There was a stuff like that in a Doctorow story about Google becoming evil and tracing your search habits. In the story Google rogue engineers, made a "search normalizer" that automatically made searches for you that neutralized any deviant trait that could show up.
So, how do we get this done ? We have to find many trackers and activate them regularly to make noises to pollute the signal ? Anyone knows of such a project ?
It is easy to state a price, but negotiation means that both parties have different prices and different means of pressure. What's our ? We are the first to say that Internet is somehow a jungle where almost anything is fair game. So, how do we defend, technologically ?
Are Unmanned Fighters Ready for Combat? Yes sir. Since the 40's
In America's army, the old is new again ! The tech to make drones has been available since more than half a century, it just took that long for US officials to realize that it could be a good idea.
Wake me up when they plan deploying autonomous vehicles. Yes, we have the tech for these also.
New rules :
* the first day, every robot fights a simple robot or remote-controlled one, created by the organizers. Those who can fight it are admitted. These challenges are public so that each team can see the other teams' robot in action.
* 24 before the fight, teams know which robot they will have to fight
* They have one hour between each battle to change the program of their robot or to input new parameters
That's approximately what is being done in the European Robotic Cup Eurobot. The intent is not the same as the battle bot : here the robots are in the same arena but must not fight each other, they must accomplish a task more efficiently than the other, possibly by stealing some of the opponent's items or by moving in a way to annoy it. There is a children version of this challenge that involves remote controlled bots, but that's considered as an uninteresting challenge by roboticians.
Some robots are designed in order to detect the other robot and adapt its strategy accordingly. Most challenges are designed so that a "dumb approach" (with no or few sensors) is still possible but very inefficient.
In many cities I could see one or two road axis that would really benefit from a 24/24 autonomous transportation system. Putting wires down one or two roads couldn't be that expensive...
Because if you're talking about sysadmin, managing files, network, backups, net access, etc... I don't really see the difference with a basic utility. It should "just work" it requires money and work to maintain, it is possible for users to do stupid things. It is possible for managers to ask impossible things or to impose an impractical solution.
Needing two hours of margins to board a plane is a bit overkill though. No wonder that here (in Europe) they are loosing all their short-distances market to trains where you can arrive 5 minutes before the train starts. And yes, get aboard with your damn geek swiss-knife tool.
This is a quasi-monopolistic-racket situation. They make you pay what you can pay. 10 dollars per day looks acceptable for some rich americans, 0.2$ per megabyte is something a bit expensive but affordable for Pakistanis. We all know that this is not related at all to their real costs.
For those interested, here is the relevant part about Schneier's comment:
"It's certainly possible for the world's major espionage services to secretly plant vulnerabilities in our microprocessors, but the threat is overblown," says Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of the data security company BT Counterpane. "Why would anyone go through the effort and take the risk, when there are thousands of vulnerabilities in our computers, networks and operating systems waiting to be discovered with only a few hours' work?"
Open Source users will play Open Source Games. We are far from the level of windows games, but it is progressing. Battle For Wesnoth costs me many hours of my free time. I heard that some FPS are decent. A year ago I tried Open Arena which looked like a decent Quake 3 clone. I guess they have improved since then.
Planes hijacking using knifes cannot happen again. The 9/11 was a one-time event. Before it, in case of plane hi-jacking, passengers sat quietly, waiting for the hijackers to finish their negotiations. After 9/11, taking back the control of a plane at the risk of getting hurt is the most intelligent course of action. This is what apparently happened on UAF93. Now you can't hijack a plane without anything short of an automatic gun.
All this craziness about uber-security is just useless, the only risk today is the risk of bombing and it is already hard enough to bring a big engine in the cabin. Bombings are far easier by bringing a car full of explosives into a crowded area...
Which of the two released version, 6.0 and 7.0 are beta, exactly ? I mean, Windows Update has been trying to force me to install 7.0 since one year. It must be considered release-ready by someone...
"Continued proceedings here would cost the company a substantial sum of money for discovery and divert key personnel from full-time tasks," Funny, it is exactly the argument I use to tell my boss it is not in our company's interests to switch to Vista...
Forces of organized interests that do not play by the rules, like malware peddlers, identity thieves and spammers Sorry to re-state something what has been said and said again on this site but most of these groups (well, except spammers) would not exist if Microsoft programmers were doing their jobs right. It would not exist if the most installed OS had a sane security policy. Blaming internet on these things is exactly like blaming the post office for receiving death threats or spam.
It is an inevitable consequence of a good communication networks allowing anyone to connect.
That would be any assignment with values used in the problem randomly chosen. Instead of a 1 kilogram mass, just use a 2.6341 mass and see if the student still manage to solve the problem. We can posit that anyone can afford a 4-op calculator by now.
How about defining things explicitly authorized instead ? Here in Europe, one of the very strong arguments of patent opponents is the regulation stating that mathematical formulas are public domain by default, being discovered, not invented. And for most law makers, an algorithm is similar to a formula. The loophole that many European companies use is that they patent a "machine running an algorithm X", the machine being a computer. I am not aware of any case in Europe where a software company has been attacked over one of these bogus patents.
How about stating that a contract between entities/persons/agents is a work of literature and can be copyrighted but not patented ? What more is there in a "business method" than a set of contracts ?
Slashdot Mirror
But websites that use them do not advertise it. These trackers are hidden.
There was a stuff like that in a Doctorow story about Google becoming evil and tracing your search habits. In the story Google rogue engineers, made a "search normalizer" that automatically made searches for you that neutralized any deviant trait that could show up.
So, how do we get this done ? We have to find many trackers and activate them regularly to make noises to pollute the signal ? Anyone knows of such a project ?
It is easy to state a price, but negotiation means that both parties have different prices and different means of pressure. What's our ? We are the first to say that Internet is somehow a jungle where almost anything is fair game. So, how do we defend, technologically ?
In America's army, the old is new again ! The tech to make drones has been available since more than half a century, it just took that long for US officials to realize that it could be a good idea.
Wake me up when they plan deploying autonomous vehicles. Yes, we have the tech for these also.
New rules :
* the first day, every robot fights a simple robot or remote-controlled one, created by the organizers. Those who can fight it are admitted. These challenges are public so that each team can see the other teams' robot in action.
* 24 before the fight, teams know which robot they will have to fight
* They have one hour between each battle to change the program of their robot or to input new parameters
That's approximately what is being done in the European Robotic Cup Eurobot. The intent is not the same as the battle bot : here the robots are in the same arena but must not fight each other, they must accomplish a task more efficiently than the other, possibly by stealing some of the opponent's items or by moving in a way to annoy it. There is a children version of this challenge that involves remote controlled bots, but that's considered as an uninteresting challenge by roboticians.
Some robots are designed in order to detect the other robot and adapt its strategy accordingly. Most challenges are designed so that a "dumb approach" (with no or few sensors) is still possible but very inefficient.
No, these 5$ would make the download legal. I guess it would be optionnal
Isn't that a regular maneuver when buying a company ? Anticipating a rise due to the huge ask volume of a buyout is common I think.
In many cities I could see one or two road axis that would really benefit from a 24/24 autonomous transportation system. Putting wires down one or two roads couldn't be that expensive...
Windows 7 SP1 is due for the end of the cycle. Just you wait and tell me it isn't the apocalypse...
Because if you're talking about sysadmin, managing files, network, backups, net access, etc... I don't really see the difference with a basic utility. It should "just work" it requires money and work to maintain, it is possible for users to do stupid things. It is possible for managers to ask impossible things or to impose an impractical solution.
Ericson is not a service provider, it is a hardware manufacturer. It is not in its best interest to follow the more likely trend ?
Needing two hours of margins to board a plane is a bit overkill though. No wonder that here (in Europe) they are loosing all their short-distances market to trains where you can arrive 5 minutes before the train starts. And yes, get aboard with your damn geek swiss-knife tool.
This is a quasi-monopolistic-racket situation. They make you pay what you can pay. 10 dollars per day looks acceptable for some rich americans, 0.2$ per megabyte is something a bit expensive but affordable for Pakistanis. We all know that this is not related at all to their real costs.
I want to see the DARPA challenge on my TV screen on a more regular basis.
Open Source users will play Open Source Games. We are far from the level of windows games, but it is progressing. Battle For Wesnoth costs me many hours of my free time. I heard that some FPS are decent. A year ago I tried Open Arena which looked like a decent Quake 3 clone. I guess they have improved since then.
Come on, men have the same flaw. Slashdot has made many persons believe silly things. Like that some people still use emacs or vi...
Planes hijacking using knifes cannot happen again. The 9/11 was a one-time event. Before it, in case of plane hi-jacking, passengers sat quietly, waiting for the hijackers to finish their negotiations. After 9/11, taking back the control of a plane at the risk of getting hurt is the most intelligent course of action. This is what apparently happened on UAF93. Now you can't hijack a plane without anything short of an automatic gun.
All this craziness about uber-security is just useless, the only risk today is the risk of bombing and it is already hard enough to bring a big engine in the cabin. Bombings are far easier by bringing a car full of explosives into a crowded area...
Which of the two released version, 6.0 and 7.0 are beta, exactly ? I mean, Windows Update has been trying to force me to install 7.0 since one year. It must be considered release-ready by someone...
Purity Of Essence
Peace On Earth
Damn Russians and their evil water contamination schemes !
Send the nuuuuukes (and you should stop worrying about the Bomb)
This was about counterfeiting, not patent violation. Quite ridiculous as well if you ask me, but the Polizei does not raid yet for patent violations.
It is an inevitable consequence of a good communication networks allowing anyone to connect.
That would be any assignment with values used in the problem randomly chosen. Instead of a 1 kilogram mass, just use a 2.6341 mass and see if the student still manage to solve the problem. We can posit that anyone can afford a 4-op calculator by now.
How about defining things explicitly authorized instead ? Here in Europe, one of the very strong arguments of patent opponents is the regulation stating that mathematical formulas are public domain by default, being discovered, not invented. And for most law makers, an algorithm is similar to a formula. The loophole that many European companies use is that they patent a "machine running an algorithm X", the machine being a computer. I am not aware of any case in Europe where a software company has been attacked over one of these bogus patents.
How about stating that a contract between entities/persons/agents is a work of literature and can be copyrighted but not patented ? What more is there in a "business method" than a set of contracts ?