I don't know if this is a urban legend or not, but the story says that when some Russian pilots deserted with their airplanes, this was the first time when US scientists could look into a MIG. They saw that the electronics was made thanks to tubes. They first thought it was the sign of an obsolete technology but then learned that it was part of their hardening to be able to fly even in a radioactive atmosphere in case of nuclear war.
I still feel angry that Facebook managed to get 100 billions of funds this way. Their stock price can go down the drain, this money is there, in their bank account. This is the annual budget of Poland. These funds will now be put at work in order to screw us over.
I think that this day was a very bad day for our freedoms and privacy.
Zuckberg will stay a billionaire, even in the most gloomy scenario he will still be a multi-millionaire, I don't see any possible scenario as less than a success for him.
Edison was a patent troll that prevented a movie industry to appear on the east coast. Favoring this kind of profiles is a way to prevent innovations from happening.
I love how my bank makes me enter a numerical code through a keypad rendered with image buttons that appear in a randomized order. They must somehow think that this must prevent some kind of automated attacks. Except that one day I loaded it with no script, and instead of the keypad, I had a regular textarea to enter my code through the keyboard. It worked like a charm.
Security theater all along. The same bank is really confused about security, allowing some things to be done through mail or phone, disallowing some other innocent things for "security reason". Why is it that banking security became the joke that it is today ? Is there no one trying to crack them anymore ?
Money is the metric we use to point out where the human society has an interest. The fact that it is easier to finance a social network than a life-saving drugs shows a dysfunction in society but is merely a symptom.
If advertisement was less efficient, Facebook value would be close to zero. It would take a 4 hours class in every public school about advertisement awareness to make this kind of scheme moot.
But I know what you mean. I can make easy money developing AR toys for rich clueless clients but I can't find any funds to develop a tool helping epidemiology or biological modelling research. Makes me really sad about the state of the world.
I made a group of doctors seriously pondering if they should not stop using Facebook immediately. I told them "Maybe, you have friends that you got to know first as patients. You have friends on facebook who are not colleagues or working in the medical profession. Now facebook knows that there is a good probability that these people had a medical problem in connection to your medical specialty. Facebook sells personal data to other people without your consent. And I bet that insurance company would love to know your list of friends."
It got them uneasy. "But that would be illegal !" "Well, according to which laws ? Facebook does not operate from your country (It was happening in Japan)". One of the doctors thanked me for giving them clues about things they simply didn't know about how websites operate. Remember that facebook is one of the most successful phisher/scammer out there.
And still, claiming that a companies that makes record profits should spend a part of them improving the conditions of its workers and therefore contribute to the betterment of the working conditions in China, does not shock me.
I think I was not really clear in the system I propose : have a parabolic dish tracking the satellite on a radio spectrum that can go through clouds. That way, you can do one of several things :
* If it is the GPS satellites you are tracking, you can then use the GPS protocol normally, I think regular jamming won't work on directional antennas.
* If i is another satellite (like TV stations) that you are tracking, you can use their positions to triangulate your own.
These system can not be jammed unless you put an object between the satellite and the ship.
I would add that it is the only available navigation system in immersed submarines. I used to work with mechanical engineers that described the gyroscopes inside submarines as wonders of mechanical engineering.
In case of war, creating a fake lighthouse to lead ships into rocks is a possibility.
A good fallback plan would be to have radar equipment that can see through fog and a database of the coast profiles.
Note however, that both lighthouses and this plan requires the ships to travel along the coast, that's still having an impact and not a replacement for a fully functional GPS system.
I think that jamming is possible when you are having omnidirectional receptors, but one could use a "navigation by star" system that works even in case of cloudy weather by identifying and tracking satellites with a parabolic dish. Not that easy on a ship but probably doable with a bit of infrastructure.
That was actually my first question : what defensive weapons did they take on-board ? Alternatively, they may negotiate with USA to get protection in exchange of concessions.
There was a thing similar to this that existed once near Italian coasts. It survived for a few years before it was recognized as a mafia operation (I don't know if it started as one, if the mafia took control over it or if it was just an excuse) but the Italian's police (not army) took control of the platform.
How long until some idiot legislators want to make "running your own DNS" or "using an alternative DNS" illegal?
Heh, they will do that one day, but it will probably another year or two before they realize we can just make url links with IP address or that using an http name resolver (technically not using the DNS protocol) is an easy workaround.
To be fair, this one looks like a silly licensing problem. Selling a product that integrates a DVD & blue-ray player requires to buy licenses to their inventors.
First, since the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s, isn't the cold war over. Why is Russia still rattling sabres? As far as I can tell, they no longer have the ambition of conquering Europe.
Understand that they react to the opening of a new US missile base near their border. This reaction may seem out-dated, but if you think so, there are things happening in the US's zone of influence, like the quasi-embargo on Cuba. How would US react if Russia was making (again) a missile base there ?
Second, even back in cold-war days, the objections to missile defense were bizarre.
The main objection is that nothing is more similar to a missile than an anti-missile.
Finally, what the devil is the US doing, putting defenses into Europe? If missile defenses are necessary, Europe is perfectly capable of putting them in all by itself (I say this as a European). Stay home, America, stop spending money you don't have.
That's exactly the point.
Actually, here is the thing : Russia will never make a raid on a US base in Poland, they are not crazy, but making a few aggressive headlines during a presidential campaign is a good way of saying "LOOK HERE! GIVE ME SOMETHING!". This missile defense is a remnant from the Bush era. I think it just needs this kind of pressure to be totally abandoned.
This, a state-certified way of proving identity and therefore making a system able to enforce the unity of online votes is a game changer for the democratic game.
Forget about identification files and think a minute about it before throwing Godwin points : even without that, states can enforce identity controls very easily with very little overseeing.
...but the "we found that in Osama's hard drive" is a perfect excuse to make it possible to legally use informations that were given through illegal or immoral means.
The same is true for Google : it could lose half its marketshare quickly on a poor upgrade or over a 24h downtime. Yet, it is profitable and highly valuated.
I hope so. I fear it is not. Facebook is indeed profitable. I doubt it has much room left to grow a lot but it is a company that is worth a lot already.
My bet is that the IPO will be a success, just not an hysteric one.
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I don't know if this is a urban legend or not, but the story says that when some Russian pilots deserted with their airplanes, this was the first time when US scientists could look into a MIG. They saw that the electronics was made thanks to tubes. They first thought it was the sign of an obsolete technology but then learned that it was part of their hardening to be able to fly even in a radioactive atmosphere in case of nuclear war.
I still feel angry that Facebook managed to get 100 billions of funds this way. Their stock price can go down the drain, this money is there, in their bank account. This is the annual budget of Poland. These funds will now be put at work in order to screw us over.
I think that this day was a very bad day for our freedoms and privacy.
Zuckberg will stay a billionaire, even in the most gloomy scenario he will still be a multi-millionaire, I don't see any possible scenario as less than a success for him.
One half of the PC owners do not know how to pirate software. This is how I read this shocking news.
Edison was a patent troll that prevented a movie industry to appear on the east coast. Favoring this kind of profiles is a way to prevent innovations from happening.
I love how my bank makes me enter a numerical code through a keypad rendered with image buttons that appear in a randomized order. They must somehow think that this must prevent some kind of automated attacks. Except that one day I loaded it with no script, and instead of the keypad, I had a regular textarea to enter my code through the keyboard. It worked like a charm.
Security theater all along. The same bank is really confused about security, allowing some things to be done through mail or phone, disallowing some other innocent things for "security reason". Why is it that banking security became the joke that it is today ? Is there no one trying to crack them anymore ?
Money is the metric we use to point out where the human society has an interest. The fact that it is easier to finance a social network than a life-saving drugs shows a dysfunction in society but is merely a symptom.
If advertisement was less efficient, Facebook value would be close to zero. It would take a 4 hours class in every public school about advertisement awareness to make this kind of scheme moot.
But I know what you mean. I can make easy money developing AR toys for rich clueless clients but I can't find any funds to develop a tool helping epidemiology or biological modelling research. Makes me really sad about the state of the world.
I made a group of doctors seriously pondering if they should not stop using Facebook immediately. I told them "Maybe, you have friends that you got to know first as patients. You have friends on facebook who are not colleagues or working in the medical profession. Now facebook knows that there is a good probability that these people had a medical problem in connection to your medical specialty. Facebook sells personal data to other people without your consent. And I bet that insurance company would love to know your list of friends."
It got them uneasy. "But that would be illegal !" "Well, according to which laws ? Facebook does not operate from your country (It was happening in Japan)". One of the doctors thanked me for giving them clues about things they simply didn't know about how websites operate. Remember that facebook is one of the most successful phisher/scammer out there.
I heard that there are some INS that use kilometers of optical fibers. I am not sure how it works...
And still, claiming that a companies that makes record profits should spend a part of them improving the conditions of its workers and therefore contribute to the betterment of the working conditions in China, does not shock me.
These system can not be jammed unless you put an object between the satellite and the ship.
I would add that it is the only available navigation system in immersed submarines. I used to work with mechanical engineers that described the gyroscopes inside submarines as wonders of mechanical engineering.
In case of war, creating a fake lighthouse to lead ships into rocks is a possibility.
A good fallback plan would be to have radar equipment that can see through fog and a database of the coast profiles.
Note however, that both lighthouses and this plan requires the ships to travel along the coast, that's still having an impact and not a replacement for a fully functional GPS system.
I think that jamming is possible when you are having omnidirectional receptors, but one could use a "navigation by star" system that works even in case of cloudy weather by identifying and tracking satellites with a parabolic dish. Not that easy on a ship but probably doable with a bit of infrastructure.
It is illegal to use lethal force. Is it illegal to talk about it, learn about it or have a political opinion about this law ?
I think it is sane that these laws exist, and it is sane that debates exist.
That was actually my first question : what defensive weapons did they take on-board ? Alternatively, they may negotiate with USA to get protection in exchange of concessions.
There was a thing similar to this that existed once near Italian coasts. It survived for a few years before it was recognized as a mafia operation (I don't know if it started as one, if the mafia took control over it or if it was just an excuse) but the Italian's police (not army) took control of the platform.
I was talking about the US elections.
"But this means spending money on our consumers and offering a better service for less money ! We won't have it !"
How long until some idiot legislators want to make "running your own DNS" or "using an alternative DNS" illegal?
Heh, they will do that one day, but it will probably another year or two before they realize we can just make url links with IP address or that using an http name resolver (technically not using the DNS protocol) is an easy workaround.
To be fair, this one looks like a silly licensing problem. Selling a product that integrates a DVD & blue-ray player requires to buy licenses to their inventors.
First, since the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s, isn't the cold war over. Why is Russia still rattling sabres? As far as I can tell, they no longer have the ambition of conquering Europe.
Understand that they react to the opening of a new US missile base near their border. This reaction may seem out-dated, but if you think so, there are things happening in the US's zone of influence, like the quasi-embargo on Cuba. How would US react if Russia was making (again) a missile base there ?
Second, even back in cold-war days, the objections to missile defense were bizarre.
The main objection is that nothing is more similar to a missile than an anti-missile.
Finally, what the devil is the US doing, putting defenses into Europe? If missile defenses are necessary, Europe is perfectly capable of putting them in all by itself (I say this as a European). Stay home, America, stop spending money you don't have.
That's exactly the point.
Actually, here is the thing : Russia will never make a raid on a US base in Poland, they are not crazy, but making a few aggressive headlines during a presidential campaign is a good way of saying "LOOK HERE! GIVE ME SOMETHING!". This missile defense is a remnant from the Bush era. I think it just needs this kind of pressure to be totally abandoned.
Accounting alone won't bring you up that far...
This, a state-certified way of proving identity and therefore making a system able to enforce the unity of online votes is a game changer for the democratic game.
Forget about identification files and think a minute about it before throwing Godwin points : even without that, states can enforce identity controls very easily with very little overseeing.
...but the "we found that in Osama's hard drive" is a perfect excuse to make it possible to legally use informations that were given through illegal or immoral means.
The same is true for Google : it could lose half its marketshare quickly on a poor upgrade or over a 24h downtime. Yet, it is profitable and highly valuated.
The US government is still trying to understand why wikileaks is still up.
I hope so. I fear it is not. Facebook is indeed profitable. I doubt it has much room left to grow a lot but it is a company that is worth a lot already.
My bet is that the IPO will be a success, just not an hysteric one.