Just as when cars were first introduced, everyone needed to know how the magneto worked in order to be sure they could get it started. There were few mechanics, so those who dealt with cars frequently had to be adept at rebuilding components and such.
Can you say that now, 100 years later, that every driver on the road is MORE adept than those early pioneers?
When the functionality becomes transparent, people don't even KNOW they are using a PC. Do you know how many computers you engage to start your car? Can you program all of them? Do you NEED to? Will you ever need to?
Think about it. When people built cars before assembly lines, virtually every person on the line had to know how the car was constructed, down to the last bolt. Now, ask some factory workers their job and the answer is "I put this metal thing into that slot and jam the plastic tip on it"
Do they know how the fuel injector system mixture varies by the speed of the car? No.
Do they need to? No.
Do you need to to drive it? No.
Is it important to the performance of your car? Yes.
First of all, the primary issue with the signal falloff is the SIZE of the reciever. Launching a sattellite doesn't exactly solve that problem, because the sattelite's reciever would have to be *nearly* as large as the VLA or the big "lake sized" earth-bound dishes.
I think it has more to do with the sheer size, than the sensitivity of the reciever. The "noise" from the Universe will eventually eat the signal and with the combination of decreasing power and increasing distance, I think xmit power will fall off faster than some "technology" (new filters, transforms, etc etc)
I'm too busy being happy with my life to spend so much energy desperately seeking more money ("building my career"). I'd be much happier being happy and in love with someone than to spend my days toiling in solitude after a buck.
Could you point me to a significant research paper in Physics written in Swahili please?
Are there any pioneering studies of mathemtical algorithms in sanscrit? I would like to see that.
In addition, many works of research are written for a specific audience. As far as I'm aware, technical papers on genetics or quantum physics are RARELY translated into other languages, partially because most languages lack the technical vocabulary for such works and second, because researchers in those fields generally regard English as a "common language"
Einstien did most of his early work in English, even though he lived in and spoke better German.
As for the ancient accomplishments, MOST of the works (probably every single one pre-Shakespeare) was non-english in origin. Do you argue that he is biased toward French, Italian, Latin, Greek and German specifically? Or just biased against Sanscrit?
But then again, I STILL want you to reference me a significant scientific work written ORIGINALLY in Sanscrit.
Because the second one listed is a "firm" which leads me to believe it was one shop with multiple, perhaps quite a few entries. Of that, I would guess that none of their individual films won more than two awards.
Stewey
I have Fuji S2-Pro - DSLR is great
on
Digital 35mm SLRs?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
As the proud owner of a Fuji S2-Pro, I can say I love the DSLR concept. When I got my first SLR almost 10 years ago, I lamented the lack of a digital SLR and since then had been searching around for a good D-SLR. Last year, they finally came within reach, but I had to save up for awhile to be able to afford the $2000+ pricetag.
I can honestly say that i went from taking 60 photos per month with my old 35mm SLR to taking 100+ per week, all without any processing costs.
The most important things to consider are: 1) battery life - Your photo shooting is usually limited by the battery life of your camera unless you shoot in super-high resolution or RAW modes. 2) memory size - Buy as big a memory card as youcan afford. Size does matter. I LOVE to take advantage of the RAW shooting modes, but the photos are dozens of MB each. 3) memory speed - when shooting bigger files, you will notice the speed of your writable media. You can fill up the buffer of modern DSLR cameras fairly quickly in rapid-shoot mode (unless you have a Nikon D2 with the 40-shot buffer).
But overall, I prefer Nikon lenses (Nikkor is really nice), but Cannon is quite nice too. And for the price you can't beat this new DSLR.
As the proud owner of a Fuji S2-Pro, I can say I love the DSLR concept. When I got my first SLR almost 10 years ago, I lamented the lack of a digital SLR and since then had been searching around for a good D-SLR. Last year, they finally came within reach, but I had to save up for awhile to be able to afford the $2000+ pricetag.
I can honestly say that i went from taking 60 photos per month with my old 35mm SLR to taking 100+ per week, all without any processing costs.
The most important things to consider are:
1) battery life - Your photo shooting is usually limited by the battery life of your camera unless you shoot in super-high resolution or RAW modes.
2) memory size - Buy as big a memory card as youcan afford. Size does matter. I LOVE to take advantage of the RAW shooting modes, but the photos are dozens of MB each.
3) memory speed - when shooting bigger files, you will notice the speed of your writable media. You can fill up the buffer of modern DSLR cameras fairly quickly in rapid-shoot mode (unless you have a Nikon D2 with the 40-shot buffer).
But overall, I prefer Nikon lenses (Nikkor is really nice), but Cannon is quite nice too. And for the price you can't beat this new DSLR.
Stewey
If we started recording the converstations in the hall, and sniffers to read sms messages between kids, then its a REAL invasion of privacy.
Ok, let's test your tolerance a bit.
How about if we record who they talk to? Ok, can we just record where they are standing? What about just how fast they walk and where? How about we just see which rooms they're in? Or do we have to limit it to see who's in the building?
The thing about the RFID concept is that the technology is CAPABLE of measuring all of those things I've just asked you. They may not do it, but I predict it's not long before they start trying to arrange such things. Probably not at THAT school, but somewhere.
The trick with your proximity badges is that they can't locate you exactly. In addition, if you are not required to enter secure locations... perhaps you are for work... but kids are required by law to go to school and usually their parents decide which school... So they have no choice to be scanned. With the proximity badges, you have to swipe your card. When it becomes remotely "scannable" it becomes VERY questionable.
And what's up with abrigating the privacy of criminals? Seriously, is this just DNA fingerprinting, like they use in trials, or are we talking full genetic analysis is legal to conduct on convinced criminals.
Doesn't that reek of facism? Fine, criminals did something agains the law. By the wording of the law where I live, squirt guns are illegal. Nerf guns are illegal. Playing baseball is illegal. Of course, the police don't arrest people for these things unless they want to. But why should they get the option?
I bring this up because I was nearly conviced of 6 counts of "weapons violations" for carrying a plastic toy gun with me to the park. I spent a weekend in jail and nearly found myself there for 6 months. Fortunately, I'm reasonably well off and could hire a really good lawyer who got the case dismissed. But I still found myself less about $5,000, a weekend in jail and half my hair.
The thing is that it's not about what they're doing NOW. The tags they carry are EASILY used to do things like.... monitor how long your kid take's a pee... or who they associate with or who they sit with at lunch... or even what they eat and how fast they walk to class.
It's a bit akin to the argument "those cameras on the street aren't looking INTO your bedroom".
The RFID tags used for attendance are pushing it a bit IMHO, but used simply for attendance, they're acceptable. Attendance would be taken anyway, but simply by hand.
It's when it's used to find *specifics* that it becomes bad. The complaint over RFID is that it is CAPABLE of being used to find these specifics.
In my opinion, you've missed out completely on the fundamental concept of raising a child. If rights taught as "earned" then they are not accepted as inalienable, as our bill of rights clearly states.
I'm not arguing what you LEGALLY can do. You can legally tag your kids if you want, so can the school. You can put them on a leash in the mall if you want... The school can send them to the office or to detention...
What I'm saying is that I believe that it is NOT good for kids to be raised seeing their rights as things which must be "earned" or "granted" or "provided". They ARE. They should always have been and they should always be. The concept of rights which are slowly "phased in" is giving an entire generation a very sad perspective that these rights are NOT set in stone, but are malliable.
Parents have every right to tell their children what to do and in some cases it is quite justified. I think that keeping an eye on them, teaching them and sometimes restricting them is necessary, but along the same lines, monitoring every action they take is questionable.
The RFID tags scare me, just because they are a 'slippery slope' they are right now not used for anything other than an technologically advanced form of "roll call" which I have no objection to, but the fact that they are an UNWILLING roll call is what bothers me. You can be "roll called" in the bathroom or monitored who's locker you stood in front of for 10 minute before class... I'm not saying they're used for that, but I am saying that the technology is capable of that, which would be a very BAD thing.
So, in clarifying my thoughts, I think that you may be right in saying that children do not have the same type of rights when it comes to their parent's wishes, but they should have SOME form of respect for their freedom of association, speech and individuality. The tricky part is where to draw the line. The line is much easier to swallow when it is FORCED to be fuzzy by a lack of knowledge. If we don't know exactly what the kid is doing, but we know he was in class last period... that's acceptable. But if we know exactly what he's doing all the time, it seems to me to be a violation of the sort which will sadly result in kids who are constantly paranoid of being watched and feelings of wanting to 'get away' or who accept it and freely abrigate their right to fundamental freedoms and come to accept those limited freedoms as they grow up.
THAT is what I see this system working to destroy what we have worked so hard to create in this country. It's a facist's wet-dream, to have every citizen willingly giving up his right to fundamental freedom and anonymity because he has been raised never to know any different. That sounds like something Stalin would have appreciated.
Crap, I'm talking myself in circles...
Well, all I'm willing to say is that I believe that we have an OBLIGATION to sacrifice a bit of "security" in order to maintain a high level of FREEDOM. If that means not knowing where your kid is every minute, that's what it requires. If that means that some kids will be hurt, that's sad, but it's necessary because the quality of life in a society where everyone is closely monitored is probaly much like that in Orwell's 1984.
Before you assail me with "you have no idea what it's like to have kids" let me mention, without going into details, that I have several younger brothers (12-18 years younger than me) who have had rather severe brushes with things that could have been avoided by "global tracking" and by knowing where they were at every minute of every day. But even with the pain that has caused, I still would have a GREAT fear of a society where that type of monitoring is the norm.
I don't think I want to comment on the rest of the post, except to say "hmm... interesting", but I do want to comment on one thing...
When you consider that people throughout our history have been doing college-level work at around 12 (Benjamin Franklin, anyone?)
I would like to point out that at the time Benjamin franklin was 12, It was not uncommon to enter a University after an 8th grade education (which most students attain at age 13). The reason was that there simply wasn't as much knowledge required to enter advanced study in a particular field. The entire field of biology could be summarized in a single book. The field of electrical engineering could be summarized in a few pages and physics was limited mostly to Newtonian principals, with substantial limits on what was even understood in areas like wave propigation and molecular dynamics.
Chemistry was fairly advanced, but not nearly to the level provided by the recent discovery of quantum physics and the implications following from that. Mathematics was perhaps the most advanced subject of his day and those who DID enter University at the age of 12 were generally exceptionally skilled at math. Until the 1600s, there existed intellectuals in the world who had read EVERY SINGLE work ever published anywhere in the world. Now, there are hundreds of books published daily and perhaps *thousands* of scientific papers. It would be physically impossible to read every one... or even just every one in a given field such as Physics, Chemistry or Computer Science.
It can be argued that Benjamin Franklin likely was one of the best minds in VIRTUALLY EVERY AREA of science in his lifetime, ranging from chemistry to physics to electronics, mechanical engineering, literature, political science and even sociology. Can you even comprehend how amazing that would be now with the breadth of scientific knowledge that is available today?
That theory of yours is BS if you ask me. There ARE people who enter University study at the age of 12. They are not common, but they exist. Most children I know could probably pass a GED examination by the age of 13 or 14, but choose not to do so. Does that make them "held back" by the school?
I don't think it's the schools trying to hold them down as much as it's the parents who don't want to give their kids an ounce of independence before their 18th birthday, even when many show it by the time they are 10. The government is structured this way, private schools are REALLY structured this way (noticed how strict most of their rules are?) and parents are even more so.
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
From the U3 Northbridge, G5 uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s. Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of 6.4 GB/s directly from the CPU.
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration for SMP systems, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
Documentation: <a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Har dware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5/2Architecture/chapter_3_section_4.html#//apple_re f/doc/uid/TP30000803/TPXREF108"> developer.apple.com</a> <a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.h tml">apple.com</a> (thanks for the link)
From the U3 Northbridge, G5 uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s. Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of <a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/op teron-06.html">6.4 GB/s</a> directly from the CPU.
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration for SMP systems, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
Documentation: <a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Har dware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5/2Architecture/chapter_3_section_4.html#//apple_re f/doc/uid/TP30000803/TPXREF108"> developer.apple.com</a> <a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.h tml">apple.com</a> (thanks for the link)
From the U3 Northbridge, it uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s.
Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of <a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/op teron-06.html">6.4 GB/s</a>.
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
This paper (which takes a few clicks and a change of teh URL to find) is specific to "multiprecision integers", which they define as integers longer than 128-bit. The improvements come particularily at much longer sizes, such as 5000 bit integers.
They do mention that some very precise floating point operations can be handled quickly by altivec, I seriously doubt that a multi-cycle implementation of the double-precision floating point into integer ops through altivec would beat the 2-issue per clock raw FPU of the G5.
Frankly, I'd have no problem driving a car to work that only had a 100 mile range if I could negate the fact that once a month, and emergency comes up at a remote location and I have to drive 120 miles with virtually no forwarning.
In addition, I don't want to have to own a SECOND car, if I decide to go skiing on Saturday and have to drive 90 miles uphill on the Interstate to get into the mountains... and then expect to be able to get back... or not be stranded if an avalanche on the road blocks traffic 5 miles short of my destination.
*shrugs*
If the electric car can be recharged in 20 minutes, it might do, since a "filling station" infrastructure could be built, but to be perfectly honest, if it takes hours to charge, I'd be stuck spending the afternoon on the mountain at the base of an avalanche field if the car takes 8 hours to recharge.:-)
3. Music should be free. Correct! CD's, however, are not free. You must pay for them. Get used to it and stop whining.
In the day that CD burners cost $500 and blank CDs were $5 each, it may seem valid to charge $15 for a disc. But... Do you know how much it costs to press a CD??
They cost about 1c each in bulk. If you amortize the cost of the equipment and work required to stamp them, maybe it's 50c each. The artist gets less than $1 per CD. Where does the rest go? Into the corporate oligarchy that is suing little girls. Charge me $3 for CDs and I'd buy two a week. Try to get $20 or even $14 for them and I will buy one every other month.
Sue little girls and threaten to destroy an emerging technology and I will buy none.
Stewey
Re:Because it's not illegal if you have permission
on
Get Paid To Crack?
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· Score: 1
Reminds me of the story of a guy who saves someone's life by giving CPR. Since he's an unpaid bystander, he can't be sued for accidentally breaking the guys rib in the process even though he had no formal CPR training.
So, the man with a broken rib takes his savior out to lunch and then sues him (successfully, I might add) for tens of thousands of dollars, since anyone recieving COMPENSATION (even a burger and fries) for medical services is liable for incidental injuries if it can be proved they have insufficient training at the procedure they attempted to perform.
Yes, this actually happened and the guy won the court case. I think it was later appealed and dropped, but he DID end up out many thousands of dollars after the lawyers got done with him.
# Read the book at the library Ouch. I shall set up a nest under the stairs at the library where I can read my books in peace *evil grin*
# Photocopy the pages requires Isn't that already illegal? A violation of copyright? DMCA or some such?
# Get someone *else* to check the book out for you The whole stir about the RFID isn't that they can track the things you check out, but that they can know later (when you leave the supermarket that uses RFID for example) exactly where you were and what you were carrying.
# If it's recent enough, order/buy the book at a bookstore, use cash. Again, the books will probably have RFID tags, just like a library book? No change...
In the day of "intellectual property" where one of my University courses had in big bold letters right below the professors name:
This material copyrighted and for internal use by students of [University] currently enrolled in [class]. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
and then proceeded to list very little more than the course outline with a few isolated powerpoint slides he used in class a few times.
Then again, this particular professor was a [censored].:-)
I will admit I only read the "Simplified Outline", but from what I saw there, my only grip with this bill is this:
"Address-harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or used."
I have no problem banning the USAGE of harvested lists. But banning the software?? hmmmm it reeks of censorship to me. Personally, I'd rather be free and spammed than to be sliding down slippery slopes that are completely spam-free.
But maybe that's why I hang out here instead of the local pub.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you're dead wrong.
Just as when cars were first introduced, everyone needed to know how the magneto worked in order to be sure they could get it started. There were few mechanics, so those who dealt with cars frequently had to be adept at rebuilding components and such.
Can you say that now, 100 years later, that every driver on the road is MORE adept than those early pioneers?
When the functionality becomes transparent, people don't even KNOW they are using a PC. Do you know how many computers you engage to start your car? Can you program all of them? Do you NEED to? Will you ever need to?
Think about it. When people built cars before assembly lines, virtually every person on the line had to know how the car was constructed, down to the last bolt. Now, ask some factory workers their job and the answer is "I put this metal thing into that slot and jam the plastic tip on it"
Do they know how the fuel injector system mixture varies by the speed of the car? No.
Do they need to? No.
Do you need to to drive it? No.
Is it important to the performance of your car? Yes.
Stewey
First of all, the primary issue with the signal falloff is the SIZE of the reciever. Launching a sattellite doesn't exactly solve that problem, because the sattelite's reciever would have to be *nearly* as large as the VLA or the big "lake sized" earth-bound dishes.
I think it has more to do with the sheer size, than the sensitivity of the reciever. The "noise" from the Universe will eventually eat the signal and with the combination of decreasing power and increasing distance, I think xmit power will fall off faster than some "technology" (new filters, transforms, etc etc)
Squirrel
I'm too busy being happy with my life to spend so much energy desperately seeking more money ("building my career"). I'd be much happier being happy and in love with someone than to spend my days toiling in solitude after a buck.
Just my opinion I guess.
Stewey
Could you point me to a significant research paper in Physics written in Swahili please?
Are there any pioneering studies of mathemtical algorithms in sanscrit? I would like to see that.
In addition, many works of research are written for a specific audience. As far as I'm aware, technical papers on genetics or quantum physics are RARELY translated into other languages, partially because most languages lack the technical vocabulary for such works and second, because researchers in those fields generally regard English as a "common language"
Einstien did most of his early work in English, even though he lived in and spoke better German.
As for the ancient accomplishments, MOST of the works (probably every single one pre-Shakespeare) was non-english in origin. Do you argue that he is biased toward French, Italian, Latin, Greek and German specifically? Or just biased against Sanscrit?
But then again, I STILL want you to reference me a significant scientific work written ORIGINALLY in Sanscrit.
Stewey
Because the second one listed is a "firm" which leads me to believe it was one shop with multiple, perhaps quite a few entries. Of that, I would guess that none of their individual films won more than two awards.
Stewey
As the proud owner of a Fuji S2-Pro, I can say I love the DSLR concept. When I got my first SLR almost 10 years ago, I lamented the lack of a digital SLR and since then had been searching around for a good D-SLR. Last year, they finally came within reach, but I had to save up for awhile to be able to afford the $2000+ pricetag.
I can honestly say that i went from taking 60 photos per month with my old 35mm SLR to taking 100+ per week, all without any processing costs.
The most important things to consider are:
1) battery life - Your photo shooting is usually limited by the battery life of your camera unless you shoot in super-high resolution or RAW modes.
2) memory size - Buy as big a memory card as youcan afford. Size does matter. I LOVE to take advantage of the RAW shooting modes, but the photos are dozens of MB each.
3) memory speed - when shooting bigger files, you will notice the speed of your writable media. You can fill up the buffer of modern DSLR cameras fairly quickly in rapid-shoot mode (unless you have a Nikon D2 with the 40-shot buffer).
But overall, I prefer Nikon lenses (Nikkor is really nice), but Cannon is quite nice too. And for the price you can't beat this new DSLR.
Stewey
As the proud owner of a Fuji S2-Pro, I can say I love the DSLR concept. When I got my first SLR almost 10 years ago, I lamented the lack of a digital SLR and since then had been searching around for a good D-SLR. Last year, they finally came within reach, but I had to save up for awhile to be able to afford the $2000+ pricetag. I can honestly say that i went from taking 60 photos per month with my old 35mm SLR to taking 100+ per week, all without any processing costs. The most important things to consider are: 1) battery life - Your photo shooting is usually limited by the battery life of your camera unless you shoot in super-high resolution or RAW modes. 2) memory size - Buy as big a memory card as youcan afford. Size does matter. I LOVE to take advantage of the RAW shooting modes, but the photos are dozens of MB each. 3) memory speed - when shooting bigger files, you will notice the speed of your writable media. You can fill up the buffer of modern DSLR cameras fairly quickly in rapid-shoot mode (unless you have a Nikon D2 with the 40-shot buffer). But overall, I prefer Nikon lenses (Nikkor is really nice), but Cannon is quite nice too. And for the price you can't beat this new DSLR. Stewey
If we started recording the converstations in the hall, and sniffers to read sms messages between kids, then its a REAL invasion of privacy.
Ok, let's test your tolerance a bit.
How about if we record who they talk to?
Ok, can we just record where they are standing?
What about just how fast they walk and where?
How about we just see which rooms they're in?
Or do we have to limit it to see who's in the building?
The thing about the RFID concept is that the technology is CAPABLE of measuring all of those things I've just asked you. They may not do it, but I predict it's not long before they start trying to arrange such things. Probably not at THAT school, but somewhere.
The trick with your proximity badges is that they can't locate you exactly. In addition, if you are not required to enter secure locations... perhaps you are for work... but kids are required by law to go to school and usually their parents decide which school... So they have no choice to be scanned. With the proximity badges, you have to swipe your card. When it becomes remotely "scannable" it becomes VERY questionable.
And what's up with abrigating the privacy of criminals? Seriously, is this just DNA fingerprinting, like they use in trials, or are we talking full genetic analysis is legal to conduct on convinced criminals.
Doesn't that reek of facism? Fine, criminals did something agains the law. By the wording of the law where I live, squirt guns are illegal. Nerf guns are illegal. Playing baseball is illegal. Of course, the police don't arrest people for these things unless they want to. But why should they get the option?
I bring this up because I was nearly conviced of 6 counts of "weapons violations" for carrying a plastic toy gun with me to the park. I spent a weekend in jail and nearly found myself there for 6 months. Fortunately, I'm reasonably well off and could hire a really good lawyer who got the case dismissed. But I still found myself less about $5,000, a weekend in jail and half my hair.
Stewey
The thing is that it's not about what they're doing NOW. The tags they carry are EASILY used to do things like.... monitor how long your kid take's a pee... or who they associate with or who they sit with at lunch... or even what they eat and how fast they walk to class.
It's a bit akin to the argument "those cameras on the street aren't looking INTO your bedroom".
The RFID tags used for attendance are pushing it a bit IMHO, but used simply for attendance, they're acceptable. Attendance would be taken anyway, but simply by hand.
It's when it's used to find *specifics* that it becomes bad. The complaint over RFID is that it is CAPABLE of being used to find these specifics.
Stewey
Kirby,
In my opinion, you've missed out completely on the fundamental concept of raising a child. If rights taught as "earned" then they are not accepted as inalienable, as our bill of rights clearly states.
I'm not arguing what you LEGALLY can do. You can legally tag your kids if you want, so can the school. You can put them on a leash in the mall if you want... The school can send them to the office or to detention...
What I'm saying is that I believe that it is NOT good for kids to be raised seeing their rights as things which must be "earned" or "granted" or "provided". They ARE. They should always have been and they should always be. The concept of rights which are slowly "phased in" is giving an entire generation a very sad perspective that these rights are NOT set in stone, but are malliable.
Parents have every right to tell their children what to do and in some cases it is quite justified. I think that keeping an eye on them, teaching them and sometimes restricting them is necessary, but along the same lines, monitoring every action they take is questionable.
The RFID tags scare me, just because they are a 'slippery slope' they are right now not used for anything other than an technologically advanced form of "roll call" which I have no objection to, but the fact that they are an UNWILLING roll call is what bothers me. You can be "roll called" in the bathroom or monitored who's locker you stood in front of for 10 minute before class... I'm not saying they're used for that, but I am saying that the technology is capable of that, which would be a very BAD thing.
So, in clarifying my thoughts, I think that you may be right in saying that children do not have the same type of rights when it comes to their parent's wishes, but they should have SOME form of respect for their freedom of association, speech and individuality. The tricky part is where to draw the line. The line is much easier to swallow when it is FORCED to be fuzzy by a lack of knowledge. If we don't know exactly what the kid is doing, but we know he was in class last period... that's acceptable. But if we know exactly what he's doing all the time, it seems to me to be a violation of the sort which will sadly result in kids who are constantly paranoid of being watched and feelings of wanting to 'get away' or who accept it and freely abrigate their right to fundamental freedoms and come to accept those limited freedoms as they grow up.
THAT is what I see this system working to destroy what we have worked so hard to create in this country. It's a facist's wet-dream, to have every citizen willingly giving up his right to fundamental freedom and anonymity because he has been raised never to know any different. That sounds like something Stalin would have appreciated.
Crap, I'm talking myself in circles...
Well, all I'm willing to say is that I believe that we have an OBLIGATION to sacrifice a bit of "security" in order to maintain a high level of FREEDOM. If that means not knowing where your kid is every minute, that's what it requires. If that means that some kids will be hurt, that's sad, but it's necessary because the quality of life in a society where everyone is closely monitored is probaly much like that in Orwell's 1984.
Before you assail me with "you have no idea what it's like to have kids" let me mention, without going into details, that I have several younger brothers (12-18 years younger than me) who have had rather severe brushes with things that could have been avoided by "global tracking" and by knowing where they were at every minute of every day. But even with the pain that has caused, I still would have a GREAT fear of a society where that type of monitoring is the norm.
Stewey
I don't think I want to comment on the rest of the post, except to say "hmm... interesting", but I do want to comment on one thing...
When you consider that people throughout our history have been doing college-level work at around 12 (Benjamin Franklin, anyone?)
I would like to point out that at the time Benjamin franklin was 12, It was not uncommon to enter a University after an 8th grade education (which most students attain at age 13). The reason was that there simply wasn't as much knowledge required to enter advanced study in a particular field. The entire field of biology could be summarized in a single book. The field of electrical engineering could be summarized in a few pages and physics was limited mostly to Newtonian principals, with substantial limits on what was even understood in areas like wave propigation and molecular dynamics.
Chemistry was fairly advanced, but not nearly to the level provided by the recent discovery of quantum physics and the implications following from that. Mathematics was perhaps the most advanced subject of his day and those who DID enter University at the age of 12 were generally exceptionally skilled at math. Until the 1600s, there existed intellectuals in the world who had read EVERY SINGLE work ever published anywhere in the world. Now, there are hundreds of books published daily and perhaps *thousands* of scientific papers. It would be physically impossible to read every one... or even just every one in a given field such as Physics, Chemistry or Computer Science.
It can be argued that Benjamin Franklin likely was one of the best minds in VIRTUALLY EVERY AREA of science in his lifetime, ranging from chemistry to physics to electronics, mechanical engineering, literature, political science and even sociology. Can you even comprehend how amazing that would be now with the breadth of scientific knowledge that is available today?
That theory of yours is BS if you ask me. There ARE people who enter University study at the age of 12. They are not common, but they exist. Most children I know could probably pass a GED examination by the age of 13 or 14, but choose not to do so. Does that make them "held back" by the school?
I don't think it's the schools trying to hold them down as much as it's the parents who don't want to give their kids an ounce of independence before their 18th birthday, even when many show it by the time they are 10. The government is structured this way, private schools are REALLY structured this way (noticed how strict most of their rules are?) and parents are even more so.
Just another theory....
Stewey
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
Documentation:
developer.apple.com
apple.com (thanks for the link)
From the U3 Northbridge, G5 uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s.
Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of 6.4 GB/s directly from the CPU.
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration for SMP systems, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
Stewey
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
r dware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5 /2Architecture/chapter_3_section_4.html#//apple_re f/doc/uid/TP30000803/TPXREF108"> developer.apple.com</a>h tml">apple.com</a> (thanks for the link)
p teron-06.html">6.4 GB/s</a> directly from the CPU.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
Documentation:
<a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Ha
<a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.
From the U3 Northbridge, G5 uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s.
Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of <a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/o
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration for SMP systems, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
Stewey
The G5's memory controller is built into the U3 IC, which is essentially the "north bridge"- it is NOT built into the CPU.
r dware/Developer_Notes/Macintosh_CPUs-G5/PowerMacG5 /2Architecture/chapter_3_section_4.html#//apple_re f/doc/uid/TP30000803/TPXREF108"> developer.apple.com</a>h tml">apple.com</a> (thanks for the link)
p teron-06.html">6.4 GB/s</a>.
It connects to the CPU via the "Apple Processor Interface" NOT via hypertransport. It connects to it's memory controller at 1/2 the CPU speed, unlike Opteron and Athlon 64 which connect to the memory controller at FULL CPU SPEED.
Documentation:
<a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Ha
<a href="http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.
From the U3 Northbridge, it uses hypertransport to connect to the other peripherials at 3.2GB/s.
Opteron supports a hypertransport rate of <a href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/o
The Opteron 4xx and 8xx models also happen to have THREE of these hypertransport channels connected in a cross-bar configuration, giving EACH CPU a dedicated 6.4GB/s connection, rather than the G5 architecture which much share that connection (since there is only one U3 chip in a dually G5).
Support for PCI-X in the G5 by standard is a great thing. I wish more AMD systems contained it... I appreciate their native support of firewire and gigabit eithernet. But seriously... do you really want to argue architecture against a workstation class CPU? I'm a bit dissapointed by the Athlon 64, but the Athlon 64 FX (desktop version of Opteron) and Opteron lives up to most of my expectations and I expect to see more speeds out in the near future.
Stewey
This paper (which takes a few clicks and a change of teh URL to find) is specific to "multiprecision integers", which they define as integers longer than 128-bit. The improvements come particularily at much longer sizes, such as 5000 bit integers.
They do mention that some very precise floating point operations can be handled quickly by altivec, I seriously doubt that a multi-cycle implementation of the double-precision floating point into integer ops through altivec would beat the 2-issue per clock raw FPU of the G5.
Just a guess...
Stewey
Frankly, I'd have no problem driving a car to work that only had a 100 mile range if I could negate the fact that once a month, and emergency comes up at a remote location and I have to drive 120 miles with virtually no forwarning.
:-)
In addition, I don't want to have to own a SECOND car, if I decide to go skiing on Saturday and have to drive 90 miles uphill on the Interstate to get into the mountains... and then expect to be able to get back... or not be stranded if an avalanche on the road blocks traffic 5 miles short of my destination.
*shrugs*
If the electric car can be recharged in 20 minutes, it might do, since a "filling station" infrastructure could be built, but to be perfectly honest, if it takes hours to charge, I'd be stuck spending the afternoon on the mountain at the base of an avalanche field if the car takes 8 hours to recharge.
Stewey
3. Music should be free. Correct! CD's, however, are not free. You must pay for them. Get used to it and stop whining.
In the day that CD burners cost $500 and blank CDs were $5 each, it may seem valid to charge $15 for a disc. But... Do you know how much it costs to press a CD??
They cost about 1c each in bulk. If you amortize the cost of the equipment and work required to stamp them, maybe it's 50c each. The artist gets less than $1 per CD. Where does the rest go? Into the corporate oligarchy that is suing little girls. Charge me $3 for CDs and I'd buy two a week. Try to get $20 or even $14 for them and I will buy one every other month.
Sue little girls and threaten to destroy an emerging technology and I will buy none.
Stewey
Reminds me of the story of a guy who saves someone's life by giving CPR. Since he's an unpaid bystander, he can't be sued for accidentally breaking the guys rib in the process even though he had no formal CPR training.
So, the man with a broken rib takes his savior out to lunch and then sues him (successfully, I might add) for tens of thousands of dollars, since anyone recieving COMPENSATION (even a burger and fries) for medical services is liable for incidental injuries if it can be proved they have insufficient training at the procedure they attempted to perform.
Yes, this actually happened and the guy won the court case. I think it was later appealed and dropped, but he DID end up out many thousands of dollars after the lawyers got done with him.
"Much thanks for saving my life"
Stewey
# Read the book at the library
Ouch. I shall set up a nest under the stairs at the library where I can read my books in peace *evil grin*
# Photocopy the pages requires
Isn't that already illegal? A violation of copyright? DMCA or some such?
# Get someone *else* to check the book out for you
The whole stir about the RFID isn't that they can track the things you check out, but that they can know later (when you leave the supermarket that uses RFID for example) exactly where you were and what you were carrying.
# If it's recent enough, order/buy the book at a bookstore, use cash.
Again, the books will probably have RFID tags, just like a library book? No change...
*shrugs*
Call me paranoid.
Stewey
In the day of "intellectual property" where one of my University courses had in big bold letters right below the professors name:
:-)
This material copyrighted and for internal use by students of [University] currently enrolled in [class]. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
and then proceeded to list very little more than the course outline with a few isolated powerpoint slides he used in class a few times.
Then again, this particular professor was a [censored].
Stewey
Minor typo: should read
"my only gripe with this bill is this:"
I will admit I only read the "Simplified Outline", but from what I saw there, my only grip with this bill is this:
"Address-harvesting software must not be supplied,
acquired or used."
I have no problem banning the USAGE of harvested lists. But banning the software?? hmmmm it reeks of censorship to me. Personally, I'd rather be free and spammed than to be sliding down slippery slopes that are completely spam-free.
But maybe that's why I hang out here instead of the local pub.
Stewey
Wow, would that be a first? Slashdot their office phone number. :-)
Could that be considered a Denial of Service attack? On a phone?
hmmm
Stewey
is to tag a number of paedophiles who have volunteered to wear the device.
I have a feeling that "voulenteered" came down to this:
"either you wear our ID tag or you get locked up with Bubba for 10 years."
i could be wrong...
Hydrogen-based vehicles ARE electric vehicles.
The atomic bonds of H2 gas are just much more efficient at storing electricity than those weak ion based things we call "batteries".
The "Fuel Cell" is just an electric power source that is much more efficient output/weight.
Stewey