I am willing to bet that the information gleaned from such a system will be secret, and used only by various intelligence agencies.
So this has nothing to do with "transparent society". In order for this information to be useful in civil society it must be released in civil society.
This is just another way the government can gain more power over ordinary citizens.
And where in the world would you find any data showing that the majority of LEGAL immigrants to the US are angry, uneducated and lazy (he never spelled out lazy but the negative implication is there). I know many immigrants and that is just not the case.
In fact immigrants usually work harder than Americans, for less money.
You have different definition of "wealthy". Yes the upper 50% pay the majority of the taxes. But the really really wealthy have great ways of hiding their income. Once you have the money to open the nessecary off shore accounts, and hire the nessecary lawyers you can save a lot of money.
Thus the really wealthy escape taxes, which are largely payed by the middle class (upper middle class if you will).
Add to that the fact that today in america most wealthy people make money from mooching of the government in one way or another than the previous poster pretty much had it right.
The actual currently existing education system is very close to what a voucher system would be. With the exception of some rich suburban neighborhoods, most public schools are underfunded and overcrowded, every one that has money and or power sends their kids to private schools, thus the people with power do not really care much about the quality of the public schools, and the quality of the public schools falls. Thus most of the nation's children receive subpar education.
Replace public schools with affordable voucher schools and there you have your voucher system. Although the affordable voucher schools will probably be much shittier (there is profit to be made) and the folks that use private schools will pay less local taxes.
A lot of this stuff is uninformed rambling. And the whole structure of the piece is really weasly. He does not say that all of these points are true, he says that they may or may not be true ("I think the reader will agree with me that we are already far down the road on many of them"). Just so he can cover his ass and say "I was talking hypotheticaly" when he is forced to own up to something. It is a typical tactic of people that like to make questionable controversial statements to rouse emotions.
I think he has some good points. But some of the stuff is just plain misleading, especially that about providing financial incentives for people to live alone, or capital gains tax being equal to taxing the same money twice. Or that inheritance taxes' effect is to discourage saving.
Point 9 is just plain xenophobia and racism. Similarly point 12 is plain exploitation of peoples fears. I dont think anything like this is in danger of happening. Of course it would be interesting if he included christian fundamentalism in that, but he does not have the guts to do that, so he puts in a phrase about hard working men and women to make sure the christian fundamentalists dont feel they are part of that group.
All in all a calculated statement made in order to stir up passion, and without any substance to it. I am getting pretty disappointed from ben stein. It seems like Nixon has rubbed off on him.
For every ground breaking discovery there are a million crackpots. Scientists have plenty of reasons to be sceptic. Once this guy is able topower a space heater with his plasma they will have to believe him.
WSJ reporters should try not to get their stories from past episodes of HBO shows.
If they do that it tends to undermine the notion that reading the WSJ is more worthwile than watching TV. Not that I really believe that, but I am sure the WSJ wants me to.
If you care to know the show in question is Life of the Married Man.
I have heard this reasoning many times before and people are overreacting.
Did the journalists gave the terrorists the idea to crash planes in the WTC? No they didnt. Did they give them the idea to hold a musical theatre hostage? Nope.
Lets face it terrorists are much better at being terrorists than journalists are. It would be stupid to believe that Osama is watching CNN and says "small pox... i had never thought of that before!!! "
I guess Bugtraq is a bit different because there are a bunch of script kiddies out there that may actually get their info from bugtraq. But still if it is on Bugtraq all the good hackers already know about it.
Security trough obscurity is no security at all. Considering how all the places that require serious security, like banks etc., have believed in that principle for a while now... it is amazing how we keep having this argument over and over again.
wow this naive notion of laize faire just wont die. And i dont care if i spelled it wrong.
The CA electricity blackmail happened just after the much publicized deregulation. That obvious fact shouldnt even escape you.
If they allowed free market forces to take over there would be still exactly one company that runs wires to your house (because running new wires would be prohibitevly expencive if not impossible), and that company will charge you for electricity as much as they can get away with.
The impact of the tech sector that would cause is that there will be an opportunity for other os's to be sold. That will probably cause a boom in the tech sector. Further more the application sector would improve, because developers will no longer be scared that their apps will be incorporated into office or windows. And one might even be able to go into Circuit city and have a choice of operating systems on a new computer.
If you patch for a windows exploit you usually create a new exploit. Some times you might even get a new "rights manegment" feature.
By the way when you say "Gates would probably enjoy the satisfaction of telling the govt. to shove it" it shows that you dont understand what is going on. The government is currently trying very hard to make gates happy. They just want to do it while mainting a pretense of rule of law. Gates has no reason to be pissed at them right now.
You aren't making any sence. If you want donations from someone you don't insult them. And once it has become news it will not go away.
If they were really angling for donations they would have a third party make the accusations and then claim misunderstanding, when microsoft makes a more generous offer.
Judge Jackson's decision was important because back then it looked like the government and the judicial system were ready able and willing to enforce the law.
But this DOJ has shown no interest to enforce the antitrust law. This makes the case a farce - a conflict between two parties that basicly agree on the issues, but only want to pretend to disagree.
The judge can refuse to approve the agreement but what if she does - if the government doesnt seek sanctions she wont impose them. The best she may do is elicit another agreement, which is guaranteed to be just as inefective.
On top of everything the judicial system has responded in a very unprofessional manner. The appelate court chose not to try and overturn judge jackson on the facts ( they will need to write a good logical justification, based on the evidence, to do that) but to pummel him with ethics accusations.
The current judge knows very well that Jackson got punished for rendering a certain decision and she is unlikely to do anything similar if she cares about her career at all.
Think about it if they stop selling windows - it is all over!!!
Think of what the world would be like if there wasnt a newer version of windows, in an year or two.
I would have to use my old version of windows. I wont have a new version of windows to painfully slow down my comp while i am writing email. So then i wont need to buy a new comp. I will not be able to take advantage of innovative licencing schemes where i periodicaly pay microsoft money.
So I will be forced to live with thousands of dollars of extra money burdening me.
This is too painful to just contemplate. Please anything but that.
PS i havent even mentioned all the new viruses that I might miss out. And dont get me started on palladium.
Ok tell me what "the spread of technology that microsoft helped spread" is.
If by helping spread technology you mean byuing or killing a company that has a certain technology and then taking the technology then yeah MS spread a lot of technology. But how did that benefit me?
Good point. I would like to add to this, that if any one thinks of making that "they are only punished for being succesful" point should read judge Jackson's findingd of fact, and explain why is it ok to let a company that did every thing that is shown there to be let go unpunished.
I say the old civilization games coz i hear from every where the new one sucks.
Anyways there you could win trough peacefull means (launching a space ship), or by taking over the whole world.
I almost never won by launching spaceships, and even if i did i made sure i had the world firmly under my foot by the time my spaceship arrived.
I think video game critics should at last realize that one of the purposes of the video game is to feed a person's anti-social and violent urges in a safe way.
The same video game critics should instead examine those that do not wish to vent their sadistic urges on videogames.
In the past 10 years i have watched ordinary law abiding people in the US and abroad get warm and fuzzy feeling watching afghanis, iraqis or serbs being bombed into oblivion. I have seen my friends get very satisfied and amuzed when they saw thousands of iraqi soldiers burnt to a crisp as they were trying to run for their lives.
And the same people always make sure to vote for a president that will guarantee those images will keep coming to their tv screen.
We also have a quite popular tv show detailing the sick and inhuman torture that happens in our prisons. That such stuff happens is common knowledge and the source of millions of jokes told by fratboys and bad comedians.
Yet if a politician ever promises to create humane conditions in our prison system, he is guaranteed to lose. The voters want that stuff to happen in their jails.
Well those couple of examples should show that the people complaining about violence on video games are hypocritical. They blast the realistic but fake violence in video games, but are too scared to face the sadism and lust for very real violence present in the ordinary non video game playing citizen.
Well I would much prefer it if every one got their kicks from putting the world under their iron fist in civilization, instead of watching their country carpet bomb some poor third world peasants on tv.
Patents are not really granted automaticaly. Also testing a patent in court is really expensive so we do need this erlier cheaper system of weeding out the bad patents... even if it does let many bad patents slip trough.
The fbi is certainly protecting the anthrax killer.
Anthrax is not like a bomb - it is hard to make and the government knows every single lab that makes it. I am sure they also have files on every single scientist that is able to produce it.
All production of weapon grade anthrax, is expensive, it is done by governments and it is easy to keep track of.
Further more every government makes their anthrax differently so you can easily find where certain sample was made.
Yet the fbi mysteriously has no leads yet. They havent even told us where thge anthrax was made, although many scientists were willing and able to tell us that if they had a sample.
exactly and to add to the "coincidences" immediately after the attacks on the senate, the republican leadership of the house declared that it was too dangerous for Congress to operate and stopped work in the house and invited the senate to do the same.
And of course if congress shut down, the whole us government would be basicly controlled by the president.
Reminds you of the burning of the reichstag doesnt it.
Slashdot Mirror
I am willing to bet that the information gleaned from such a system will be secret, and used only by various intelligence agencies.
So this has nothing to do with "transparent society". In order for this information to be useful in civil society it must be released in civil society.
This is just another way the government can gain more power over ordinary citizens.
And where in the world would you find any data showing that the majority of LEGAL immigrants to the US are angry, uneducated and lazy (he never spelled out lazy but the negative implication is there). I know many immigrants and that is just not the case.
In fact immigrants usually work harder than Americans, for less money.
You have different definition of "wealthy". Yes the upper 50% pay the majority of the taxes. But the really really wealthy have great ways of hiding their income. Once you have the money to open the nessecary off shore accounts, and hire the nessecary lawyers you can save a lot of money.
Thus the really wealthy escape taxes, which are largely payed by the middle class (upper middle class if you will).
Add to that the fact that today in america most wealthy people make money from mooching of the government in one way or another than the previous poster pretty much had it right.
The actual currently existing education system is very close to what a voucher system would be. With the exception of some rich suburban neighborhoods, most public schools are underfunded and overcrowded, every one that has money and or power sends their kids to private schools, thus the people with power do not really care much about the quality of the public schools, and the quality of the public schools falls. Thus most of the nation's children receive subpar education.
Replace public schools with affordable voucher schools and there you have your voucher system. Although the affordable voucher schools will probably be much shittier (there is profit to be made) and the folks that use private schools will pay less local taxes.
A lot of this stuff is uninformed rambling. And the whole structure of the piece is really weasly. He does not say that all of these points are true, he says that they may or may not be true ("I think the reader will agree with me that we are already far down the road on many of them"). Just so he can cover his ass and say "I was talking hypotheticaly" when he is forced to own up to something. It is a typical tactic of people that like to make questionable controversial statements to rouse emotions.
I think he has some good points. But some of the stuff is just plain misleading, especially that about providing financial incentives for people to live alone, or capital gains tax being equal to taxing the same money twice. Or that inheritance taxes' effect is to discourage saving.
Point 9 is just plain xenophobia and racism. Similarly point 12 is plain exploitation of peoples fears. I dont think anything like this is in danger of happening. Of course it would be interesting if he included christian fundamentalism in that, but he does not have the guts to do that, so he puts in a phrase about hard working men and women to make sure the christian fundamentalists dont feel they are part of that group.
All in all a calculated statement made in order to stir up passion, and without any substance to it. I am getting pretty disappointed from ben stein. It seems like Nixon has rubbed off on him.
For every ground breaking discovery there are a million crackpots. Scientists have plenty of reasons to be sceptic. Once this guy is able topower a space heater with his plasma they will have to believe him.
btw who says the ether exists?
yes it will. It will probably be invalidated based on hte so called "best mode" requirement.
This is a waste of time and money.
Seriously.
WSJ reporters should try not to get their stories from past episodes of HBO shows.
If they do that it tends to undermine the notion that reading the WSJ is more worthwile than watching TV. Not that I really believe that, but I am sure the WSJ wants me to.
If you care to know the show in question is Life of the Married Man.
I have heard this reasoning many times before and people are overreacting.
... i had never thought of that before!!! "
... it is amazing how we keep having this argument over and over again.
Did the journalists gave the terrorists the idea to crash planes in the WTC? No they didnt. Did they give them the idea to hold a musical theatre hostage? Nope.
Lets face it terrorists are much better at being terrorists than journalists are. It would be stupid to believe that Osama is watching CNN and says "small pox
I guess Bugtraq is a bit different because there are a bunch of script kiddies out there that may actually get their info from bugtraq. But still if it is on Bugtraq all the good hackers already know about it.
Security trough obscurity is no security at all. Considering how all the places that require serious security, like banks etc., have believed in that principle for a while now
wow this naive notion of laize faire just wont die. And i dont care if i spelled it wrong.
The CA electricity blackmail happened just after the much publicized deregulation. That obvious fact shouldnt even escape you.
If they allowed free market forces to take over there would be still exactly one company that runs wires to your house (because running new wires would be prohibitevly expencive if not impossible), and that company will charge you for electricity as much as they can get away with.
The impact of the tech sector that would cause is that there will be an opportunity for other os's to be sold. That will probably cause a boom in the tech sector. Further more the application sector would improve, because developers will no longer be scared that their apps will be incorporated into office or windows. And one might even be able to go into Circuit city and have a choice of operating systems on a new computer.
If you patch for a windows exploit you usually create a new exploit. Some times you might even get a new "rights manegment" feature.
By the way when you say "Gates would probably enjoy the satisfaction of telling the govt. to shove it" it shows that you dont understand what is going on. The government is currently trying very hard to make gates happy. They just want to do it while mainting a pretense of rule of law. Gates has no reason to be pissed at them right now.
You aren't making any sence. If you want donations from someone you don't insult them. And once it has become news it will not go away.
If they were really angling for donations they would have a third party make the accusations and then claim misunderstanding, when microsoft makes a more generous offer.
Judge Jackson's decision was important because back then it looked like the government and the judicial system were ready able and willing to enforce the law.
But this DOJ has shown no interest to enforce the antitrust law. This makes the case a farce - a conflict between two parties that basicly agree on the issues, but only want to pretend to disagree.
The judge can refuse to approve the agreement but what if she does - if the government doesnt seek sanctions she wont impose them. The best she may do is elicit another agreement, which is guaranteed to be just as inefective.
On top of everything the judicial system has responded in a very unprofessional manner. The appelate court chose not to try and overturn judge jackson on the facts ( they will need to write a good logical justification, based on the evidence, to do that) but to pummel him with ethics accusations.
The current judge knows very well that Jackson got punished for rendering a certain decision and she is unlikely to do anything similar if she cares about her career at all.
Think about it if they stop selling windows - it is all over!!!
Think of what the world would be like if there wasnt a newer version of windows, in an year or two.
I would have to use my old version of windows. I wont have a new version of windows to painfully slow down my comp while i am writing email. So then i wont need to buy a new comp. I will not be able to take advantage of innovative licencing schemes where i periodicaly pay microsoft money.
So I will be forced to live with thousands of dollars of extra money burdening me.
This is too painful to just contemplate. Please anything but that.
PS i havent even mentioned all the new viruses that I might miss out. And dont get me started on palladium.
Ok tell me what "the spread of technology that microsoft helped spread" is.
If by helping spread technology you mean byuing or killing a company that has a certain technology and then taking the technology then yeah MS spread a lot of technology. But how did that benefit me?
Good point. I would like to add to this, that if any one thinks of making that "they are only punished for being succesful" point should read judge Jackson's findingd of fact, and explain why is it ok to let a company that did every thing that is shown there to be let go unpunished.
I say the old civilization games coz i hear from every where the new one sucks.
Anyways there you could win trough peacefull means (launching a space ship), or by taking over the whole world.
I almost never won by launching spaceships, and even if i did i made sure i had the world firmly under my foot by the time my spaceship arrived.
I think video game critics should at last realize that one of the purposes of the video game is to feed a person's anti-social and violent urges in a safe way.
The same video game critics should instead examine those that do not wish to vent their sadistic urges on videogames.
In the past 10 years i have watched ordinary law abiding people in the US and abroad get warm and fuzzy feeling watching afghanis, iraqis or serbs being bombed into oblivion. I have seen my friends get very satisfied and amuzed when they saw thousands of iraqi soldiers burnt to a crisp as they were trying to run for their lives.
And the same people always make sure to vote for a president that will guarantee those images will keep coming to their tv screen.
We also have a quite popular tv show detailing the sick and inhuman torture that happens in our prisons. That such stuff happens is common knowledge and the source of millions of jokes told by fratboys and bad comedians.
Yet if a politician ever promises to create humane conditions in our prison system, he is guaranteed to lose. The voters want that stuff to happen in their jails.
Well those couple of examples should show that the people complaining about violence on video games are hypocritical. They blast the realistic but fake violence in video games, but are too scared to face the sadism and lust for very real violence present in the ordinary non video game playing citizen.
Well I would much prefer it if every one got their kicks from putting the world under their iron fist in civilization, instead of watching their country carpet bomb some poor third world peasants on tv.
Happens in america too.
There were many deaths of microbiologists after the anthrax attacks.
then the smart move would be to stop selling xbox at all.
now thats a smart move.
Patents are not really granted automaticaly. Also testing a patent in court is really expensive so we do need this erlier cheaper system of weeding out the bad patents ... even if it does let many bad patents slip trough.
Of course you know that macedonians arent greek. They werent considered greek by the old greeks when Phillip took over the greek cities.
The fbi is certainly protecting the anthrax killer.
Anthrax is not like a bomb - it is hard to make and the government knows every single lab that makes it. I am sure they also have files on every single scientist that is able to produce it.
All production of weapon grade anthrax, is expensive, it is done by governments and it is easy to keep track of.
Further more every government makes their anthrax differently so you can easily find where certain sample was made.
Yet the fbi mysteriously has no leads yet. They havent even told us where thge anthrax was made, although many scientists were willing and able to tell us that if they had a sample.
The above post is NOT a troll.
exactly and to add to the "coincidences" immediately after the attacks on the senate, the republican leadership of the house declared that it was too dangerous for Congress to operate and stopped work in the house and invited the senate to do the same.
And of course if congress shut down, the whole us government would be basicly controlled by the president.
Reminds you of the burning of the reichstag doesnt it.
so they have to figure out a way to close off the stations ventilation during the winter. there is not going back :)