was ratified.
You can play iTMS songs on either Macs or PCs. So relative market share of the two computer systems is irrelevant.
The only place where market share is relevant is in MP3 players, because iPods are the only one that plays AAC with Fairplay DRM. However, in that area, Apple with its iPods have a commanding part of the market.
Based on market share, I would argue that on-line stores should embrace AAC with Fairplay. Note, Apple doesn't own Fairplay, Veridisc does (http://64.244.235.240/)
Are you sure your friend wasn't a cheap bastard who bought the book used? I'll just tell him I highlighted the good sections for him.
I hate to destroy part of a good story. But San Antonio is NOT, repeat NOT the spam relay. LANs on ships are NOT connected to the Internet. The military has its own non-public networks for ships. Furthermore, San Antonio has NOT been delivered to the Navy. It is still under construction. That's the good news. The bad news, is that a Navy site has been compromised. The headers give us some clues. avnavfw.pms317.navy.mil is a Navy address. PMS317 is the Navy program office responsible for building the San Antonio class of ships. Avondale Shipyard is where the ships are built.
Since fraud is a major expenditure for credit card companies, I would guess that they would worry about the fraud implications of this new type of credit card. If they are seriously considering it, they must not believe it will increase fraud.
I have none, nada, zip experience in big databases. But it surprised me that the peak workloads were measured in 100s of concurrent queries. If I had to make a wild guess, I would have guessed 10s of thousands. My blessed ignorance destroyed.
The 3-click rule gets to the importance of accomplishment -- getting that feeling of moving forward. Your typical e-commerce site takes several pages to enter credit card info, shipping address etc. But as I move thru it, I feel that I am accomplishing the task. On the other hand, if I go to the same site looking for a particular item to buy, I'll give their navigation and search tools about 3 chances to find the item before I move on to another site. If they can't get me close to what I'm wanting in 3 clicks, I'm out of there.
This is the secret that Disney has learned. Their popular rides have LONG lines, but they keep you moving. They entertain you in line. A much better experience than a typical amusement park, where you stand stoically in line.
How long are you going to leave that coffee cup on the table? Don't you ever wash your dishes.
On the other hand, having hotel offices for the person who comes in everyday, works 9-ot-5, ... is dumb. And I doubt many companies would do that.
However, there are some differences between the American and Canadian electoral systems. Please remember, the US Constitution explicitedly puts the responsibility for conducting elections in the hands of the states, for example Section 4, Clause 1 on the election of Senators and Representatives. Furthermore, as witnessed in the last election, we use an Electoral College to pick the President. The selection of the Electoral College members is decided by the individual states. So the Federal government cannot mandate a uniform ballot. (Your statement also ignores the fact that most, if not all, localities use the national elections as opportunities to decide local issues that require some customization of the ballot.)
To do what you propose, while it has merit, would require a Constitutional amendment. One that is not likely to be passed because the states would have to give up some of their power.
What you say is true, but kids will play games with anything. When I was in school, we folded paper into triangles and played football. We played hockey with quarters. We had races on inclined desks with erasers. And when calculators were first introduced into our schools, we played games with the calculators. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Saying kids will play games with something is always true, and is not a good excuse for not doing it. (Not that I think computers are necessarily a good idea.)
Since you are apparently new to Macs, are you familiar with Versiontracker. Its a good place to find programs for the Mac, what the latest version is, and what other people think of them.
I wasn't clear in my earlier comment, but that is exactly my point. Since then, the judiciary has taken on the role of protecting us from such laws. When the Alien and Sedition Act were enacted, without a strong judiciary, there was nothing to protect the public. So we want judges to protect us.
And this is different from the past? I would argue this is the whole point of Constitutional checks and balances - to prevent dumb laws from infringing on rights. Since the judiciary has always been one of the primary components of this system, nothing has really changed for nearly 200 years. Judges are and have been the public's first line of defense against the government trampling on our rights.
I suggest reading about the "Alien and Seditions Acts of 1798" to see how important the judiciary is to preserving our rights.
If you read the mylastemail website, they give you a printed document that you keep where people will find it when you die (e.g., with your will). When they receive the printed document in the snail-mail, mylastemail will email out your last messages. So if they never receive the snail-mail, they never send your messages. Whereas with Dead Man's Switch, you have to proactively reset a switch to prevent automatic actions from taking place.
So the question is does IBM have a new and unique way of doing password management.
People who already follow the arts, are donating money to causes such as symphonies, local plays, etc. People who are less interested -- those that just turn on the radio and listen to whatever is played are not going to be bothered with finding an person or group to support.
In my view, this is an idea that will never work.
Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that the changes to internet preferences were made at the request of developers. Instead of a system perference panel, developers wanted to be able to switch this within each application. Hence the new API.
While anything is possible in politics, is it possible that the web admin is trying to limit the amount of traffic on the site? Is it possible that his analysis of the weblogs show a lot of traffic from robots looking for Iraqi-related info?