"Microsoft is a company, their goal is profit." [spelling correction]
In my opinion, that is a common mistake. Microsoft's main purpose is
abuse, not profit. Microsoft is not a software company that is routinely
abusive, it is an abuse company that uses software as a means of delivering
abuse. If you look at it that way, Microsoft is excellent at what it does.
That follows the general rule that what happens over a long period of
time is what the people involved meant to happen.
Being abusive may or may not make money, but it always causes harm to
the abusers. That's why Bill Gates has trouble with depression. It's easy to
guess that a chair-throwing monkey boy is not a happy camper, either.
Abuse is why Sandy Weill, formerly of CitiBank, had heart trouble, I
think. That's why Dick Cheney, U.S. vice-president has heart trouble.
(Whaaaat, you say. Dick Cheney has a heart???)
We seem to live in a society dominated by abusers. The dollar is being
inflated so that the U.S. government will have enough money to fight a war, so
that oil and weapons investors can get control of the oil supply.
I forgot to say that TrueCrypt is open source and free, and, in my experience, perfectly reliable. There are Windows and Linux versions, and a Mac OS X version is planned.
Don't forget to donate if you use TrueCrypt extensively.
The present government corruption in both the U.S. and U.K. started when secret violence was authorized as a way of protecting oil investments of British and U.S. investors. Tending toward outlawing privacy is a way of continuing that corruption. Any government that can act in secret cannot be a democracy, because citizens cannot participate in things that are unknown to them.
This is a good site to read about the corruption, and to contribute links: U.S. Government corruption TimeLines. Example: Complete 911 Timeline, 3895 events.
It seems to me that is all highly theoretical, and doesn't apply to a small installation on the top of a police car moving fast in traffic.
Shined stainless steel or chrome-coated metal surfaces reflect at all wavelengths.
Parabolic mirrors reflect all wavelengths and concentrate the reflection.
Also, I seriously doubt that small amounts of externally applied microwave energy will have any effect on a car computer enclosed in the body of the car and in its own solid-metal enclosure. The car computer is in the front, and the police car is behind, and there are several metal sheets in between.
He didn't fail reading comprehension. My guess and my opinion is that it is
either extreme ignorance or deliberate fraud, and maybe someone at Slashdot is
taking money to post articles about companies that want "investment" money.
Fraud Alert. Fraud Alert. Fraud Alert.
Read the first comment to the article: "What happens to the
pacemaker in the guy driving? Does speeding become a death sentence?"
Another comment: "If there are innocent victims in such incidents -
such as hostages - how are you going to microwave the car without hurting the
people?"
What about reflections? Fried police car, anyone? "I just looove
the smell of burning plastic in the morning"?
I think November 13 is a little early for April Fool's day.
Quote: "These pulses are amplified to 640 kilovolts..."
Did you see the red whiskery antennas that extend in front of the car?
Criminal: "There's that dorky police car again. Turn right. Microwaves only go
straight." Or, are those not antennas, but an artist's rendering of microwave
flames shooting from the top of the police car?
From the article: "The system has been tested on a variety of
stationary vehicles and could be ready for deployment in automobiles within 18
months..."
Translations: 1) It hasn't been tested in heavy traffic. 2) As soon as
we find some really, really, really dumb people with money to invest,
something could happen.
Moral of the story: There is no time to play video games. You need all
your time to learn about the world around you, not about fantasies. If you
spend all your time with fantasies, anyone can tell you anything, and you
won't be able to evaluate if it is the truth.
Quote from the story: "Finally, a specially designed antenna beams
the microwave energy toward an opposing vehicle through a part of the car,
such as the windshield, window, grill, or spacing between the hood and main
body, that is not made of metal. (Metal acts as a shield against microwave
energy.)"
Ohhhhh. It must be an opposing car, not one going in the same
direction. The car must have no mirror-like surfaces. There must be holes. It
can't be a camper going in the same direction.
Has no one who already commented on this story heard of firewalls, the
kind in cars? Has anyone heard about tight-fitting hoods? Does the invention
work only with hoopties?
Is it really true that no one who reads Slashdot has looked at the
insides of a car? Does this "invention" work only with cars that don't have
electronics shielded with a metal covering?
Those dumb car makers never heard of electromagnetic noise? Even
though spark plug wires have 40,000 volts? Car computers have no shielding?
I tried it with Opera 9.24, the latest version, and it still displays animated ads at Morningstar.com (big stock, bonds and mutual funds web site), but is far better than before.
I wish browsers just worked, instead of making the user become an expert in configuration.
Mozilla Foundation stopped supporting Thunderbird development apparently because the organization got no money for it, and Google wants you to use web mail, so that you will see the ads.
Mozilla Foundation gave no adequate explanation for killing its support of Thunderbird.
"If you're still having any problems with the latest release of Firefox, let developers know by filing a proper bug report, including steps to reproduce the problem."
Yes, I am still having problems with the CPU hogging bug in Firefox 2.0.0.9, very severe problems. With all previous versions, hibernation was possible. Now computers running many windows and tabs of Firefox 2.0.0.9 never return from hibernation.
In commercial product development with no adequate supervision, the programmers only fix the easy bugs. Why work harder? I suppose that is their rationale.
A CEO who has no technical knowledge cannot run a technically oriented company.
Volunteers tend not to work on commercially supported products, partly because those who are paid don't want to risk losing their income, or making their work harder, so they don't treat volunteers well.
Someone with no technical knowledge cannot run a technically oriented
company. A CEO cannot be the leader of something she or he doesn't understand.
Winifred
Mitchell Baker, the CEO of Mozilla is an extremely socially uncomfortable lawyer with no technical knowledge who became CEO when no one thought there was an opportunity. Now that Mozilla Foundation is making millions from making Google the default browser, Winifred can afford to hire people to make herself look good.
There are many, many quirks in Firefox, not just Thunderbird, that should be fixed, but no technically oriented manager to organize that. For example, the CPU hogging bug has been there for at least 5 years. Winifred has
insufficient control over those who work for her, because she doesn't understand what they do. The Firefox CPU hogging and memory gobbling bug would take some serious troubleshooting to find, and no one wants
to do the work, apparently. See Firefox development sometimes resembles playing.
Don't let ignorant managers destroy your programming efforts. Find some way to have them removed.
Consider carefully what has happened. The U.S. government has established that it can break the law, and demand that those who know about it keep silent.
That means that EVERY product and service from the U.S. could be compromised. Those who don't want to risk U.S. surveillance and control won't want to risk buying from manufacturers in the United States.
If you are a U.S. citizen, are you ready to be poor? Are you ready to live in a poor country?
From the article: "Imagine a big new house with free heating--and cooling. Mike Sykes' Enertia Building System relies on thick wooden walls and a natural convection current to even out temperature extremes. For more on the winning entry in this year's Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge, whose co-sponsors include the History Channel and TIME, go to history.com/invent."
Thick wooden walls are expensive. Convection makes hot air rise, it does not "even out temperature extremes". There seems to be nothing about it that is free.
These Time Magazine articles seem to be trying to take advantage of people who don't have a lot of science knowledge to sell magazines.
From the article: "In April, the Tibetan Meteorological Bureau shot silver iodide particles into clouds above the Nagqu grasslands. The researchers hoped this cloud-seeding technology would produce vapors that would result in artificial snowfall. A few hours later, in a historic first, half an inch (1.3 cm) of white powder blanketed the plateau."
This has been known for decades. Problem: Silver is expensive, and Silver Iodide is even more expensive.
Either fraud, or not explained well: "Frank Pringle, CEO of Global Resource Corp., has developed an emissions-free process that uses microwaves to pull fuel out of shale rock, tires and even plastic bottles. The extraction technology might also help recover oil that is stuck in muck inside hundreds of capped wells across the country."
Microwaves don't "pull". They heat rock. Microwave heat costs money, since it is necessary to burn fuel to get electricity to make microwaves, and that process is not efficient.
Another expensive way to kill people, waste taxes.
on
Top Inventions of 2007
·
· Score: 1
From the article: 'Boeing Phantom Works, with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, has tested what it calls a "blended wing body," an 8.5%-scale prototype of what Boeing hopes will eventually be a fuel-efficient, quiet, high-capacity multipurpose jet for the military. The X-48B is destined for transport, bombing and intelligence. Wanna book a flight? Don't count on it ever going commercial.'
Boeing is now in the violence for profit business.
From the article: "Electric cars are so 2006. French R&D firm MDI signed a deal this year with India's largest automaker, Tata Motors, to start manufacturing compressed-air-technology vehicles. These ultra-eco-friendly cars run on air, and the only thing they emit is colder, cleaner air. Another convenient feature: a built-in air compressor can be plugged in to refill the tanks within minutes."
I doubt there will be manufacturing; I'm guessing it is still R&D. The cylinders that carry compressed air are an explosion risk in an accident. They would send pieces of steel flying everywhere.
FRAUD ALERT -- Slashdot sucked in again!
on
Top Inventions of 2007
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
From the article: "The future of automotive technology may lie in the past. Bruce Crower, 77, an auto-racing designer with a thriving business in San Diego, has invented a hybrid steam engine in which water is sprayed into a traditional gasoline-powered cylinder, turning waste heat into usable energy. How much energy? Enough to travel 40% farther on a gallon of gas."
This has been known for decades. The problem is that the extremely hot steam corrodes the extremely hot steel.
Slashdot editors apparently spend all their time playing video games, and learn nothing about the world.
Slashdot Mirror
"Microsoft is a company, their goal is profit." [spelling correction]
In my opinion, that is a common mistake. Microsoft's main purpose is abuse, not profit. Microsoft is not a software company that is routinely abusive, it is an abuse company that uses software as a means of delivering abuse. If you look at it that way, Microsoft is excellent at what it does.
That follows the general rule that what happens over a long period of time is what the people involved meant to happen.
Being abusive may or may not make money, but it always causes harm to the abusers. That's why Bill Gates has trouble with depression. It's easy to guess that a chair-throwing monkey boy is not a happy camper, either.
Abuse is why Sandy Weill, formerly of CitiBank, had heart trouble, I think. That's why Dick Cheney, U.S. vice-president has heart trouble. (Whaaaat, you say. Dick Cheney has a heart???)
We seem to live in a society dominated by abusers. The dollar is being inflated so that the U.S. government will have enough money to fight a war, so that oil and weapons investors can get control of the oil supply.
I forgot to say that TrueCrypt is open source and free, and, in my experience, perfectly reliable. There are Windows and Linux versions, and a Mac OS X version is planned.
Don't forget to donate if you use TrueCrypt extensively.
The present government corruption in both the U.S. and U.K. started when secret violence was authorized as a way of protecting oil investments of British and U.S. investors. Tending toward outlawing privacy is a way of continuing that corruption. Any government that can act in secret cannot be a democracy, because citizens cannot participate in things that are unknown to them.
This is a good site to read about the corruption, and to contribute links: U.S. Government corruption TimeLines. Example: Complete 911 Timeline, 3895 events.
TrueCrypt allows hidden volumes, indistinguishable from one volume. The file size is constant.
TrueCrypt works very, very well. I use it with just one volume to protect passwords and other files.
When you don't want to encrypt a volume, but just a file, Gnu Privacy Guard is best.
It seems to me that is all highly theoretical, and doesn't apply to a small installation on the top of a police car moving fast in traffic.
Shined stainless steel or chrome-coated metal surfaces reflect at all wavelengths.
Parabolic mirrors reflect all wavelengths and concentrate the reflection.
Also, I seriously doubt that small amounts of externally applied microwave energy will have any effect on a car computer enclosed in the body of the car and in its own solid-metal enclosure. The car computer is in the front, and the police car is behind, and there are several metal sheets in between.
He didn't fail reading comprehension. My guess and my opinion is that it is either extreme ignorance or deliberate fraud, and maybe someone at Slashdot is taking money to post articles about companies that want "investment" money.
Fraud Alert. Fraud Alert. Fraud Alert.
Read the first comment to the article: "What happens to the pacemaker in the guy driving? Does speeding become a death sentence?"
Another comment: "If there are innocent victims in such incidents - such as hostages - how are you going to microwave the car without hurting the people?"
What about reflections? Fried police car, anyone? "I just looove the smell of burning plastic in the morning"?
I think November 13 is a little early for April Fool's day.
Quote: "These pulses are amplified to 640 kilovolts..."
Did you see the red whiskery antennas that extend in front of the car? Criminal: "There's that dorky police car again. Turn right. Microwaves only go straight." Or, are those not antennas, but an artist's rendering of microwave flames shooting from the top of the police car?
From the article: "The system has been tested on a variety of stationary vehicles and could be ready for deployment in automobiles within 18 months..."
Translations: 1) It hasn't been tested in heavy traffic. 2) As soon as we find some really, really, really dumb people with money to invest, something could happen.
Moral of the story: There is no time to play video games. You need all your time to learn about the world around you, not about fantasies. If you spend all your time with fantasies, anyone can tell you anything, and you won't be able to evaluate if it is the truth.
Quote from the story: "Finally, a specially designed antenna beams the microwave energy toward an opposing vehicle through a part of the car, such as the windshield, window, grill, or spacing between the hood and main body, that is not made of metal. (Metal acts as a shield against microwave energy.)"
Ohhhhh. It must be an opposing car, not one going in the same direction. The car must have no mirror-like surfaces. There must be holes. It can't be a camper going in the same direction.
Has no one who already commented on this story heard of firewalls, the kind in cars? Has anyone heard about tight-fitting hoods? Does the invention work only with hoopties?
Is it really true that no one who reads Slashdot has looked at the insides of a car? Does this "invention" work only with cars that don't have electronics shielded with a metal covering?
Those dumb car makers never heard of electromagnetic noise? Even though spark plug wires have 40,000 volts? Car computers have no shielding?
Is that the NSA secret surveillance access?
--
U.S. Government corruption TimeLines
Example: Complete 911 Timeline, 3895 events
Thanks for the information. Do you happen to know where Firefox stores its Flash files?
The Flash installer from Adobe is buggy, I notice.
The $3 million won't last long. The main developers have already left.
Thanks for that.
I tried it with Opera 9.24, the latest version, and it still displays animated ads at Morningstar.com (big stock, bonds and mutual funds web site), but is far better than before.
I wish browsers just worked, instead of making the user become an expert in configuration.
"Yeah, if he actually filed usable bugs, they'd get fixed..."
No, when you file bug reports, you get 20 different kinds of abuse, unless the bug is extremely easy to find: Mozilla Foundation Top 20 Excuses for Not Fixing Firefox Bugs .
There are actually 22 Top Excuses, but I haven't had time to update the list.
That seems right to me.
Mozilla Foundation stopped supporting Thunderbird development apparently because the organization got no money for it, and Google wants you to use web mail, so that you will see the ads.
Mozilla Foundation gave no adequate explanation for killing its support of Thunderbird.
"If you're still having any problems with the latest release of Firefox, let developers know by filing a proper bug report, including steps to reproduce the problem."
Yes, I am still having problems with the CPU hogging bug in Firefox 2.0.0.9, very severe problems. With all previous versions, hibernation was possible. Now computers running many windows and tabs of Firefox 2.0.0.9 never return from hibernation.
In commercial product development with no adequate supervision, the programmers only fix the easy bugs. Why work harder? I suppose that is their rationale.
A CEO who has no technical knowledge cannot run a technically oriented company.
Volunteers tend not to work on commercially supported products, partly because those who are paid don't want to risk losing their income, or making their work harder, so they don't treat volunteers well.
"That's because adblocking is built into Opera"
Opera does not block the most abusive of ads, those made with Flash.
Someone with no technical knowledge cannot run a technically oriented company. A CEO cannot be the leader of something she or he doesn't understand.
Winifred Mitchell Baker, the CEO of Mozilla is an extremely socially uncomfortable lawyer with no technical knowledge who became CEO when no one thought there was an opportunity. Now that Mozilla Foundation is making millions from making Google the default browser, Winifred can afford to hire people to make herself look good.
There are many, many quirks in Firefox, not just Thunderbird, that should be fixed, but no technically oriented manager to organize that. For example, the CPU hogging bug has been there for at least 5 years. Winifred has insufficient control over those who work for her, because she doesn't understand what they do. The Firefox CPU hogging and memory gobbling bug would take some serious troubleshooting to find, and no one wants to do the work, apparently. See Firefox development sometimes resembles playing.
Don't let ignorant managers destroy your programming efforts. Find some way to have them removed.
Google has influenced Opera, also. Note that none of the add-ons for Opera allow blocking of ads.
If an organization accepts money from advertising, it will be corrupted by advertising.
Eventually the Google influence may mean that Firefox no longer has add-ons that block ads.
To stop legal callers such as political parties and non-profits, just say this and no more:
"Put me on your Do-Not-Call list."
--
U.S. Government corruption TimeLines
Example: Complete 911 Timeline, 3895 events
"I see that by "schooled in espionage" you meant "paranoid"..."
I think that by "schooled in espionage" he meant "joke".
Consider carefully what has happened. The U.S. government has established that it can break the law, and demand that those who know about it keep silent.
That means that EVERY product and service from the U.S. could be compromised. Those who don't want to risk U.S. surveillance and control won't want to risk buying from manufacturers in the United States.
If you are a U.S. citizen, are you ready to be poor? Are you ready to live in a poor country?
From the article: "Imagine a big new house with free heating--and cooling. Mike Sykes' Enertia Building System relies on thick wooden walls and a natural convection current to even out temperature extremes. For more on the winning entry in this year's Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge, whose co-sponsors include the History Channel and TIME, go to history.com/invent."
Thick wooden walls are expensive. Convection makes hot air rise, it does not "even out temperature extremes". There seems to be nothing about it that is free.
These Time Magazine articles seem to be trying to take advantage of people who don't have a lot of science knowledge to sell magazines.
From the article: "In April, the Tibetan Meteorological Bureau shot silver iodide particles into clouds above the Nagqu grasslands. The researchers hoped this cloud-seeding technology would produce vapors that would result in artificial snowfall. A few hours later, in a historic first, half an inch (1.3 cm) of white powder blanketed the plateau."
This has been known for decades. Problem: Silver is expensive, and Silver Iodide is even more expensive.
Either fraud, or not explained well: "Frank Pringle, CEO of Global Resource Corp., has developed an emissions-free process that uses microwaves to pull fuel out of shale rock, tires and even plastic bottles. The extraction technology might also help recover oil that is stuck in muck inside hundreds of capped wells across the country."
Microwaves don't "pull". They heat rock. Microwave heat costs money, since it is necessary to burn fuel to get electricity to make microwaves, and that process is not efficient.
From the article: 'Boeing Phantom Works, with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, has tested what it calls a "blended wing body," an 8.5%-scale prototype of what Boeing hopes will eventually be a fuel-efficient, quiet, high-capacity multipurpose jet for the military. The X-48B is destined for transport, bombing and intelligence. Wanna book a flight? Don't count on it ever going commercial.'
Boeing is now in the violence for profit business.
From the article: "Electric cars are so 2006. French R&D firm MDI signed a deal this year with India's largest automaker, Tata Motors, to start manufacturing compressed-air-technology vehicles. These ultra-eco-friendly cars run on air, and the only thing they emit is colder, cleaner air. Another convenient feature: a built-in air compressor can be plugged in to refill the tanks within minutes."
I doubt there will be manufacturing; I'm guessing it is still R&D. The cylinders that carry compressed air are an explosion risk in an accident. They would send pieces of steel flying everywhere.
From the article: "The future of automotive technology may lie in the past. Bruce Crower, 77, an auto-racing designer with a thriving business in San Diego, has invented a hybrid steam engine in which water is sprayed into a traditional gasoline-powered cylinder, turning waste heat into usable energy. How much energy? Enough to travel 40% farther on a gallon of gas."
This has been known for decades. The problem is that the extremely hot steam corrodes the extremely hot steel.
Slashdot editors apparently spend all their time playing video games, and learn nothing about the world.