Just as an aside to this conversation, how is peering doing these days? Back in the day, anyone with a big enough to have a massive pipe, like a T1, could peer with anyone else. What's the deal in this more mature environment?
Look at, well... anything. In any human social activity, there are a few people who drive all the activity, and the rest are happy to follow along.
Even leadership personalities are followers much of the time. It's not like everyone can be leaders in everything. You can only ever lead in a few small areas. (Though of course, some people lead more than others; while some people lead in nothing at all, I suppose.)
Instead, we allow almost all cyber criminals to get away with their Internet crime without any penalty.
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I guess most people don't know this, but: type "mcdonalds" into Safari for Mac, press Return, and... you end up at the side of the McDonalds restaurant. It's not like that was particularly hard to program: if someone types a word, just add a www. to the beginning and a.com to the end and see what happens.
The amazing part is that most systems/browsers are too stupid to support this...?
OTOH, Firefox will do a search for "mcdonalds" and of course the restaurant comes up first. I suppose that's not too bad either.
So if I see an e-mail that says, come to scifi.jockfarts, it just might be a real domain, because.jockfarts is now a TLD? It's hard enough to distinguish TLDs now with all the silly countries-gone-commercial such as.co and.ly. Adding 200+ more is going to be highly annoying.
Then there's all the spelling out. "That's J-O-C-K-F..." How annoying will that be? Like when people used to say, "Ayche tee tee pee colon backslash backslash doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou" before they got to saying the actual domain name. (Yes, I know it's a slash, not a backslash, but try telling them.)
Stereo? GPS? Car companies can't even make a cup holder that actually works.
It is strange, because as far as I can tell, people have been taking beverages into automobiles for at least... 12 years... perhaps more? And yet, car companies keep trying to reinvent the cup holder, usually horribly.
WTF? How can it be that difficult to engineer something so simple after so much time?
They download the image, and then (hopefully) think to double-click on it, but... nothing happens! The program doesn't launch! What's wrong with this stupid thing!?
You've never seen that? Should get out more.:)
Oh, and I've also seen people find the window, drag the one icon to the other... and then double-click the first icon, thus launching the application off the disk image. Mixed results ensue, depending on the nature of the app.
You mean sneakernet? That's nothing. Back in the day, we had to manually place dots onto the paper using a handheld carbon-marking device. On the plus side, it did have an undo function built right into the final product.
I see this on Macs a lot. If you want to install anything, you have to type an administrator's password.
In theory, that's great. But in effect, you are giving that installer root access. So if I understand correctly, that installer could be putting any amount of spyware (or whatever) into your computer and nearly perfectly cover its tracks.
Otoh, many Mac apps are distributed as disk images, where you simply drag them from the image to your drive, and that's it. No password at all. If you're going to use pre-rolled software, that certainly seems more trustworthy. But of course, it is a lot more complicated of a process for the average user to be able to ever understand.
...We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment...
Sometimes a statistic is used to show trends in other areas.
For example, yes, iOS is popular with users. However, the fact that the programming language used for it is growing indicates that it is popular with programmers. That's different, and at least a little bit notable. Not only for nerds thinking about what to program in, but also for industry watchers: developer support is very important to a platform.
If you know anything about TV science fiction, then you would know that all sapient life forms look like white people with maybe some ridges on their forehead or something (and they speak English). All flora looks just like what you find in California. And animals look like shambling people in horribly fake costumes.
Slashdot Mirror
Odd coincidence that I just re-read his Deathworld books recently. Apparently they are old enough that they are public domain these days.
A fond farewell.
According to the human players, poker is largely about mind games.
In AI poker, the competitors should be able to send files to each other, or somehow exchange non-game information.
Apple granted patent for head-mounted display tech. Clearly these two stories are related, right? Sounds totally awkward.
Tax driving, because it can kill you.
Tax running because it can cause joint problems.
Tax all non-"organic" foods because they contain neurotoxins.
It's for our own good.
Just as an aside to this conversation, how is peering doing these days? Back in the day, anyone with a big enough to have a massive pipe, like a T1, could peer with anyone else. What's the deal in this more mature environment?
Look at, well... anything. In any human social activity, there are a few people who drive all the activity, and the rest are happy to follow along.
Even leadership personalities are followers much of the time. It's not like everyone can be leaders in everything. You can only ever lead in a few small areas. (Though of course, some people lead more than others; while some people lead in nothing at all, I suppose.)
Scammers (and spammers) wouldn't do this stuff if it didn't pay off.
Even though these guys were idiots, they still manage to scam people. So what does that say about their victims? Ugh.
...to the phrase "a series of tubes."
Instead, we allow almost all cyber criminals to get away with their Internet crime without any penalty.
Beloved, this is not being true! I have sure-fire way to stop crimes and makes you not being victims of many internet crimes ever. Alls I needs is your passwords to your accounts, and I makes them very secures. Especially yours banks passwords accounts numbers, I very much promising. I extra interested if you been scammed before. I help most much.
To show I most sincere, I also give you free 500 Viagra pills extra-effective man-stick for your every account you wants me protect! Your woman moan against your amazing he umbrella many time.
I guess most people don't know this, but: type "mcdonalds" into Safari for Mac, press Return, and... you end up at the side of the McDonalds restaurant. It's not like that was particularly hard to program: if someone types a word, just add a www. to the beginning and a .com to the end and see what happens.
The amazing part is that most systems/browsers are too stupid to support this...?
OTOH, Firefox will do a search for "mcdonalds" and of course the restaurant comes up first. I suppose that's not too bad either.
So if I see an e-mail that says, come to scifi.jockfarts, it just might be a real domain, because .jockfarts is now a TLD? It's hard enough to distinguish TLDs now with all the silly countries-gone-commercial such as .co and .ly. Adding 200+ more is going to be highly annoying.
Then there's all the spelling out. "That's J-O-C-K-F..." How annoying will that be? Like when people used to say, "Ayche tee tee pee colon backslash backslash doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou" before they got to saying the actual domain name. (Yes, I know it's a slash, not a backslash, but try telling them.)
Stereo? GPS? Car companies can't even make a cup holder that actually works.
It is strange, because as far as I can tell, people have been taking beverages into automobiles for at least... 12 years... perhaps more? And yet, car companies keep trying to reinvent the cup holder, usually horribly.
WTF? How can it be that difficult to engineer something so simple after so much time?
Isn't it interesting how the tech industry is increasingly about patents?
Does Moto even make phones anymore? But who cares? As long as they have good patents, they can make money.
What seems even odder to me is that they are publicizing their crackdown.
Shouldn't they remove their own site for spreading scandalous rumors that they are cracking down on rumors?
They download the image, and then (hopefully) think to double-click on it, but... nothing happens! The program doesn't launch! What's wrong with this stupid thing!?
You've never seen that? Should get out more. :)
Oh, and I've also seen people find the window, drag the one icon to the other... and then double-click the first icon, thus launching the application off the disk image. Mixed results ensue, depending on the nature of the app.
Originally Windows shamelessly mimicked the Mac. Now they're making a major overhaul and mimicking iOS. Now that's revolutionary.
(Isn't there a mod +/- insightful-troll?)
You mean sneakernet? That's nothing.
Back in the day, we had to manually place dots onto the paper using a handheld carbon-marking device.
On the plus side, it did have an undo function built right into the final product.
I see this on Macs a lot. If you want to install anything, you have to type an administrator's password.
In theory, that's great. But in effect, you are giving that installer root access. So if I understand correctly, that installer could be putting any amount of spyware (or whatever) into your computer and nearly perfectly cover its tracks.
Otoh, many Mac apps are distributed as disk images, where you simply drag them from the image to your drive, and that's it. No password at all. If you're going to use pre-rolled software, that certainly seems more trustworthy. But of course, it is a lot more complicated of a process for the average user to be able to ever understand.
Content is content. Google doesn't care what it is as long as you consume it (and of course they track you and advertise at you).
Ever seen the Simpsons talk about Fox? Same deal.
Well, it's also about free speech.
Someone being required by law to post an apology is rather frightening.
You can't even force a kid to say a prayer, but you can force a guy to pretend he is apologetic?
Kinda reminds me of The Stainless Steel Rat:
...We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment...
:)
Why not just force every citizen to post a continuous blog of their every activity at every moment of every day for all time?
That way, we could all rest assured that our safety is being protected.
Sometimes a statistic is used to show trends in other areas.
For example, yes, iOS is popular with users. However, the fact that the programming language used for it is growing indicates that it is popular with programmers. That's different, and at least a little bit notable. Not only for nerds thinking about what to program in, but also for industry watchers: developer support is very important to a platform.
Isn't the real story that it's in three countries, and that they are geographically disparate?
Or... does the disease only affect countries that start with the letter I?
If you know anything about TV science fiction, then you would know that all sapient life forms look like white people with maybe some ridges on their forehead or something (and they speak English). All flora looks just like what you find in California. And animals look like shambling people in horribly fake costumes.