"The TreCorder is a rugged forensic PC able to copy or clone up to three hard disks simultaneously, at a speed of up to 2 Gb/min. The same transfer would take 30 to 60 minutes using alternative equipment said Martin Hermann, general director of MH-services..."
And, don't forget this gem:"...eliminates any possibility of falsification in the process."
Although, I must be honest... A pre-configured dual-boot XP/Linux forensics box, 4GB RAM, 2TB internal HD, and a 3TB external backup system, seems like a fairly capable system to drop into the hands computer forensics persons. The article mentions this being chose over sleuthkit, which makes me wonder just how much better (if at all) the software internals are on the TreCorder.
well said. I'm glad my little post has been able to get this discussion rolling.
The fact that the ISP sector has received all these Billions in tax breaks and cash supplements, and then produced nothing near what they promised, is a travesty. That they are not being brutally legislated against is criminal.
Japan is one of the most successful 'privatized broadband' countries in the world. Japanese netizens have enough bandwidth (this is a normal home connection) to watch high-quality, streaming TV. Not some crappy youtube stream either; but stage6 HD at full stream. They built a very strong Copper framework originally, using government and private funds. It started out very much like how the US system was put together. BUT, Japan has laws are in place that force the ISP's to share access over their networks. The ISP's have to share at reasonable and useful rates, not some exorbitant rate that kicks out competitors. We've tried to get this allowed in the US, but the laws have been seriously lackluster.
These laws are considered the key reason that Japan has been so successful in spurring competition in it's ISP sector. It's also considered the key reason that there is so much Fibre infrastructure being laid down. Companies want to compete, so now that everyone has crazy-awesome DSL, and the multitude of competitors have dropped prices to their bare minimum, the ISP's are laying down Fibre-to-the-Home. But the issue is not cut and dry... completely privately-owned Fibre infrastructure isn't covered by the 'full competition' laws, so there is a big legal battle going on right now in Japan because all of the ISPs that lay down the Fibre want to keep that investment for themselves. They don't want to let competitors onto their wire... They paid for it, why shouldn't they get to be the main profiteers of it?
Ultimately, it's really a moral question. Trying to equate it to economics merely gets in the way. Should we, consciously and forcefully, tell these ISPs to take a hike? Should we tell them, as a country, that if they want to play the ISP game, they much be willing to share the wires at commodity rates?
I personally feel that the benefits of all should outweigh the benefits of the ISPs, which is why I support Net Neutrality. I come to this decision because I firmly believe that competitive environments are more important that the property rights of ISPs, and I willingly choose that helping spur the benefit of American internet companies is more important that keeping high the profits of American ISPs.
The US postal service, along with UPS, FedEx, and DHS, all operate on Roadways & Interstates. These are required in order to traverse the World. Currently, it costs 'nothing' for me to start up a competitor to these guys, and begin competing with FedEx/UPS/USPS. Roadways are publicly paid for with taxes, and thus available to all. Everyone competes on the same playing field.
But suppose someone built a private set of roadways, only for premium members. Let's say that they are 4 lanes wide, with a top speed of 120mph. To use these awesome new roads/highways, you had to pay for advanced access. UPS/FedEx/DHS pay extra to use these roads, and can thus travel faster and further per truck than I can. They are paying for more bandwidth.
Here is the question: Should the road builder be forced to open up his private roadways to the public, at no cost, even though he spent $X Billion of his own money building the roads?
Awesome! That looks like a fairly weighty translation; thanks for the link. I always like to add perspective to my understanding. You may also enjoy this site: Sonshi.com .
They have a slightly more 'translated' translation, and they've removed most of the references to specific weapons/figures/people, to get to the core of the understanding. Their forums are set up to promote discussion of the individual sentences, which is rather cool. And their library is filled with other great works on Strategy & Leadership: The Prince, The Art of War (Machiavelli), On War (Von Clausewitz), Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), and many others.
Sonshi.com has one of the best translations of Sun Tzu's The Art of War available anywhere. I've read multiple translations and this one is my personal favorite. Not only can you read the text, but each line of the book has its own thread on their forums, where people gather to discuss each line. To top it all off, access is completely free!
Print out the html pages, drop it into a report-cover, and you have an instant classic.
Mod this guy up. It may be a shallow seeming title, but it is filled with a highly compassionate and true set of advice!
Much like The Art of War is really about how to make Peace, How to Win Friends and Influence People is not about how to make others just do what you want... it is about understanding the elements of social conduct which make us tick. It's about how to inspire the people you work with. How to hold your tongue, when you truly shouldn't say anything. How to accept the good ideas of your coworkers, and how best to speak when their idea isn't so great.
It's one of the most valuable books on social conduct that you can ever read. Check it out.
I heard through the grapevine that Bungie have been in talks with 3DRealms to acquire and develop one of their more outstanding titles. Develop a newer, top-of-the-line engine and push the property to the MAX.
There aren't too many times in society where the wealth conundrum was solved by non-revolutionary means. The closest attempts have been high taxes on the rich... but even then, you have the problem where the middle class / poor class is not truly taking advantage of their opportunity. We still live in an advertising consumerist society, and if taxes for the bottom 50% of income earners suddenly became $0, it seems highly likely that a large majority of the money would simply get spent as disposable income. It wouldn't be saved, it would be squandered.
One thing that bugs me about the national school systems is that we do not have any courses truly dedicated to fiscal responsibility. Every student in America should be required to spend at least 1 year being taught the rules of money. Not economics, but money. Taught about savings. Rules about savings. How to open an IRA. How to get a high-interest savings account. Rent vs Buy your home. Rules about mortgages and Loans. How to get a loan. How to get a good loan. What a bad loan is (*cough*interestonly*cough*). Why, unless you are a banking super ninja with your own secret underground banking lair, you should never get anything except a fixed-interest loan. I think that this knowledge would go a very very long way towards improving the savings rate, and decreasing the wealth gap in this country.
The fashion industry is a great counter-example. In this industry, ripoffs are utterly rampant. Copyright is not protected at all, but trademarks (e.g. Gucci) are. So if you're making a ripoff that looks like a Gucci bag, that's totally OK. But if you're including a Gucci logo, that's cheating, and punishable. The rampant 'copyright violation' is the driving force behind INCREASED innovation in the fashion industry. Without this constant copyright violation, there would be no incentive for Gucci to design a totally new purse every year. Because competitors will have a purse that looks exactly alike available in wal-mart within a few months, Gucci creates new purses constantly.
Every persons builds upon the lessons they glean from others. Every word that I write is available to me because of all the writers who have come before me. The real topic to question is whether or not a society grows faster due to protecting its innovators, or due to giving less protection to innovators but using the copiers to spread what is available to much greater quantities of society.
I honestly don't know the answer to that one. From first glance it would seem that protecting innovators is important, but there are so many myriad other elements in play that I don't know where to begin. Necessity of the mother of invention, and since history shows that people always consider it necessary to solve new problems, innovation seems likely to always occur. And this doesn't even begin to examine the 'innovation/copy' industries out there like the Fashion industry. This is a much deeper question that many people seem to realize.
I hope you don't mind me joining your discussion. I have been paying a lot of quiet attention to similar topics lately, and am intrigued by the idea of a 'socialist economy in the free market.' I wanted to point out something though which caught my eye as a potential challenge in your idea. It's actually one of the same challenges that I have trouble working into my own ideas of new economic possibilities.
Risk vs Reward of Capital
Capital is what makes the economy go around. When people who have capital loan that money to others - thru Angel Financing, Mortgage Loans, Car Loans, etc. - this is usually a good thing for the debtor! With this loan they are able to go out and build their new company or buy their new home. Usury is the system which allows this to happen. I cannot afford a home right now with a lump-sum payment, but if you structured that payment out with a 30-yr mortgage, now I can afford it.
However, why would any bank loan me the money if they are not allowed to make a profit on it? Instead they would simply invest in things like building companies. They would take all of their capital and allocate it according to where they can make the best/safest legal return. Changing the legal requirements regarding what's a moral to make a money will merely change the routes which those who have capital choose to invest in.
The benefits and drawbacks of Usury are both numerous. It seems to me that telling people they cannot loan money while also expecting a return will simply force those people to hold onto it rather than use it. And that would be bad for the entire economy.
I think that ultimately, as long as money is considered personal property, there is no way to cut away the idea of Rent from Property. As long as people have something which others value (and we operate in a similar supply/demand world to the one currently occupied)*, people will be inclined to allow others access only for a price.
- DaftShadow
*p.s. As the scarcity dynamics of key supply elements shift over the next 100 years (robotics, AI, nanotech, spacetravel, fusion), especially towards a new opportunity for easy simple manufacturing of every item imaginable, the idea of eliminating Usury for good may become a reality. Ultimately, what will determine this is how much scarcity is left in the system. The higher total scarcity of goods (including intellectual ones), the more likely we are to need legal elements which protect ownership of those goods.
I'd like to get back into Eve-O again when I find the time. In no other game have I truly learned the power of leadership on such a visceral level. Even working with just 2 other guys requires someone to step up and take their leadership skills to a whole other level. Ten & higher puts you in a whole other league of understanding. 50+ it gets even wilder. Training and processes, reconnaissance, pre-combat calculations and planning, combat orders, Feints and parries, laying traps, avoiding traps, tricking your enemies, delegating responsibility, taking responsibility... it's wild fun.
Anyone who plays eve-o and has stayed in Empire thus far, get your jump clones up to date, hop into a non-implanted one, trick out a cheap rifter or a stabber and go start shooting at people in 0.0. Start teaming up with people, and take recon positions whenever possible. Then try leading small ops. Within a month you'll be having so much fun that the 'spreadsheet life' of Empire will make you feel like a fool for ever enjoying it;)
The reason that we don't have a lot of competition in the Cable TV realm is because the Cable companies own all the cables that they install. They are not required to let another cable network use those wires. DirectTV competes by totally bypassing the cable wires.
Wireless companies and the major internet providers have much the same stranglehold over broadband & cell phones. Because they install the Last Mile hardware (wired and wireless), they own it, and there is no legal requirements that they allow competitors to truly use it. So their competitors are forced to gather a lot of funds and create a secondary network. That's a high barrier to entry, and means that anyone who wants to get involved is in for one helluva challenge.
The above is what happens in a closed system. Because there are such a limited number of closed systems available, when they are all owned, the resources are literally unavailable to any future entrepreneurs that wish to compete.
The idea behind a fully open spectrum that interfaces with the internet is that we can make available (essentially For Cost) a competitive set of access capabilities. So instead of people being forced to use the closed-access spectrums, entrepreneurs are legally allowed to compete without being blocked in any way! This will allow of number of potentially awesome things to take place for both consumers and competitive businesses.
As a consumer, I want this because I dream that one day soon I can buy a linux smartphone that surfs the web, plays music, and connects to any of the major competitive cell-phone companies without requiring a subscription term or early cancellation fee of any kind. Entrepreneurs want this because the Wireless companies have huge profit-margins and high costs, and are ripe to be undercut and turned in a commodity market. Entrepreneurs (and consumers) also want this because they are sick and tired of dealing directly with the wireless companies in order sell their content. Google wants this because then they can work out deals with growing wireless telco's to sell targeted advertising.
I haven't even begun to get into the ramifications for Broadband service! Let's just say that everything good I said about Wireless, multiply that 3x and you're just scratching the surface for what this will help create in the ISP sector.
This is an opportunity to force the giant telco's, ISP's, and wireless providers to start playing fair for everyone. If they aren't up to the task, than they can close up shop while their new competitors provide better service and better prices to us, the consumers.
If you accept the reality that you are simply a biological computing machine, and you understand that you can completely and utterly replicate or replace this machine and its entire operating system and dataset, why would you care in the slightest about which 'version' of you is available.
It's bigger than that though. They are attempting to create the central clearing house for access to book information. This is less of an imdb, and more of a Library of Congress size endeavor. Whereas imdb only has to deal with a a limited number of new monthly movies, these guys are attempting to deal with the thousands of new monthly books and the millions of previous ones:)
They are adding all sorts of new internet touches, like tags and metadata far in advance to what libraries have been keeping previously. They are also hooking it up to things like Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive's book scanning project. Imagine imdb linking to YouTube videos:). It will also be accessible for anyone who publishes a Creative Commons book, for example, to get it into the library 'system', get it classified and tagged and numbered, and also link to and access it. And while it's currently illegal to copy and put online most every new book, maybe in the future it will no longer be the case.
These guys are attempting to be ready for that eventuality, and more.
I am behind this 100%. However, we need to begin working now rather than later if there's any chance of pulling this off. The problem is not that it's not feasible; the problem is that those with capital and money to spend on robot workers will prefer not to worry about all the laborers they displace. So soon enough, we find ourselves with 50% of the American workforce out of a job. We'll get welfare eventually, but not without a lot of heartbreak. And even then, it will end up severely limited. Just enough that we don't die en-masse, I expect.
If we have any chance of giving fair to all Americans, we have to be willing to do it OUTSIDE the economic interests of the truly rich, and we have to gather teams of truly capable men to organize it.
Heh, of course not:) But 1M/100M and 3M/300M are statistically equal.
You don't find it immeasurably criminal that $70B Dollars have been spent and Millions of victims have been arrested and cheated and considered criminals for life, in the name of decreasing an addiction figure that has not actually decreased AT ALL?
History and statistical analysis show that in the USA, drug addiction rates are stable. There has been no change in over 100 years of 'drug policy!' Doesn't matter if we spent money and killed drug dealers or not. Drug Addiction is not a public policy problem, but by making it one we have hurt so many more Americans than drugs ever would have! I consider that criminal.
I learned some interesting facts from this site: http://leap.cc/
The most interesting was that in the early 1900's - at the start of the prohibition era, at the time when they officially began to make drugs illegal - 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs.
In the 1970's - at the start of the drug war - 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs.
Now, today, 2007 - after $70 Billion dollars spent on the drug war, the highest incarceration rate of ANY country in the entire world, and thousands of innocent victims and well meaning policemen dead - 1.3% of Americans are addicted to drugs...
I was utterly shocked. In fact, I didn't believe it until I did the math myself! Look up addiction rates and divide by 300M Americans - the statistic is right on target.
It's time we step up as human beings and STOP all this needless suffering! The people who are going to get addicted to drugs will get addicted. You cannot stop this by hurting people! We are in a prohibition era, thru and thru. We know from history that Prohibition DOES NOT WORK. And it does not work because People Deserve Better.
Above post is exactly right. The most helpful way to talk with non-technical people about technical solutions is to give them ONE answer - preferably on paper.
This is key. Non-technical people truly don't understand a word you are saying. If you work thru a solution out loud, and they are in the room, they hear all these different words and all of these words just keep getting stuck in their head. Suddenly they have a bunch of buzzwords and technical words that mean very specific things, and they don't have a single idea what these truly mean in the big picture.
So you fix this by being an expert. When your boss needs a solution? Give him one fully thought out expert opinion - on paper. Something he can go to another person with and say "how much will it cost to do exactly THIS?"
If you don't know the answer - and you are sure your boss doesn't either - ask to get back to him in one hour, and then lock yourself in a room with your peers and hash out a solution. This way you get to work out alternatives while presenting only a polished opinion at the end.
- DaftShadow
p.s. Here's another lesson I learned, which goes slightly the other way. Never Discuss Financial Things with Engineers. Ever.;)
c) If he's really REALLY so interested in the right thing happening, and all that, why hasn't he forwarded these to the congressmen who are looking into these matters instead of announcing them on the radio?
My thoughts exactly. You've got the emails? You didn't break any laws getting them? PUT THEM ON THE WEB!!!
I sincerely hope that this man has the emails he claims... but I will not for one second believe him until he proves it.
After reading Charles Stross's "Accelerando!", I was intrigued in particular by the potential to make a complete record of the human brain. Essentially, a.img of YOU. Leaving philosophy aside, taking a person's complete atomic picture (specifically, detailed neuron connections) and having it available would allow for some wild stuff!
But it also presents challenges easily on scale with the Human Genome project, if not harder. This is because the challenge isn't necessarily coming up with a way to gather the data, it's coming up with a way to *understand* the data. The big project will be deciphering the language that the human brain uses to store its information, or at least design an interface that lets one push the human brain to output expected information.
Once we can interface with the brains coded language, immortality and the Digital Heaven are mere steps away.
A good sniper is patient; he's not just going to start firing randomly into the crowd hoping to hit someone. He waits until his target is still, or sitting, or when the target's back is facing him. He waits for the opportune moment, and then strikes. Worse, Modern sniper rifles tear thru most body armor. Body armor is a deterrent, not a forcefield. It is designed to stop small arms fire.
The capability to pinpoint, with exactitude, the location of enemies snipers is an amazingly useful feat, especially if it can be coupled with payload delivery. Sniper is pinpointed, man on the ground ID's and gives the go-ahead on the location, and a short range missile is in the air in a matter of seconds.
Even if you just pinpoint the location though, friendly snipers now know exactly where to look for this guy. I'm impressed.
Slashdot Mirror
"The TreCorder is a rugged forensic PC able to copy or clone up to three hard disks simultaneously, at a speed of up to 2 Gb/min. The same transfer would take 30 to 60 minutes using alternative equipment said Martin Hermann, general director of MH-services..."
And, don't forget this gem:"...eliminates any possibility of falsification in the process."
Although, I must be honest... A pre-configured dual-boot XP/Linux forensics box, 4GB RAM, 2TB internal HD, and a 3TB external backup system, seems like a fairly capable system to drop into the hands computer forensics persons. The article mentions this being chose over sleuthkit, which makes me wonder just how much better (if at all) the software internals are on the TreCorder.
- DaftShadow
I feel humbled...
well said. I'm glad my little post has been able to get this discussion rolling.
The fact that the ISP sector has received all these Billions in tax breaks and cash supplements, and then produced nothing near what they promised, is a travesty. That they are not being brutally legislated against is criminal.
Japan is one of the most successful 'privatized broadband' countries in the world. Japanese netizens have enough bandwidth (this is a normal home connection) to watch high-quality, streaming TV. Not some crappy youtube stream either; but stage6 HD at full stream. They built a very strong Copper framework originally, using government and private funds. It started out very much like how the US system was put together. BUT, Japan has laws are in place that force the ISP's to share access over their networks. The ISP's have to share at reasonable and useful rates, not some exorbitant rate that kicks out competitors. We've tried to get this allowed in the US, but the laws have been seriously lackluster.
These laws are considered the key reason that Japan has been so successful in spurring competition in it's ISP sector. It's also considered the key reason that there is so much Fibre infrastructure being laid down. Companies want to compete, so now that everyone has crazy-awesome DSL, and the multitude of competitors have dropped prices to their bare minimum, the ISP's are laying down Fibre-to-the-Home. But the issue is not cut and dry... completely privately-owned Fibre infrastructure isn't covered by the 'full competition' laws, so there is a big legal battle going on right now in Japan because all of the ISPs that lay down the Fibre want to keep that investment for themselves. They don't want to let competitors onto their wire... They paid for it, why shouldn't they get to be the main profiteers of it?
Ultimately, it's really a moral question. Trying to equate it to economics merely gets in the way. Should we, consciously and forcefully, tell these ISPs to take a hike? Should we tell them, as a country, that if they want to play the ISP game, they much be willing to share the wires at commodity rates?
I personally feel that the benefits of all should outweigh the benefits of the ISPs, which is why I support Net Neutrality. I come to this decision because I firmly believe that competitive environments are more important that the property rights of ISPs, and I willingly choose that helping spur the benefit of American internet companies is more important that keeping high the profits of American ISPs.
- DaftShadow
Roads.
The US postal service, along with UPS, FedEx, and DHS, all operate on Roadways & Interstates. These are required in order to traverse the World. Currently, it costs 'nothing' for me to start up a competitor to these guys, and begin competing with FedEx/UPS/USPS. Roadways are publicly paid for with taxes, and thus available to all. Everyone competes on the same playing field.
But suppose someone built a private set of roadways, only for premium members. Let's say that they are 4 lanes wide, with a top speed of 120mph. To use these awesome new roads/highways, you had to pay for advanced access. UPS/FedEx/DHS pay extra to use these roads, and can thus travel faster and further per truck than I can. They are paying for more bandwidth.
Here is the question: Should the road builder be forced to open up his private roadways to the public, at no cost, even though he spent $X Billion of his own money building the roads?
- DaftShadow
Go to the ilo's website and check the data yourself. Link is in the article. Isn't free data great?
The only pic I've found where Meng isn't smiling is with Howard Dean. In fact, I'm pretty sure that neither of them is smiling. Weird.
Awesome! That looks like a fairly weighty translation; thanks for the link. I always like to add perspective to my understanding. You may also enjoy this site: Sonshi.com .
They have a slightly more 'translated' translation, and they've removed most of the references to specific weapons/figures/people, to get to the core of the understanding. Their forums are set up to promote discussion of the individual sentences, which is rather cool. And their library is filled with other great works on Strategy & Leadership: The Prince, The Art of War (Machiavelli), On War (Von Clausewitz), Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), and many others.
- DaftShadow
Sonshi.com has one of the best translations of Sun Tzu's The Art of War available anywhere. I've read multiple translations and this one is my personal favorite. Not only can you read the text, but each line of the book has its own thread on their forums, where people gather to discuss each line. To top it all off, access is completely free!
Print out the html pages, drop it into a report-cover, and you have an instant classic.
- DaftShadow
Mod this guy up. It may be a shallow seeming title, but it is filled with a highly compassionate and true set of advice!
Much like The Art of War is really about how to make Peace, How to Win Friends and Influence People is not about how to make others just do what you want... it is about understanding the elements of social conduct which make us tick. It's about how to inspire the people you work with. How to hold your tongue, when you truly shouldn't say anything. How to accept the good ideas of your coworkers, and how best to speak when their idea isn't so great.
It's one of the most valuable books on social conduct that you can ever read. Check it out.
- DaftShadow
I heard through the grapevine that Bungie have been in talks with 3DRealms to acquire and develop one of their more outstanding titles. Develop a newer, top-of-the-line engine and push the property to the MAX.
Should be the best thing since sliced tofu.
- DaftShadow
There aren't too many times in society where the wealth conundrum was solved by non-revolutionary means. The closest attempts have been high taxes on the rich... but even then, you have the problem where the middle class / poor class is not truly taking advantage of their opportunity. We still live in an advertising consumerist society, and if taxes for the bottom 50% of income earners suddenly became $0, it seems highly likely that a large majority of the money would simply get spent as disposable income. It wouldn't be saved, it would be squandered.
One thing that bugs me about the national school systems is that we do not have any courses truly dedicated to fiscal responsibility. Every student in America should be required to spend at least 1 year being taught the rules of money. Not economics, but money. Taught about savings. Rules about savings. How to open an IRA. How to get a high-interest savings account. Rent vs Buy your home. Rules about mortgages and Loans. How to get a loan. How to get a good loan. What a bad loan is (*cough*interestonly*cough*). Why, unless you are a banking super ninja with your own secret underground banking lair, you should never get anything except a fixed-interest loan. I think that this knowledge would go a very very long way towards improving the savings rate, and decreasing the wealth gap in this country.
- DaftShadow
Yes you can. In fact, you must!
The fashion industry is a great counter-example. In this industry, ripoffs are utterly rampant. Copyright is not protected at all, but trademarks (e.g. Gucci) are. So if you're making a ripoff that looks like a Gucci bag, that's totally OK. But if you're including a Gucci logo, that's cheating, and punishable. The rampant 'copyright violation' is the driving force behind INCREASED innovation in the fashion industry. Without this constant copyright violation, there would be no incentive for Gucci to design a totally new purse every year. Because competitors will have a purse that looks exactly alike available in wal-mart within a few months, Gucci creates new purses constantly.
Every persons builds upon the lessons they glean from others. Every word that I write is available to me because of all the writers who have come before me. The real topic to question is whether or not a society grows faster due to protecting its innovators, or due to giving less protection to innovators but using the copiers to spread what is available to much greater quantities of society.
I honestly don't know the answer to that one. From first glance it would seem that protecting innovators is important, but there are so many myriad other elements in play that I don't know where to begin. Necessity of the mother of invention, and since history shows that people always consider it necessary to solve new problems, innovation seems likely to always occur. And this doesn't even begin to examine the 'innovation/copy' industries out there like the Fashion industry. This is a much deeper question that many people seem to realize.
- DaftShadow
I hope you don't mind me joining your discussion. I have been paying a lot of quiet attention to similar topics lately, and am intrigued by the idea of a 'socialist economy in the free market.' I wanted to point out something though which caught my eye as a potential challenge in your idea. It's actually one of the same challenges that I have trouble working into my own ideas of new economic possibilities.
Risk vs Reward of Capital
Capital is what makes the economy go around. When people who have capital loan that money to others - thru Angel Financing, Mortgage Loans, Car Loans, etc. - this is usually a good thing for the debtor! With this loan they are able to go out and build their new company or buy their new home. Usury is the system which allows this to happen. I cannot afford a home right now with a lump-sum payment, but if you structured that payment out with a 30-yr mortgage, now I can afford it.
However, why would any bank loan me the money if they are not allowed to make a profit on it? Instead they would simply invest in things like building companies. They would take all of their capital and allocate it according to where they can make the best/safest legal return. Changing the legal requirements regarding what's a moral to make a money will merely change the routes which those who have capital choose to invest in.
The benefits and drawbacks of Usury are both numerous. It seems to me that telling people they cannot loan money while also expecting a return will simply force those people to hold onto it rather than use it. And that would be bad for the entire economy.
I think that ultimately, as long as money is considered personal property, there is no way to cut away the idea of Rent from Property. As long as people have something which others value (and we operate in a similar supply/demand world to the one currently occupied)*, people will be inclined to allow others access only for a price.
- DaftShadow
*p.s. As the scarcity dynamics of key supply elements shift over the next 100 years (robotics, AI, nanotech, spacetravel, fusion), especially towards a new opportunity for easy simple manufacturing of every item imaginable, the idea of eliminating Usury for good may become a reality. Ultimately, what will determine this is how much scarcity is left in the system. The higher total scarcity of goods (including intellectual ones), the more likely we are to need legal elements which protect ownership of those goods.
I'd like to get back into Eve-O again when I find the time. In no other game have I truly learned the power of leadership on such a visceral level. Even working with just 2 other guys requires someone to step up and take their leadership skills to a whole other level. Ten & higher puts you in a whole other league of understanding. 50+ it gets even wilder. Training and processes, reconnaissance, pre-combat calculations and planning, combat orders, Feints and parries, laying traps, avoiding traps, tricking your enemies, delegating responsibility, taking responsibility... it's wild fun.
;)
Anyone who plays eve-o and has stayed in Empire thus far, get your jump clones up to date, hop into a non-implanted one, trick out a cheap rifter or a stabber and go start shooting at people in 0.0. Start teaming up with people, and take recon positions whenever possible. Then try leading small ops. Within a month you'll be having so much fun that the 'spreadsheet life' of Empire will make you feel like a fool for ever enjoying it
- DaftShadow
It relates to access.
The reason that we don't have a lot of competition in the Cable TV realm is because the Cable companies own all the cables that they install. They are not required to let another cable network use those wires. DirectTV competes by totally bypassing the cable wires.
Wireless companies and the major internet providers have much the same stranglehold over broadband & cell phones. Because they install the Last Mile hardware (wired and wireless), they own it, and there is no legal requirements that they allow competitors to truly use it. So their competitors are forced to gather a lot of funds and create a secondary network. That's a high barrier to entry, and means that anyone who wants to get involved is in for one helluva challenge.
The above is what happens in a closed system. Because there are such a limited number of closed systems available, when they are all owned, the resources are literally unavailable to any future entrepreneurs that wish to compete.
The idea behind a fully open spectrum that interfaces with the internet is that we can make available (essentially For Cost) a competitive set of access capabilities. So instead of people being forced to use the closed-access spectrums, entrepreneurs are legally allowed to compete without being blocked in any way! This will allow of number of potentially awesome things to take place for both consumers and competitive businesses.
As a consumer, I want this because I dream that one day soon I can buy a linux smartphone that surfs the web, plays music, and connects to any of the major competitive cell-phone companies without requiring a subscription term or early cancellation fee of any kind. Entrepreneurs want this because the Wireless companies have huge profit-margins and high costs, and are ripe to be undercut and turned in a commodity market. Entrepreneurs (and consumers) also want this because they are sick and tired of dealing directly with the wireless companies in order sell their content. Google wants this because then they can work out deals with growing wireless telco's to sell targeted advertising.
I haven't even begun to get into the ramifications for Broadband service! Let's just say that everything good I said about Wireless, multiply that 3x and you're just scratching the surface for what this will help create in the ISP sector.
This is an opportunity to force the giant telco's, ISP's, and wireless providers to start playing fair for everyone. If they aren't up to the task, than they can close up shop while their new competitors provide better service and better prices to us, the consumers.
- DaftShadow
Here's my question to you: What does it matter?
If you accept the reality that you are simply a biological computing machine, and you understand that you can completely and utterly replicate or replace this machine and its entire operating system and dataset, why would you care in the slightest about which 'version' of you is available.
- DaftShadow
It's bigger than that though. They are attempting to create the central clearing house for access to book information. This is less of an imdb, and more of a Library of Congress size endeavor. Whereas imdb only has to deal with a a limited number of new monthly movies, these guys are attempting to deal with the thousands of new monthly books and the millions of previous ones :)
:). It will also be accessible for anyone who publishes a Creative Commons book, for example, to get it into the library 'system', get it classified and tagged and numbered, and also link to and access it. And while it's currently illegal to copy and put online most every new book, maybe in the future it will no longer be the case.
They are adding all sorts of new internet touches, like tags and metadata far in advance to what libraries have been keeping previously. They are also hooking it up to things like Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive's book scanning project. Imagine imdb linking to YouTube videos
These guys are attempting to be ready for that eventuality, and more.
- DaftShadow
I am behind this 100%. However, we need to begin working now rather than later if there's any chance of pulling this off. The problem is not that it's not feasible; the problem is that those with capital and money to spend on robot workers will prefer not to worry about all the laborers they displace. So soon enough, we find ourselves with 50% of the American workforce out of a job. We'll get welfare eventually, but not without a lot of heartbreak. And even then, it will end up severely limited. Just enough that we don't die en-masse, I expect.
If we have any chance of giving fair to all Americans, we have to be willing to do it OUTSIDE the economic interests of the truly rich, and we have to gather teams of truly capable men to organize it.
- DaftShadow
Heh, of course not :) But 1M/100M and 3M/300M are statistically equal.
You don't find it immeasurably criminal that $70B Dollars have been spent and Millions of victims have been arrested and cheated and considered criminals for life, in the name of decreasing an addiction figure that has not actually decreased AT ALL?
History and statistical analysis show that in the USA, drug addiction rates are stable. There has been no change in over 100 years of 'drug policy!' Doesn't matter if we spent money and killed drug dealers or not. Drug Addiction is not a public policy problem, but by making it one we have hurt so many more Americans than drugs ever would have! I consider that criminal.
- DaftShadow
I learned some interesting facts from this site: http://leap.cc/
The most interesting was that in the early 1900's - at the start of the prohibition era, at the time when they officially began to make drugs illegal - 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs.
In the 1970's - at the start of the drug war - 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs.
Now, today, 2007 - after $70 Billion dollars spent on the drug war, the highest incarceration rate of ANY country in the entire world, and thousands of innocent victims and well meaning policemen dead - 1.3% of Americans are addicted to drugs...
I was utterly shocked. In fact, I didn't believe it until I did the math myself! Look up addiction rates and divide by 300M Americans - the statistic is right on target.
It's time we step up as human beings and STOP all this needless suffering! The people who are going to get addicted to drugs will get addicted. You cannot stop this by hurting people! We are in a prohibition era, thru and thru. We know from history that Prohibition DOES NOT WORK. And it does not work because People Deserve Better.
- DaftShadow
Above post is exactly right. The most helpful way to talk with non-technical people about technical solutions is to give them ONE answer - preferably on paper.
;)
This is key. Non-technical people truly don't understand a word you are saying. If you work thru a solution out loud, and they are in the room, they hear all these different words and all of these words just keep getting stuck in their head. Suddenly they have a bunch of buzzwords and technical words that mean very specific things, and they don't have a single idea what these truly mean in the big picture.
So you fix this by being an expert. When your boss needs a solution? Give him one fully thought out expert opinion - on paper. Something he can go to another person with and say "how much will it cost to do exactly THIS?"
If you don't know the answer - and you are sure your boss doesn't either - ask to get back to him in one hour, and then lock yourself in a room with your peers and hash out a solution. This way you get to work out alternatives while presenting only a polished opinion at the end.
- DaftShadow
p.s. Here's another lesson I learned, which goes slightly the other way. Never Discuss Financial Things with Engineers. Ever.
c) If he's really REALLY so interested in the right thing happening, and all that, why hasn't he forwarded these to the congressmen who are looking into these matters instead of announcing them on the radio?
My thoughts exactly. You've got the emails? You didn't break any laws getting them? PUT THEM ON THE WEB!!!
I sincerely hope that this man has the emails he claims... but I will not for one second believe him until he proves it.
- DaftShadow
After reading Charles Stross's "Accelerando!", I was intrigued in particular by the potential to make a complete record of the human brain. Essentially, a .img of YOU. Leaving philosophy aside, taking a person's complete atomic picture (specifically, detailed neuron connections) and having it available would allow for some wild stuff!
But it also presents challenges easily on scale with the Human Genome project, if not harder. This is because the challenge isn't necessarily coming up with a way to gather the data, it's coming up with a way to *understand* the data. The big project will be deciphering the language that the human brain uses to store its information, or at least design an interface that lets one push the human brain to output expected information.
Once we can interface with the brains coded language, immortality and the Digital Heaven are mere steps away.
- DaftShadow
A good sniper is patient; he's not just going to start firing randomly into the crowd hoping to hit someone. He waits until his target is still, or sitting, or when the target's back is facing him. He waits for the opportune moment, and then strikes. Worse, Modern sniper rifles tear thru most body armor. Body armor is a deterrent, not a forcefield. It is designed to stop small arms fire.
The capability to pinpoint, with exactitude, the location of enemies snipers is an amazingly useful feat, especially if it can be coupled with payload delivery. Sniper is pinpointed, man on the ground ID's and gives the go-ahead on the location, and a short range missile is in the air in a matter of seconds.
Even if you just pinpoint the location though, friendly snipers now know exactly where to look for this guy. I'm impressed.
- DaftShadow
That's approximately 260 round trip flights from New York --> London --> New York
:)
Worth every penny
- DaftShadow