Good movie, I think it wanted to be deep and it threw in a lot of references that would give it the appearance of being deep, with out actually being all that deep, it's a nice story of a savior coming and saving humanity from their mental enslavement, a nice warning not to get to dependant on machines, a warning that humanity tends to try to write itself out of the picture with technoloy. It was solid, but I was much more challenged by the ideas presented by the movie PI, especially the ways it represented math and it's relation to religion.
And the worst part about the matrix was the battery power. What human being along with "some kind of fusion" I think once we can control fusion we ain't gonna need any biological power sources, I think the W. brothers probably learned how much energy the human body gave off, thought it was a fun fact and threw it in. It was a shortcut in an otherwise well thought out film. I wonder why they didn't say the AI used the brains of humans as a massive Beowulf cluster, to vastly increase their processing power, (cause the brains just always gonna be more dense with ones and zeros than a chip) but the brain needed to be fully functioning to be used, thus the brain was kept in thrall by the matrix. Way more neat to my way of thinking.
Nice story John Katz, have you been reading the commentaries on your other stories? I like this one alot. And that's it, When I have kids I'm not sending a one of them to public school... Not because I'm worried they might get shot, but because all these schools are believing the hype. They have gone on an authority binge.
and the mainstream media has crossed the line again and again and never gets punished. If you value free thought and forming your own opinion Do not watch network news.. This whole thing is their fault, and every mixed up unhappy kid that walks into a school and shoots someone from now on is doing it because they now that no matter what happens, they will be seen in the media as a dangerous and mysterious person, as a threat. Something they have never been before. To a sad and confused person this may seem like a reasonable way to escape their problems and get back at all the people who hurt them....
Don't believe the hype, the kids are all right.. It's the mainstream media and cynical politicians and arrogant school administrataors that are doing this to kids.
I think it's time to have a national jam the media day..
someone post an article about robot slugs or whatever, I need to laugh...
You know I saw a tv program the other day on which cell phones are the most dangerous. Turns out that just about every cell phone sold in america has an unacceptable level of radiation (if you hold it like most people hold cellphones, with the mouthpiece away from the mouth and the earpiece pressed to the ear, the cell companies only released the test results that came from holding the cell phone in a wierd position)... except for the motorola star tac (the little one that clips to the belt) it's antennta projects out of the body of the phone and well away from the brain, motorola won't admit that they are pushing the star tac because it is safer, but they seem to be... I wouldn't be surprised when alot of new model phones have this design feature.
But let's not forget that the if a little rinky dink cell phone can cause damage what the effin cell sites that are on every corner in major cities can do to you.. (I know that it has to do with the radiation falling off over distance, but imagine the people in the apartment that the cell site is anchored to..) Or microwave transmitters or whatever..
I guess it isn't a surprise that big business doesn't really care about your health, but I'm really getting annoyed at how little all of business cares about me, you know I can't buy stuff if I can't remember how to...
I've said it before and I'll say it again, we should vote with our feet, The average consumer is empowered more than ever before. Complaints on the internet have a major effect, quickly. (apple, real, etc.) Join me please in sending emails to the offending companies and taking your business elsewhere. I really can't be bothered usually and I take a cynical view and assume that every company is going to want profit over almost everything else...
I see a direct correlation with the stock market boom and online trading, every public company now is at the whims of capricious shareholders, who only want profits at any expense...
You see, the conspiracy nut's distract the far left and far right, and the rest of us are sitting around going doo dee dooo doo deee dooo do...
while the nsa and the other totaly non oversited agencies (dia, all the other signals intelligence agencies) pull a bunch of crap on us.
meanwhile we are all going to be going doo dee doo doo deee deee dooo...
and listen all you nsa defenders and the government always has our best interests in mind (my god, I mean I'm open minded but that's just nuts, wow.. See black panthers, black people in general, see congressmen waffling on bills, see lack of healthcare, see pollution, see important bill quashed because of greed, ever heard of a special interest? do you know what "soft money" is? There are so many more examples of the govt. not having your best interests in mind, read the paper.. Any paper) people you might be fine with the nsa being able to intercept your comms, but there are a lot of foriegn companies that want to know how they keep getting scooped on new tech and a bunch of reasonable third party candidates that ain't never gonna get a chance to make any kind of changes at all.
Here lemme give you an example of why it's a bad idea to let the nsa have things like echelon:
NSA GUY:hey congress want 8 new german ideas for companies in your state to run with?
CONGRESS:Yes please.
NSA GUY:Do you want to know which of your potential competitors in the next election are having phone sex? and ordering perscription drugs off the internet?
CONGRESS:OH yeah baby do I ever.
NSA GUY: OK just approve this 60 billion dollar black budget and don't ask any questions about what we are doing.
CONGRESS: Gee I'd like to but... You know that doesn't really match my idea of a representative democracy at all?
NSA GUY: Your call senator, or should I say mr. ILOVEHUGEDICKS@AOL.COm...
CONGRESS:Changed my mind... WHere do I sign?
NSAGUY:right I thought so...
And so on...
See I don't think they're all out to get us, and I know we really landed on the moon... And I don't think that the govt is hiding ufos in nevada...
BUT I know that I don't want my hard earned money going to things that I am not allowed to know about for my own good. I decide what is for my own good. That's whY i want to live in america..
Everbody now... ACC-OU-NT-ABILITY...
I don't want terrorists anymore than the next man, but don't you try to tell me that I need to worry about terrorists when I don't even know what my own government is doing...
Yahoo is a hotbed of that kind of crap, and the internet is already a rumor driven hysteria party as it is. BUT, BUT.. Constitutionally guaranteed free speach is one of the very few truly great things about America, one of the few ways an individual can get a break against big corps and the government. Free speech has to be zealously guarded because once you slip up once, once an outcry isn't raised then you lose that battle, you set a precident. Do you want to live in a place where an unpopular opinion can land you in jail?
I think there is a lot of political stuff going on that I can leave to the policy wonks to figure out,but I always want to know about free speach issues and even though I am going to have to wade through some non issues to learn about the important ones I think it's worth it. As some people have already mentioned this is Yahoo's choice, The first ammendment does not extend to the servers of a private company, and if they are going to limit their censorship to the assholic practice of trying to affect stock prices through lies and rumors then maybe it's a good thing. But the potential for abuse is too great, as soon as you start a little censoring then the next thing you know someone is gonna start in on ideas they don't like. That's human nature and that's why we have an ammendment, we can't trust to good intentions.
I think people should vote with their feet. IF you don't like it, don't use Yahoo, and before you leave tell them why you are going. hit this link and tell them how you feel about censorship and then go elsewhere, it's a big ole www out there. Plenty of portals. We have seen recently how quickly a wired consumer outcry can get results. Apple, Real etc. This is actually a great moment for consumers on the net, I think we can actually have more of a voice then ever before, if only because we can make a lot of noise. But for this kind of thing to become a real force people have to keep doing it. Let's make those arrogant companies terrified of the consumer... Remember money talks above all else and now that you can tell alot of people to take their money elsewhere you can actually get results. Plus it's alot easier than marching around outside some corporate office with a sign.
(he marches off to the strains of the international)
"Consider the smallest possible group, 2 people. Should I be able to track all the purchases a group of two people makes?"
I agree that real sucks, always hated them, now I hate them more, will now go out of my way to tell others to avoid them. (they have made the dreaded list)
BUT... I think....
"....What is the fundamental difference between tracking a group of 2 people and of 20?"
not 20 but I think it's ok to track the purchasing habits of a group of people that is so large that any one persons purchases are only of statistical significance. (ie not tied to a name) And only if you are going to use the data for recommendations.. Since no company is ever not going to be totally evil and just generally screwed up I think we can be safe to say that it is (in real life) never right to use Aggregate Data...
I think this is a really big deal by the way, and I hope they get a lawsuit or two. Just to show them that they are not totally above the law.. (and morality)
I don't want to castigate the two above who are declaiming against the common concept of the progression of hiv to aids, personally I haven't done enough research to decide for myself but I certainly enjoy a good unpopular opinion myself now and again. You have to be pretty ballsy to say something that you know will be unpopular in a forum filled with so many smart oppinionated people... anyway two comments: to paraphrase chris rock.. Do you really think that they are going to cure aids? where's the money in that? They're just going to make it so aids won't kill you...
I know there are a lot of heroic people out there trying to eradicate diseases like this, but the drug companies money is very clearly on some therapy that is chemically complex and will allow you to live with aids/hiv for a more or less normal lifespan whilst paying out a good amount of money for the drugs. This is a self perpetuating process as the disease can have a much longer time to incubate and or spread. I can, with a little help from science fiction, imagine a world where we are symbiotic with the aids virus, it attacking other virii and us hosting it... brrr.
also, as a warning to the hiv!=aids conspiracists, I just saw this on tv the other day (so I might be misremembering) the san francisco branch of actup (the gay actavists) split off from the national org. a few years ago and have been preaching a similar kind of theory, stating that aids was eliminated in the 80's and what is around now is merely the reaction to the hiv surpressive drugs. They post large signs and hold rallies proclaiming that "aids is over".
The result? aids is on the rise amoungst gay men in sf, one of the only major cities where this is the case. (this is not a fact, something I saw on tv, there is no way for me to prove a relation between what I am saying and what is going on in the real world, please don't tell me that I am speculating, I know I'm speculating)
Yeah I should have been more specific. Ok you don't need color for graphing, what about a graphics app, what about illustrated encyclopedia articles, what about a color field guide to plants/animals? what about a way for wireless collaboration/drawing/commenting on the same image?
I'm trying to say that this is a good idea, but it could go a lot farther, and a palm os driven platform ain't neccessarily the way to go...
"We have seen the potential for handheld devices to go home with kids," he said, "and to go out in the field, so kids could collect data and watch visualization of graphs, and see relationships in the data they were studying--in visual concepts--and analyze them."
that's great you can also do that with graph paper.
The article is right,you can use a palm for a lot of neat stuff, but for three hundred dollars you can get a good enough computer and a free (cheap) os (won't mention names) and teach the kids how to use and think about computers instead of getting them stuck on a simple, limited pda os that is not going to be around too long.
You know I sometimes think that the reason there is so much hysteria and polarization about technology (I love it/hate it) is that they are trying to get computers into everything and everyone into computers. When the hurlyburly of the internet slows down a bit this won't be a problem. But untill that happens I'm having a tough old time seperating the gee-whizizm from the meat.
What kids need is a tablet like palm top that runs a barebones and robust os that can crunch numbers, render grahics in color, connect to the web, email, take notes, take a keyboard plug in for homework and maybe incorporate some thin client stuff so they could plug in at school and take advantage of more features, at or less than 300 dollars. Hell I want one too, I want a real freakin palm top and I'm not paying till I get all this. Maybe there's a market? anyone wanna get together and make a mint? we can call it a poke-palm.
Re:Hard science fiction is soft
on
Darwin's Radio
·
· Score: 1
In addition: "Neanderthal's are humans, just of a difference species or subspecies"
I mean come on...
if I was a different species than you and you were human then how could I also be human?
Got it, I see... you are right that they don't have to actually be there to operate, but they do have to communicate and they do have to have a staff. If the us (for example) found this to be a real threat they could say there is a large amount of money being held for osama bin laden (FOR EXAMPLE) in the accounts of this island, the banks will not release the money and it is being used to fund terrorist attacks again the US. Since Bin Laden is hidden in the middle east we want to cut off his supply of money, the bank won't let us stop the account so we are going to take over the bank and hold it, because they are aiding and abeting a terrorist. That is not too far fetched.. I think. (altho bin ladens money is with sympathetic governments so change his name for another bogeyman)
as to the us not wanting to topple governments and take over their banks, the us toppled alot of governments in south america in the eighties..
see also the cruise missle strikes against syria in retaliation of the bombing of the us embassy in africa, that was in direct violation of many many un laws, but it happened anyway and the us never got in any trouble.
Not to stress this too much, but the us holds all the cards with the un. And they didn't take saddam out of iraq becuase it was not a goal of that war to do so. the goal was to protect oil reserves of us allies. This is proven by the fact that the anti-saddam freedom fighters were abandoned as soon as saddam sued for peace. And there is nothing in the constitution that: "..prevented them from taking Saddam out of Iraq..."
there is, I believe, a us law that forbids the assasination of the rulers of foreign powers. But that law has been broken by proxy many a time (check with the cia for more info)
The US does what it wants, it pays lipservice to the un and then moves on as it see's fit. That is how I feel, but I am very willing to look at evidence to the contrary and pronounce myself wrong. thanks for your comments
you can move it and/or restring the fiber, my whole point on this is to have a really secure tax haven it has to be physically secure as well, there is no such thing as legally secure when big countries with big armies are involved. And a real cryptonomicon style data/money haven has to actually have money in it. Gold or other precious metals, because it would be using encrypted data as currency backed by actual gold.
like when the us waltzed into former yugoslavia? like when the us waltzed into grenada? or panama? The un can't do anything. The un is a figure head. the us doesn't even pay it's dues. The us can't get into big trouble becuase without nato there is no un.
regarding the fact that the bank isn't even there, explain that to me and I'll shut up.
there is a long history of one country blockcading or invading another for financial reasons. If you asked carl marx that is the only reason. but you can't ask him cause he's dead.
I don't wanna flame war but this kind of thing really irks me, why don't you post registered if you are going to make insulting comments? how can I even care about your point of view if you are too scared to identify yourself by a handle? on the internet? you're safe kid, it's ok.
"Lord knows we need the world to be a lot more like that. "
all I meant by that is alot of us here on slashdot enjoy a fertile imagination, if the world was more like cryptonomicon it would be: A. Not so banal b.Funny c. Have data havens
why don't you check who's afraid of reality when you can't put a name to your silly little comments.
(sorry to the rest of you. just can't stand people who get off on ruining others good times.)
certainly invading them would stop them from keeping money for people. At the very least they have an account system and records that could be impounded and have their lines of communication shut off. It's no the same as a ship registry it's got to be a physical place. That's the whole point of a data haven or tax shelter, the way the work is they physically reside in a place with non-disclosure laws, other than that it's jsut a bank. A bank can't function w/o a staff and a phone and a database.
The US decides that they don't want so many people to be hiding their money here and they have a little police action against Nauru. I mean literally just send in a couple hundred marines and helicopters and take the place over, given the current ability of us presidents to use military force without congressional or UN (haha) approval I really don't think this is so farfeched. I'm all for undermining the us tax structure but I'm worried that if all of these tax shelters are used by mobsters then the rest of us common sensible self deterministic anarchists are never going to get to use them properly. Here is my suggestion, set up the pr functions on the island, get a big international data cable strung out there, then sink a big concrete submarine down there and keep all the data and money underwater, where a bunch of marines and helicopters can't just waltz in and get it. Then this would be a lot more like Cryptonomicon. and lord knows we need the world to be a lot more like that.
An AC SAID: The U.S.S.R. was the first to land on the moon, your government just didn't let you know, poor americans. BTW the amstrong landing was a scam, they had shoot it some place in Nevada and Quebec, don't believe everything you see on TV.
this is my favorite ac conspiracy theory. Have you seen the moon footage? did they shoot in that new low gravity area of quebec? come on kid. stay anonymous so that nsa doesn't "dissapear" you for letting it out of the bag.
If the test is written by even a halfway decent pysch then it certainly won't just flag "geeks", however it will tend to pigeon hole people based on certain categories (ie. potentially violent, poor impulse control, violent fantacies, etc.) so working from a statistical view many people who don't fit in the non-violent category, but who are not a threat are going to get flagged (ie. a person with a bad temper who none the less will not ever act in a violent manner) there is no computer based test for this and if most administrators are like mr.cover my ass from the article:
"immediate virtue would be in producing detailed documentation of its evaluation of a troubled student so that doubting parents could no longer challenge an administrator's judgement as too subjective."
Look angry parent look the computer says your kid is crazy too, if the parents are angry it probably means they care and if they care then the kid is not in trouble. You can't tell me that the columbine boys had a decent homelife.
if anything you want more subjectivity responsible administrator: Hmmmm this kid seems to identify with violent cultural images and he is agressive in his speech,but he's just insecure, he's ok.
computer: subject is violent, extreminate, exterminate.
and of course all this leads to the greatest pitfall of all: "it's a computer it can't be wrong"
and lastly I've always wanted to know this: what person with any kind of sense would find a goth violent? or scary or a threat? No disrespect my goth brothers and sisters, but you guys are really not scary nor do you seem that non-conformist (everyone in black fishnets and eyeliner, ooh individual) and by the way I was consumed by image and subculture in highschool so I'm not saying I was any different.
Also can we just put the blame the media stamp on this. School violence sharply down in the last sevreal years etc. more kids killed choking on lego pieces every year.
Parents: do your kids seem weird and alienated? they are! all teenagers are. DO they dress funny? good, trench coats are cheaper than abercrombie and fitch (jockware). Do they like computers? great then you can retire rather than work for the rest of your life.
Hey all, conspiracies are sexy but.. Let's just get something straight here:
yes lack of privacy sucks, but who do you think is getting this data? dclk doesn't care if you surf pr0n, dclk doesn't care if you are a lefty. dclk wants you to buy stuff, credit card companies want you to buy stuff. The motivation here is greed, not big brotherish evil. Any one of you that has money in internet stocks right now has money in the development of more privacy invading tools, sorry that's what brings in the money and that is what matters. How can dclk know that you where at a extermist site? do they run banners on extremist sites? are the cookieing you at that site? they don't advertise on pr0n sites either, so relax. Why would dclk want to sell their demographic data to your potential employer? they're gonna make a shitload more money selling it to landsend so they know you like sweaters? dclk can track you across their network only so unless you are being hired by a company that hates people who surf ivillage or any other middle of the road non-controvertial portal nonsense. Just be cool, go worry about the shitty state of american government or how much privacy you are losing in meatspace. Opt out of the cookie and surf pr0n (accidently or not)safe in the knowledge that you are safe from big brother. Doubleclick will never hurt their own position,image is king in overhyped internet stock land, they ain't gonna hurt the bottom line.
and I would like to add my vote to the group of people who say be wary keep you eye on big business to make sure their greed doesn't get out of hand, but where did all of you get your sense of entitlement from? why can you just have all the content and labor on the web without anything? I click on a banner once and while just to even things out. I figure that my three years plus of free information and entertainment is worth that.
as a PS. TO the guy that didn't get a drivers license because he is worried about privacy, who are you, carlos the jackal? what are you doing? do you collect pipebombs or anthrax spores? The government wants you to pay your taxes and not kill people, that's about it baby. certain people in power wish that we lived in a fascist state, but 99% of the government doesn't even want to know what you are doing. And I believe that there is often more at work than we are told by the mainstream media. I just don't want to be that paranoid.
One thing that I have noticed amoung my college friends who were from europe is that their high school education is much more in depth than ours, They came to school able to perform well in freshman survey courses without much study. I know this is not always the case but in general it is true. They are taught philosophy and higher math and usually have excellent if somewhat rigid essay writing skills. In essence it seems that a french or german HS education is sort of like a liberal arts degree from an average american college. With this training in how to think (because that is the main purpose of a good liberal arts degree) they can immediatly begin to specialize in college or even go straight from high school into the workforce. Perhaps a system such as this in america would eliminate the need for expensive four year colleges and allow a two year specialization in a field of interest. It certainly seems to me that the current level of an average highschool education in america is watered down and puts too much emphasis on rote test taking skills as opposed to training in how to use your brain. (and the scientific method, I'm shocked by how many people I meet who in their understanding of how the world works are at the level of a medeval peasant.) I know for myself that if I had gone into internet stuff out of highschool I'd be a goddamn millionaire by know instead of in debt. But then again college was a four year vaction for me and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Wasn't that strange? I wondered if anyone else would notice that. I think he had to have imitated sagans vocal style on purpose. Or else sagan was an agent of the matrix.
Slashdot Mirror
Good movie,
I think it wanted to be deep and it threw in a lot of references that would give it the appearance of being deep, with out actually being all that deep, it's a nice story of a savior coming and saving humanity from their mental enslavement, a nice warning not to get to dependant on machines, a warning that humanity tends to try to write itself out of the picture with technoloy. It was solid, but I was much more challenged by the ideas presented by the movie PI, especially the ways it represented math and it's relation to religion.
And the worst part about the matrix was the battery power. What human being along with "some kind of fusion" I think once we can control fusion we ain't gonna need any biological power sources, I think the W. brothers probably learned how much energy the human body gave off, thought it was a fun fact and threw it in. It was a shortcut in an otherwise well thought out film. I wonder why they didn't say the AI used the brains of humans as a massive Beowulf cluster, to vastly increase their processing power, (cause the brains just always gonna be more dense with ones and zeros than a chip) but the brain needed to be fully functioning to be used, thus the brain was kept in thrall by the matrix. Way more neat to my way of thinking.
Nice story John Katz, have you been reading the commentaries on your other stories? I like this one alot. And that's it, When I have kids I'm not
sending a one of them to public school...
Not because I'm worried they might get shot, but because all these schools are believing the hype. They have gone on an authority binge.
and the mainstream media has crossed the line again and again and never gets punished. If you value free thought and forming your own opinion Do not watch network news.. This whole thing is their fault, and every mixed up unhappy kid that walks into a school and shoots someone from now on is doing it because they now that no matter what happens, they will be seen in the media as a dangerous and mysterious person, as a threat. Something they have never been before. To a sad and confused person this may seem like a reasonable way to escape their problems and get back at all the people who hurt them....
Don't believe the hype, the kids are all right.. It's the mainstream media and cynical politicians and arrogant school administrataors that are doing this to kids.
I think it's time to have a national jam the media day..
someone post an article about robot slugs or whatever, I need to laugh...
yes on topic, clearly, maybe funny. does someone not like smurfs?
You know I saw a tv program the other day on which cell phones are the most dangerous. Turns out that just about every cell phone sold in america has an unacceptable level of radiation (if you hold it like most people hold cellphones, with the mouthpiece away from the mouth and the earpiece pressed to the ear, the cell companies only released the test results that came from holding the cell phone in a wierd position)... except for the motorola star tac (the little one that clips to the belt) it's antennta projects out of the body of the phone and well away from the brain, motorola won't admit that they are pushing the star tac because it is safer, but they seem to be... I wouldn't be surprised when alot of new model phones have this design feature.
But let's not forget that the if a little rinky dink cell phone can cause damage what the effin cell sites that are on every corner in major cities can do to you.. (I know that it has to do with the radiation falling off over distance, but imagine the people in the apartment that the cell site is anchored to..) Or microwave transmitters or whatever..
I guess it isn't a surprise that big business doesn't really care about your health, but I'm really getting annoyed at how little all of business cares about me, you know I can't buy stuff if I can't remember how to...
I've said it before and I'll say it again, we should vote with our feet, The average consumer is empowered more than ever before. Complaints on the internet have a major effect, quickly. (apple, real, etc.) Join me please in sending emails to the offending companies and taking your business elsewhere. I really can't be bothered usually and I take a cynical view and assume that every company is going to want profit over almost everything else...
I see a direct correlation with the stock market boom and online trading, every public company now is at the whims of capricious shareholders, who only want profits at any expense...
sigh
Bravo sir Bravo,
You see, the conspiracy nut's distract the far left and far right, and the rest of us are sitting around going doo dee dooo doo deee dooo do...
while the nsa and the other totaly non oversited agencies (dia, all the other signals intelligence agencies) pull a bunch of crap on us.
meanwhile we are all going to be going doo dee doo doo deee deee dooo...
and listen all you nsa defenders and the government always has our best interests in mind (my god, I mean I'm open minded but that's just nuts, wow.. See black panthers, black people in general, see congressmen waffling on bills, see lack of healthcare, see pollution, see important bill quashed because of greed, ever heard of a special interest? do you know what "soft money" is? There are so many more examples of the govt. not having your best interests in mind, read the paper.. Any paper) people you might be fine with the nsa being able to intercept your comms, but there are a lot of foriegn companies that want to know how they keep getting scooped on new tech and a bunch of reasonable third party candidates that ain't never gonna get a chance to make any kind of changes at all.
Here lemme give you an example of why it's a bad idea to let the nsa have things like echelon:
NSA GUY:hey congress want 8 new german ideas for companies in your state to run with?
CONGRESS:Yes please.
NSA GUY:Do you want to know which of your potential competitors in the next election are having phone sex? and ordering perscription drugs off the internet?
CONGRESS:OH yeah baby do I ever.
NSA GUY: OK just approve this 60 billion dollar black budget and don't ask any questions about what we are doing.
CONGRESS: Gee I'd like to but... You know that doesn't really match my idea of a representative democracy at all?
NSA GUY: Your call senator, or should I say mr. ILOVEHUGEDICKS@AOL.COm...
CONGRESS:Changed my mind... WHere do I sign?
NSAGUY:right I thought so...
And so on...
See I don't think they're all out to get us, and I know we really landed on the moon... And I don't think that the govt is hiding ufos in nevada...
BUT I know that I don't want my hard earned money going to things that I am not allowed to know about for my own good. I decide what is for my own good. That's whY i want to live in america..
Everbody now...
ACC-OU-NT-ABILITY...
I don't want terrorists anymore than the next man, but don't you try to tell me that I need to worry about terrorists when I don't even know what my own government is doing...
right you are it was overthrown, and a damn fine job they did of it to..
(yes I am aware that they have a constitutional monarchy, but let's not look to the british for too many tips about socially responsible government)
Exactly, right on.
Yahoo is a hotbed of that kind of crap, and the internet is already a rumor driven hysteria party as it is. BUT, BUT..
Constitutionally guaranteed free speach is one of the very few truly great things about America, one of the few ways an individual can get a break against big corps and the government. Free speech has to be zealously guarded because once you slip up once, once an outcry isn't raised then you lose that battle, you set a precident. Do you want to live in a place where an unpopular opinion can land you in jail?
I think there is a lot of political stuff going on that I can leave to the policy wonks to figure out,but I always want to know about free speach issues and even though I am going to have to wade through some non issues to learn about the important ones I think it's worth it.
As some people have already mentioned this is Yahoo's choice, The first ammendment does not extend to the servers of a private company, and if they are going to limit their censorship to the assholic practice of trying to affect stock prices through lies and rumors then maybe it's a good thing. But the potential for abuse is too great, as soon as you start a little censoring then the next thing you know someone is gonna start in on ideas they don't like. That's human nature and that's why we have an ammendment, we can't trust to good intentions.
I think people should vote with their feet. IF you don't like it, don't use Yahoo, and before you leave tell them why you are going. hit this link and tell them how you feel about censorship and then go elsewhere, it's a big ole www out there. Plenty of portals. We have seen recently how quickly a wired consumer outcry can get results. Apple, Real etc. This is actually a great moment for consumers on the net, I think we can actually have more of a voice then ever before, if only because we can make a lot of noise. But for this kind of thing to become a real force people have to keep doing it. Let's make those arrogant companies terrified of the consumer...
Remember money talks above all else and now that you can tell alot of people to take their money elsewhere you can actually get results. Plus it's alot easier than marching around outside some corporate office with a sign.
(he marches off to the strains of the international)
"Consider the smallest possible group, 2 people. Should I be able to track all the purchases a group of two people makes?"
I agree that real sucks, always hated them, now I hate them more, will now go out of my way to tell
others to avoid them. (they have made the dreaded list)
BUT...
I think
"....What is the fundamental difference between tracking a group of 2 people and of 20?"
not 20 but I think it's ok to track the purchasing habits of a group of people that is so large that any one persons purchases are only of statistical significance. (ie not tied to a name) And only if you are going to use the data for recommendations.. Since no company is ever not going to be totally evil and just generally screwed up I think we can be safe to say that it is (in real life) never right to use Aggregate Data...
I think this is a really big deal by the way, and I hope they get a lawsuit or two. Just to show them that they are not totally above the law..
(and morality)
I don't want to castigate the two above who are declaiming against the common concept of the progression of hiv to aids, personally I haven't done enough research to decide for myself but I certainly enjoy a good unpopular opinion myself now and again. You have to be pretty ballsy to say something that you know
will be unpopular in a forum filled with so many smart oppinionated people...
anyway two comments:
to paraphrase chris rock..
Do you really think that they are going to cure aids? where's the money in that? They're just going to make it so aids won't kill you...
I know there are a lot of heroic people out there trying to eradicate diseases like this, but the drug companies money is very clearly on some therapy that is chemically complex and will allow you to live with aids/hiv for a more or less normal lifespan whilst paying out a good amount of money for the drugs. This is a self perpetuating process as the disease can have a much longer time to incubate and or spread. I can, with a little help from science fiction, imagine a world where we are symbiotic with the aids virus, it attacking other virii and us hosting it... brrr.
also,
as a warning to the hiv!=aids conspiracists, I just saw this on tv the other day (so I might be misremembering) the san francisco branch of actup (the gay actavists) split off from the national org. a few years ago and have been preaching a similar kind of theory, stating that aids was eliminated in the 80's and what is around now is merely the reaction to the hiv surpressive drugs. They post large signs and hold rallies proclaiming that "aids is over".
The result?
aids is on the rise amoungst gay men in sf, one of the only major cities where this is the case. (this is not a fact, something I saw on tv, there is no way for me to prove a relation between what I am saying and what is going on in the real world, please don't tell me that I am speculating, I know I'm speculating)
food for thought certainly.
Yeah I should have been more specific. Ok you don't need color for graphing, what about a graphics app, what about illustrated encyclopedia articles, what about a color field guide to plants/animals? what about a way for wireless collaboration/drawing/commenting on the same image?
I'm trying to say that this is a good idea, but it could go a lot farther, and a palm os driven platform ain't neccessarily the way to go...
"We have seen the potential for handheld devices to go home with kids," he said, "and to go out in the field, so kids could collect data and watch
visualization of graphs, and see relationships in the data they were studying--in visual concepts--and analyze them."
that's great you can also do that with graph paper.
The article is right,you can use a palm for a lot of neat stuff, but for three hundred dollars you can get a good enough computer and a free (cheap) os (won't mention names) and teach the kids how to use and think about computers instead of getting them stuck on a simple, limited pda os that is not going to be around too long.
You know I sometimes think that the reason there is so much hysteria and polarization about technology (I love it/hate it) is that they are trying to get computers into everything and everyone into computers. When the hurlyburly of the internet slows down a bit this won't be a problem. But untill that happens I'm having a tough old time seperating the gee-whizizm from the meat.
What kids need is a tablet like palm top that runs a barebones and robust os that can crunch numbers, render grahics in color, connect to the web, email, take notes, take a keyboard plug in for homework and maybe incorporate some thin client stuff so they could plug in at school and take advantage of more features, at or less than 300 dollars. Hell I want one too, I want a real freakin palm top and I'm not paying till I get all this. Maybe there's a market? anyone wanna get together and make a mint? we can call it a poke-palm.
In addition:
"Neanderthal's are humans, just of a difference species or subspecies"
I mean come on...
if I was a different species than you and you were human then how could I also be human?
I would be a dog and I'd pee on your lawn.
Got it, I see... you are right that they don't have to actually be there to operate, but they do have to communicate and they do have to have a staff. If the us (for example) found this to be a real threat they could say there is a large amount of money being held for osama bin laden (FOR EXAMPLE) in the accounts of this island, the banks will not release the money and it is being used to fund terrorist attacks again the US. Since Bin Laden is hidden in the middle east we want to cut off his supply of money, the bank won't let us stop the account so we are going to take over the bank and hold it, because they are aiding and abeting a terrorist. That is not too far fetched.. I think. (altho bin ladens money is with sympathetic governments so change his name for another bogeyman)
as to the us not wanting to topple governments and take over their banks, the us toppled alot of governments in south america in the eighties..
see also the cruise missle strikes against syria in retaliation of the bombing of the us embassy in africa, that was in direct violation of many many un laws, but it happened anyway and the us never got in any trouble.
Not to stress this too much, but the us holds all the cards with the un. And they didn't take saddam out of iraq becuase it was not a goal of that war to do so. the goal was to protect oil reserves of us allies. This is proven by the fact that the anti-saddam freedom fighters were abandoned as soon as saddam sued for peace. And there is nothing in the constitution that:
"..prevented them from taking Saddam out of Iraq..."
there is, I believe, a us law that forbids the assasination of the rulers of foreign powers. But
that law has been broken by proxy many a time (check with the cia for more info)
The US does what it wants, it pays lipservice to the un and then moves on as it see's fit. That is
how I feel, but I am very willing to look at evidence to the contrary and pronounce myself wrong.
thanks for your comments
you can move it and/or restring the fiber, my whole point on this is to have a really secure tax haven it has to be physically secure as well, there is no such thing as legally secure when big countries with big armies are involved. And a real cryptonomicon style data/money haven has to actually have money in it. Gold or other precious metals, because it would be using encrypted data as currency backed by actual gold.
No, the system is as secure as the ledgers are who cares where the accounts are if the records of the accounts are not secure.
like when the us waltzed into former yugoslavia?
like when the us waltzed into grenada?
or panama?
The un can't do anything. The un is a figure head.
the us doesn't even pay it's dues. The us can't get into big trouble becuase without nato there is no un.
regarding the fact that the bank isn't even there, explain that to me and I'll shut up.
there is a long history of one country blockcading or invading another for financial reasons. If you asked carl marx that is the only reason.
but you can't ask him cause he's dead.
I don't wanna flame war but this kind of thing really irks me, why don't you post registered if you are going to make insulting comments? how can I even care about your point of view if you are too scared to identify yourself by a handle? on the internet? you're safe kid, it's ok.
"Lord knows we need the world to be a lot more like that. "
all I meant by that is alot of us here on slashdot enjoy a fertile imagination, if the world was more like cryptonomicon it would be:
A. Not so banal
b.Funny
c. Have data havens
why don't you check who's afraid of reality when you can't put a name to your silly little comments.
(sorry to the rest of you. just can't stand people who get off on ruining others good times.)
certainly invading them would stop them from keeping money for people. At the very least they have an account system and records that could be
impounded and have their lines of communication shut off. It's no the same as a ship registry it's got to be a physical place. That's the whole point of a data haven or tax shelter, the way the work is they physically reside in a place with non-disclosure laws, other than that it's jsut a bank. A bank can't function w/o a staff and a phone and a database.
so there
The US decides that they don't want so many people to be hiding their money here and they have a little police action against Nauru. I mean literally just send in a couple hundred marines and helicopters and take the place over, given the current ability of us presidents to use military force without congressional or UN (haha) approval I really don't think this is so farfeched. I'm all for undermining the us tax structure but I'm worried that if all of these tax shelters are used by mobsters then the rest of us common sensible self deterministic anarchists are never going to get to use them properly. Here is my suggestion, set up the pr functions on the island, get a big international data cable strung out there, then sink a big concrete submarine down there and keep all the data and money underwater, where a bunch of marines and helicopters can't just waltz in and get it. Then this would be a lot more like Cryptonomicon. and lord knows we need the world to be a lot more like that.
An AC SAID: The U.S.S.R. was the first to land on the moon, your government just didn't let you know, poor americans. BTW the amstrong landing was a scam, they had shoot it some place in Nevada and Quebec, don't believe everything you see on TV.
this is my favorite ac conspiracy theory.
Have you seen the moon footage? did they shoot in that new low gravity area of quebec? come on kid. stay anonymous so that nsa doesn't "dissapear" you for letting it out of the bag.
is there a point out logical cotradictions preview button that I'm not getting? fsucking crashscape.
If the test is written by even a halfway decent pysch then it certainly won't just flag "geeks", however it will tend to pigeon hole people based on certain categories (ie. potentially violent, poor impulse control, violent fantacies, etc.) so working from a statistical view many people who don't fit in the non-violent category, but who are not a threat are going to get flagged (ie. a person with a bad temper who none the less will not ever act in a violent manner) there is no computer based test for this and if most administrators are like mr.cover my ass from the article:
"immediate virtue would be in producing detailed documentation of its evaluation of a troubled student so that doubting parents could no longer challenge an administrator's judgement as too subjective."
Look angry parent look the computer says your kid is crazy too, if the parents are angry it probably means they care and if they care then the kid is not in trouble. You can't tell me that the columbine boys had a decent homelife.
if anything you want more subjectivity
responsible administrator:
Hmmmm this kid seems to identify with violent cultural images and he is agressive in his speech,but he's just insecure, he's ok.
computer: subject is violent, extreminate, exterminate.
and of course all this leads to the greatest pitfall of all: "it's a computer it can't be wrong"
and lastly I've always wanted to know this: what person with any kind of sense would find a goth violent? or scary or a threat? No disrespect my goth brothers and sisters, but you guys are really not scary nor do you seem that non-conformist (everyone in black fishnets and eyeliner, ooh individual) and by the way I was consumed by image and subculture in highschool so I'm not saying I was any different.
Also can we just put the blame the media stamp on this. School violence sharply down in the last sevreal years etc. more kids killed choking on lego pieces every year.
Parents: do your kids seem weird and alienated? they are! all teenagers are. DO they dress funny?
good, trench coats are cheaper than abercrombie and fitch (jockware). Do they like computers? great then you can retire rather than work for the rest of your life.
Hey all, conspiracies are sexy but..
Let's just get something straight here:
yes lack of privacy sucks, but who do you think is getting this data? dclk doesn't care if you surf pr0n, dclk doesn't care if you are a lefty. dclk wants you to buy stuff, credit card companies want you to buy stuff. The motivation here is greed, not big brotherish evil. Any one of you that has money in internet stocks right now has money in the development of more privacy invading tools, sorry that's what brings in the money and that is what matters. How can dclk know that you where at a extermist site? do they run banners on extremist sites? are the cookieing you at that site? they don't advertise on pr0n sites either, so relax. Why would dclk want to sell their demographic data to your potential employer? they're gonna make a shitload more money selling it to landsend so they know you like sweaters? dclk can track you across their network only so unless you are being hired by a company that hates people who surf ivillage or any other middle of the road non-controvertial portal nonsense. Just be cool, go worry about the shitty state of american government or how much privacy you are losing in meatspace. Opt out of the cookie and surf pr0n (accidently or not)safe in the knowledge that you are safe from big brother. Doubleclick will never hurt their own position,image is king in overhyped internet stock land, they ain't gonna hurt the bottom line.
and I would like to add my vote to the group of people who say be wary keep you eye on big business to make sure their greed doesn't get out of hand, but where did all of you get your sense of entitlement from? why can you just have all the content and labor on the web without anything?
I click on a banner once and while just to even things out. I figure that my three years plus of free information and entertainment is worth that.
as a PS.
TO the guy that didn't get a drivers license because he is worried about privacy, who are you, carlos the jackal? what are you doing? do you collect pipebombs or anthrax spores? The government wants you to pay your taxes and not kill people, that's about it baby. certain people in power wish that we lived in a fascist state, but 99% of the government doesn't even want to know what you are doing. And I believe that there is often more at work than we are told by the mainstream media. I just don't want to be that paranoid.
One thing that I have noticed amoung my college friends who were from europe is that their high school education is much more in depth than ours, They came to school able to perform well in freshman survey courses without much study. I know this is not always the case but in general it is true. They are taught philosophy and higher math and usually have excellent if somewhat rigid essay writing skills. In essence it seems that a french or german HS education is sort of like a liberal arts degree from an average american college. With this training in how to think (because that is the main purpose of a good liberal arts degree) they can immediatly begin to specialize in college or even go straight from high school into the workforce. Perhaps a system such as this in america would eliminate the need for expensive four year colleges and allow a two year specialization in a field of interest. It certainly seems to me that the current level of an average highschool education in america is watered down and puts too much emphasis on rote test taking skills as opposed to training in how to use your brain. (and the scientific method, I'm shocked by how many people I meet who in their understanding of how the world works are at the level of a medeval peasant.) I know for myself that if I had gone into internet stuff out of highschool I'd be a goddamn millionaire by know instead of in debt. But then again college was a four year vaction for me and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Wasn't that strange? I wondered if anyone else would notice that. I think he had to have imitated sagans vocal style on purpose. Or else sagan was an agent of the matrix.