Thanks...I'm not really into toys likes X-toy, PS-toy, etc... I prefer a multi-purpose computer that I own, and can run software of my own choice -- INCLUDING games or simulations where I'm not limited difficult or non-expandable/upgradable hardware with a lock-in vendor. That people go for vendor locking, in hardware and software, they are nearly guaranteed poorer selection and higher prices and quality that may, occasionally, be exceptional. However, high-end gaming PC's can have just as good graphics -- but also run alot more. So when this tech is available on PC's, let me know -- I won't even say it has to be linux. It's amazing how strong the feeling are against proprietary softare in the tech industry, but then those same folks that would prefer linux, or put down MS or Apple for their proprietary DRM and their plan to eventually have your computer's TPM, be "ownable" by 3rd parties (in the sense that you can't do anything with it or alter it -- only wipe the whole chip, which would destroy any identity-tied DRM on the machine), yet completely accept and praise the latest proprietary game platform tech and software.
Am I the only one who wonders about the internal cognitive dissonance this is likely to generate in people's minds?
Complete interference in the free market principles as well as the freedom of those wishing to do the testing.
That is is regarded as only the purview of the USDA is complete baloney -- and certainly a limitation of free of expression. It's amazing how often the constitution gets walked on...
Unless things have changed, the market for talented computer types in France was pretty saturated -- as a class I found them generally better educated and brighter than the average American candidate. As for speaking English only...I know you are attempting at humor -- but it's amazing what even "earnestly trying" even with a rudimentary knowledge of French will do for you in France. Maybe it's the fact that I actually *like* the sound of the language -- and the fact that French take pride in their language -- and I like the way it sounds even when I am pronouncing it correctly. Of course not all regional variations are equally pleasant to the ear -- but a Paris accent, like a polished London accent can sound so pleasing to the ears. For some reason, I prefer female voices -- I find older and lower, more gruff voices difficult to understand.
But any French citizen under the age of about 30-40 will likely have some English knowledge -- a 2nd language is required in school, and English is by far the most common. Sigh....
I'd think it be much harder to integrate into Japanese society than French -- the Japanese are more xenophobic. Most of the the people of France's that have issues, have issues with the red-neck, uneducated, cowboy Bush types that look at France as some sort of vacation Disneyland. I'm sure France isn't unique, but it probably gets more American visitors than some other Euro countries (except maybe the UK) -- but France additionally is proud of French culture -- it has a long history of being an exporter of civilizing influence on culture and science, so to see ill-mannered, bulls-in-a-china shop being ridden by American loud-voice cowboys, comes across a bit grating.
Of course it is always the loud Americans that are the most noticed -- by mere fact of their loudness....and as in most social situations, bad-impressions count about 10x the weight of good ones.
This is news? On slashdot? Um...I haven't written a regular recurring monthly payment on any bill since the 80's. Automatic and electronic payment are pretty old tech. I think it started with my 1st credit card in the early 80's and my paycheck which was auto-deposited. Only ding on my credit report (gone now), from back in the late 80's on a store credit card that refused to take auto-payment.
How many of us got into computers exactly to have computers do mundane, repetitive tasks like this?
It's incredibly easy for police to create circumstances to prosecute you and imprison you.
The cops can and do lie -- OFTEN to get convictions, but you, under the principles of "free speech" are not allowed to lie to them. Two very good videos: Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1 and Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2.
The cop admits it -- he can follow anyone driving around and find something to arrest them for.
It's the same throughout the U.S. Our laws are crafted to make *everyone* a law breaker -- this enables the police to selectively enforce laws against anyone they don't like for any reason. Of course, they don't go hog wild -- prosecutions take time & paperwork. But the police get to selectively choose who to arrest -- where to focus efforts, and even whether or not to prosecute. With "consensual crimes" (activity you engage in by yourself or with consenting adults), they have turned to using "asset seizure" as a tool that they rely on to fund their departments and budgets. As an example -- the DEA has almost exclusively been using cash & property seizures against medical marijuana co-ops -- and NOT prosecuting the people. If they prosecute the people, they would potentially have to make a case in front of a non-sympathetic California jury, but if they just take the cash, product and easily disposed of assets, they can get large amounts of cash added to their budgets -- and little that the victims can do to get the money back (since, unlike laws regarding people, the current courts have ruled that property doesn't have to be assumed innocent until proven guilty -- it only takes a lesser "preponderance of evidence", instead of the "beyond a reasonable doubt". Any Cannabis defenders that become too public -- they'll try to take them down -- but they really only want to go for the ones that are causing the most problems (politically). A recent case where the feds prosecuted a grower had him only get a few months (he was growing as a medical provider) -- so then they called in the IRS to have them examine his operation -- and they are trying to go for tax evasion now. Of course if you pay income tax on drug proceeds, the IRS will turn you into the feds. Not sure why that doesn't count as self-incrimination.
The police and judicial system in the US is very corrupt -- with 5% of the population and 66% of the illegal drug consumption in the world --- and the US leading in pressuring other countries to crack down, the absurdity is hard to miss.
The claims are we are having problems affording prisons because of all the prisoners -- but the fact is, if we turned out all the non-violent Cannabis offenders, we'd cut the prison population by 60-66% (its about 450-500 thousand out of 750,000 in the federal system that are in for drug-related offenses -- often with mandatory sentencing being used to ensure the prisons stay full. Treatment programs are another big and growing business (as well as drug testing) -- with the biggest increase coming from those needing "treatment" programs for marijuana -- not because of a problem with marijuana -- but because they can trade prison time for taking a rehab program instead on 1st offenses. So the stats for those in rehab for "marijuana addiction" are used to fuel the myth that it's a "growing problem". The growing problem is that our screwed up legal system has turned everyone into criminals -- with selective enforcement used as a tool to strike at political undesirables.
Unfortunately, prohibition was proven not to work and was theoretically repealed, but the joke was they just moved onto finding a new substance to prohibit. Marijuana criminalization was lead by ex-anti-alcohol FBI enforcers (Anslinger, primarily) who were out of a job after prohibition was repealed -- but they needed to create a crime to stay on the "public dole"...so they did. Since Cannabis was made illegal, consumption has
Why was the above marked "offtopic", or is Perl somehow not considered a scripting language, and is Perl-6 somehow not giving similar-flavor 'warm-fuzzies' as Vista?
Perl6 != Perl, Larry admits this -- he just took the perl name for recognition, but it's a new language. The question is -- will the community of perl5 users just let perl die?
At least with Perl, there is an option. With XP vs. Vista,... well, there *should* be an option, but...
You don't have to send more current through a wire to get power from A->B. You can raise the voltage. Double the voltage => double the power, but at the same *current*. The wire size can be the same. The only problem with higher voltages is increased chance that the voltage will jump through whatever is being used to insulate the + and -.
For long distances -- it would be cheaper to up the voltage, use smaller wires (less copper), with more 'cheap' insulation between the + and -.
OTOH -- maybe what we need is a better power-over-IP protocol -- and just make it a broadband capacity issue...
The infrastructure for all of those draconian penalties is already active and being used for minor pot possession charges. One strike and you can lose all federal aid, or be forced to go to prison and/or buy into some expensive re-education program -- I can easily see a "file-sharer's reeducation school" like a "traffic school" -- where students can go to get reduced sentences. The corporations are close to pushing for penalties like these already. The populace gets used to outrageous sentencing being the 'norm'. It is much easier to permanently control the under-class if they have a criminal record. It's easy to get people to ignore these abuses -- because most people feel it's not about 'them'. So it gives enforcers carte blanche to go after anyone they wish. The only think limiting full enforcement is prison capacity -- and they are constantly building new prisons. Just a matter of time.
It's already common knowledge that anyone can be arrested, *today*. There are so many laws on the books -- police will admit or sometimes brag -- that they can just tail someone long enough and eventually find something. Everyone violates the law. Many laws are aimed at particular groups of people with a particular agenda in mind. Reagan-era Republicans started pursuing a campaigning to "defund the left" -- in everything from individuals to organizations -- to waste their money or take it through legal penalties that the left was more likely to be hit with. Thus arose property forfeiture and mandatory sentencing for minor casual, recreational (or medicinal) drug usage.
Property forfeiture is the easiest to use, since the victims of the forfeiture have to prove the property's innocence to get it back at their own expense. They don't get a free lawyer because they aren't charged with a crime -- so that's the tactic the DEA is using in California against medical dispensaries. They come in and simply take all the money, equipment and stock -- usually equivalent to 100-500 thousand dollars. They also take property when they can -- and they make sure that landlords know that their property can be seized if they allow illegal activity on their property (if you think about it, that could be used to confiscate even rental housing of those possessing pot -- especially if more than one renter has been busted at a particular address. Of course property seizure is why all our state and federal parks now have become riddled with booby-trapped grow-farms. I doubt people will relocate their computers to federal parks -- but imagine if they implemented property forfeiture as a penalty for file sharing -- the computers obviously get taken -- but might they go for the house too possibly being tainted with money-savings from having "pirated" songs? What, they aren't pirated? Can we see your receipts? How about licenses for music like those for software -- then like the software companies have a sw license inspection company that goes around doing pop-inspections, could they make that work for music licenses as well?
All the infrastructure needed for these schemes is already in use in other areas -- just needs to be activated for music and video content.:-/
The police already fire on citizens -- there's tons of cases of police abuse with SWAT teams -- which are close enough to military to wipe out any resistance the FBI and BATF would allow to exist (they usually come up with some reason to break into any well-armed defensive group -- tax evasion, child abuse rumors, whatever...they always find some excuse. Not to mention that in some states, you can't even own semi-automatics, let alone machine guns or powerful electronic scrambling equipment needed to deflect much of today's advanced weaponry.
Hey, I'm as slow as the next guy...(or not), but not upgrading to FF3 seems to be a fairly stupid action unless you know of a particular problem with your plugins that you can't work around.
Vista had and HAS known feature deficits compared to XP -- not to mention incompatibilities with drivers, software, and a 10% speed hit vs. xp2, and (given that xp3 is about 10% faster than xp2, that would make Vista around 1/5th slower than XP. It uses more resources for no functional gain except to control Hi-Definition A/V to allow more creator content control -- like disabling Media-Player based recording systems on broadcaster command (or 'accident' as NBC (as in MSNBC, or MicroSoftNBC) would have us believe). It unlikely that the NBC broadcasting arm of MSNBC would "accidentally" turn on a recording block that only MS-based players honored -- it is likely that that NBC of MSNBC would test MS's digital content recording control. Sounds like it worked. Next test will take a bit longer since people are resisting BluRay -- but certainly, something company will take the jump and offer some compelling content with special content control to only output hi-def on end-to-end encrypted paths (only supported on Vista with a newer generation HDCP encrypted monitor). It might even be on 'optional' content and not the main movie as a market 'test' -- to see what feedback they get -- just like Disney and WB added the "enhanced region encoding" feature designed to break playback on region-free DVD players (which was was easily evaded on better players, but a shot across the bow to consumers hoping to be able to view purchased foreign material on a 'domestic' player. But it will happen -- and it will get worked around -- but the slowness added to all Vista drivers for this harassment will never be eliminated -- it will just be covered up by lower expectations and faster hardware -- eventually...
FF3, on the other hand is faster than FF2, uses less memory, seems to have fixed the memory leakage problems, despite more security hoops needed for developing and using custom extensions -- which is likely a good thing, usually, but could be annoying for those who were used to doing things the easier way. But from a performance and feature viewpoint, FF3 is certainly NOT like Vista -- exactly the opposite -- like Vista SHOULD have been if MS hadn't sold the customers out to Hollywood -- but end users, or customers have never been important for Microsoft. Big Business is where the money is, and there is no government regulation to stop MS from offering whatever features other corporations want to buy on our computers (assuming we stay on the MS treadmill).
With FF3, extensions are the only drag on switching for most people and even there, you can just unpack most of them, and add V3.X compatibility in the contents.rdf file (or whatever its called) or turn off extension-version compatibility checking -- but those workaround won't solve real compatibility problems, but those are thankfully few. This is coming from someone who uses about 60-70 extensions...
If we collect the infrared rays then won't all those cute animations have to be rewritten to show a different method of heating? What will be reflected back by the CO2?
Think of the recent court ruling that gave weight to partial-rights contacts like the the Artistic license. Just because the 'right owner' didn't prohibit all access to the mall property -- they can requiring you abide by a set of rules, or your right to access the property is 'void', and you are thus trespassing. So either you can comply with their requests or leave the facility.
>I bet it also puts a hurting on your ability to tell the truth. Or tell anything. > ---
Not exactly. They target the inhibition centers or the imagination system -- which has to maybe create the lie -- more a right brain than left brain activity, maybe? with magnetic waves which blunt that area's activity. Thus if you were to speak, it would be temporarily hard to access your imagination easily. Certainly not an exact science at this point, but results are mostly repeatable (probably more so in males who tend to localize function more than women, allowing for more precise targeting, but I'm not sure how accurate or reliable a tool it would be. I wouldn't bet a court case on it, but it might psyche out a confession.
> This stuff promises to get ugly, but any contractors that claim enough info to disriminate between connections > firing during lies vs truth is overselling their tech. ---
I thought fMRI's could pretty much pinpoint use of recall areas, or creative area -- tending to be different locations of the brain and fairly consistent -- especially within the same brain (allowing calibration)?
Parts of it already are....like interpreting tests, reading medical imaging output, writing the reports, etc.
It's a big deal from the standpoint that the contractors that are typing in the results and interpreting your medical diagnostics are not regulated by US law nor subject to the the US HIPPA medical privacy rules -- since they don't have to have privacy safeguards, their services can be offered due to lower overhead in procedures and safeguards as well as lower labor costs. I'm sure having an 'expert on call' would be much cheaper if on call from other continents.
Blu-Ray offers significantly better DRM control than DVD. Some (many?) of the content protection features in BluRay discs and players just haven't been activated in order to make the "trap" more inviting to consumers -- like the 'accidental' test of MSNBC's "no copy" flag on MS (Vista et al) software. When consumers are forced to move to the next gen of software beyond XP, it seems MS and content providers will have, essentially, won.:-(
Personally I think XP should be "Open Sourced". If MS doesn't want to provide it and support it, it should be opened up to consumers. Vista OS and beyond will be accepting Hollywood control over our computers -- with any alterations being detected by the OS, and high-quality output being downgraded or disabled. It's really scary and it's currently the 600-lb gorilla that, as things stand, will eventually become the defacto standard for the next generation of content control.
In other words, the data would point to the non-existence of life on Mars.
Why? Since the atmosphere is so thin, oxygen in the atmosphere couldn't support life -- but there were soil-based organisms that could use the perchlorate as an oxidizing agent in driving life machinery? I.e. we use oxygen from the air, but why couldn't a bacteria or something evolve that needed perchlorates -- an adaptation martian life made as oxygen in the atmosphere became too thin to support life...or...otherway around....
One mistake I'd see about claiming no life based on this -- didn't they land at the equivalent of the arctic circle? If someone landed in certain areas on earth, they could certainly come back as poisoned and unable to support life. Isn't the northern hemisphere, where they landed the part that seems to have had a mile of soil stripped off of it as well?
Besides...aren't we all going to be told this was all done in a film studio in 20 years?
People sent him nasty and embarrassing things voluntarily and what they believe about the intent or pretense of the situation is immaterial.
Not necessarily -- and unlikely. They implicitly authorized him to look at those pictures because they were sent to him -- that doesn't give him the right to republish the pictures. If an author sends a copy of a book to someone that doesn't give that person the 'copyright'.
He illegally reproduced that material without the original authors permission. While he may have thought it was real funny, and neo-pervs love to expose and shame pervs, that doesn't mean he had any legal right to do what he did. Doing crime for a what one considers a justifiable reason is what vigilante's do. There's a reason why Batman wears a mask.
Justification:
If somebody exposes themselves to complete stranger it's their liability.
More justifications (they deserved to be hung!):
I have no sympathy that a bunch of irresponsible pervs got baited into a trap because of their gullibility, lack of foresight, lack of restraint, and general idiocy. Nobody forced them to do anything, all the 'victims' did was set themselves up for failure and embarrassment.
None of the victims did any 'crime'. These were intended as private actions between consenting adults, within legal bounds. What great moral imperative justifies their embarrassment that could have happened to any number of people on the internet.
The claim that he exposed an area of personal vulnerability on the net is especially specious since he is an example of the threat that they were vulnerable to.
"Designers" who can't code have absolutely no business "working" in software. If you think you really know how an interface should work and look, then learn to code it. Otherwise, you're just a critic of the kind that the NYT doesn't hire.
Why should Designers have to program when so many programmers get by without knowing Design?
I think that the bigger proof is that their product sucks ass.
Maybe...but was google "perfect" when it first hit the web? (I don't know) When I found out about google, it was already getting to be top on the block... altavista was best before it, I think...but everyone has to start somewhere...
CERTAINLY, Google needs some competition... As "benign" as they appear to be, a little competition can still help them keep focused on improvements...
No competition -- no strong push to "grow"....too much competition, you get squished, but some competition can be good for users/consumers as well as the company and furthering the technology...
They had six months living in a house they knew they couldn't afford.
Can I play? ?? The next two responders assume a particular "scenario"...which is the people living in the house...but there are scenarios that make up the *lion's* share of the housing market that don't fit this scenario...
How about they didn't live in the house, but it was one of 10 they bought in a rising market that they hoped they could turn around and resell...
During much of the recent housing surge, this was one of the bigger inflationary pressures -- real estate speculators... There are tons of 'get rich' courses on the market that talk about profiting in the real estate market without using any of your own money -- or for little or no money down. While some of these are legit, like buying a house as a longer term investment -- and eventually expecting rental income will exceed monthly payments -- a time-tested way to *slowly* build wealth -- many were get-rich quick schemes -- where they talked about buying up distressed, auction or "deal" properties, throw in a clean-up and coat of paint (if even that), and turn around for a quick sale. So...Gee... my "S-Corp" bought 20 houses, turned them for 10% profit, each, but the last few didn't sell before the market went down -- so I walk away." Now who is out? The single-person corp, walks away with their "salary" (paid from the corp), but walks away from the house that's below worth. Their S-corp takes a hit. Their S-corp dissolves and reforms under a new name....no credit downside, and I have the 20 houses I sold for a 500,000 profit each....I walk away with $10 mill.
The media is focusing on the many "little guys" that got caught in the "wake" of the high-fliers -- high fliers who were assisted by policies sent down from top -- (Bush lately, maybe going back to Reagan).
I don't know how many heard about this -- but real estate appraisers were pushed by government and industry to inflate the values of appraisals. There were complaints from a few "ethical" weenies, who didn't want to get with the program and toe the inflation line, and got kicked to the curb, but most cooperated due to their own pockets getting increased $$.
In order to mirror the excess spending of the Federal gov. and their deficit spending -- the gov needed a way to prop up people's "standard of living" -- even though they have been over-extending since Reagan "corrected" inflation problems with deficit spending (going from a debt of millions to TRILLIONS) to stop inflation and create economic happiness (at the expense of future generations). So appraisers were "encouraged" to inflate properties beyond their worth to provide "pseudo-backing" for higher and higher "secured loans" so Americans could continue their luxury lifestyle...
So who walks away with the money? The investors who had beaucoup bucks to begin with. Those left holding the bag -- were the ones holding houses when the real-values of the houses began to "hit". That and those left dealing with the 9+Trillion -- 9+ Tera-$ (T$) debt -- that has to come out of taxes (if we take the money from those who benefited most from the Reagan+Bush, tax-cut to Rich while increasing spending ("Voodoo Economics"), OR by massive deflation of the currency.
The Fed is, of course, owned by the "rich" (the Fed isn't part of the US Government) -- he's appointed by those who own the richest banks. So who does he help? He coughs up 22Billion in "aid" to Bear Stearns, to bail out Bear Stearns investors -- about 40-45% of the debt held by JP Morgan/Chase Manhattan Bank. Most of that wasn't a loan -- it didn't come from the Gov -- it came from the "US-Dollar-Common-STock" -- fo
so I assume that the idiots simply are a very vocal minority.
It's mostly our elected officials...the corporations preferred the office holders to be not-so-smart idiots so they were easier to control. The people have very little to say in the matter...
I really hate 'guess what the author had in mind' games...it makes me pick apart some egoists mind to solve their puzzle. That's not my idea of fun (it is for some people...the thrill of solving a carefully crafted and difficult puzzle, that find -- not me). I like the adventure -- combination of some puzzles but ways to keep the game moving and not get stuck, be it hints or skips, whatever...On some game that have had harder puzzles I could skip - I enjoy getting through "the story" -- that implies having a good story line -- Oblivion was my favorite so far. Allowed user mods, console access to get around game bugs or stuck points -- or make it playable in any way I wanted -- I could play ever part and didn't have to start from scratch each time. Bought all the extras they sold..even though I quickly got the game hack to play w/o the DVD (what a pain!). But it had real action -- not totally fighting to solve everything -- but different ways to play the game -- not a "script", but a wider-quest/story line. Puzzles virtually never devolved down into pure guessing -- which is pitting me against dice -- oh, how challenging! (sarcasm) The AI of the game...throughout enjoyable.
I liked Lara Kroft Legend as a balance between story and puzzle - but I had a puzzle guide through all of it that made it bearable. I didn't like it anywhere near as much as Oblivion though, and Anniversary -- just was too much work/no fun. Never finished it. It wasn't challenging -- just work. With enough mindless repetition I could do it, but that requires no-mind...too booring.
So maybe audiences are becoming more diverse -- other types of audiences -- not that puzzle games are disappearing, just that they are not the only ones out there.... Just off the top of my head -- it seems there are more now, in fact, than there were 20 years ago.
Would techniques to burn lines into silicon at wavelengths that could match light at various angles improve absorption?
Or, for example, if one built cells not using flat silicon, but in bubbles, they would capture more light at odd angles -- it wouldn't be "as" efficient/unit silicon versus flat at ideal angles, but it should gather more energy overall. It should even be easy to create sunflower-type auto-following of the sun using different metals with no moving parts to get worn.
But depending on the chip complexity -- it might will be able to progress much faster than now, but at 38$ for something the size of a fingernail, it would make for expensive.01 are (m**2) slabs.
Uh....maybe it would be more practical to launch that type of mass from the moon?
I.e. -- What's the feasibility of extracting the needed mass from the moon and using rockets to launch from there?
Certainly the moon would be close enough. 1/6th gravity, so only 3 Ares-V rockets to launch the same mass?
However -- instead of applying that thrust to another mass...what would be the effect of attaching one or more rockets to the incoming asteroid? Could that thrust change the asteroid's direction? Is it possible to limit the amount of thrust so that the asteroid wouldn't be likely to break up?
If we had reached the "asteroid belt"...the cost of accelerating a mass from there would be small -- not much gravity to overcome.
If we had the tech -- what about moving several asteroids from the asteroid belt into earth, lunar or solar orbit -- so if we needed a large mass, we could toss one or more of the asteroids we've stored for that purpose at the incoming rock? Seems like all of these might be possible (but expensive and slow to setup) given our current tech -- but might give best possibility of deflecting a problem.
Or is this just too expensive to make sense?
Certainly there are others who agree with Hawkings that it is only a matter of time before an extinction level event hits earth again -- and that the only way for humans to survive it is by populating other planets or satellites in our solar system.
As for launching *mass* from the earth -- we need to develop something besides chemical rockets -- chemical fuel is limited and expensive to produce. The space elevator is one option -- though it has alot of problems, not the least of which it would be extremely vulnerable to terrorist attack.
But...a rail-gun could be used to launch mass (not likely humans) -- with the energy being electrical energy -- it could be recharged/powered via solar.
For getting humans launched -- what would be the hypothetical effect of launching humans via a rail-gun -- but for the launch phase, have the humans suspended in water where our "weight" was near zero? Would that allow humans to survive such G-factors?
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Thanks...I'm not really into toys likes X-toy, PS-toy, etc... I prefer a multi-purpose computer that I own, and can run software of my own choice -- INCLUDING games or simulations where I'm not limited difficult or non-expandable/upgradable hardware with a lock-in vendor. That people go for vendor locking, in hardware and software, they are nearly guaranteed poorer selection and higher prices and quality that may, occasionally, be exceptional. However, high-end gaming PC's can have just as good graphics -- but also run alot more. So when this tech is available on PC's, let me know -- I won't even say it has to be linux. It's amazing how strong the feeling are against proprietary softare in the tech industry, but then those same folks that would prefer linux, or put down MS or Apple for their proprietary DRM and their plan to eventually have your computer's TPM, be "ownable" by 3rd parties (in the sense that you can't do anything with it or alter it -- only wipe the whole chip, which would destroy any identity-tied DRM on the machine), yet completely accept and praise the latest proprietary game platform tech and software.
Am I the only one who wonders about the internal cognitive dissonance this is likely to generate in people's minds?
Complete interference in the free market principles as well as the freedom of those wishing to do the testing.
That is is regarded as only the purview of the USDA is complete baloney -- and certainly a limitation of free of expression. It's amazing how often the constitution gets walked on...
Unless things have changed, the market for talented computer types in France was pretty saturated -- as a class I found them generally better educated and brighter than the average American candidate. As for speaking English only...I know you are attempting at humor -- but it's amazing what even "earnestly trying" even with a rudimentary knowledge of French will do for you in France. Maybe it's the fact that I actually *like* the sound of the language -- and the fact that French take pride in their language -- and I like the way it sounds even when I am pronouncing it correctly. Of course not all regional variations are equally pleasant to the ear -- but a Paris accent, like a polished London accent can sound so pleasing to the ears. For some reason, I prefer female voices -- I find older and lower, more gruff voices difficult to understand.
But any French citizen under the age of about 30-40 will likely have some English knowledge -- a 2nd language is required in school, and English is by far the most common. Sigh....
I'd think it be much harder to integrate into Japanese society than French -- the Japanese are more xenophobic. Most of the the people of France's that have issues, have issues with the red-neck, uneducated, cowboy Bush types that look at France as some sort of vacation Disneyland. I'm sure France isn't unique, but it probably gets more American visitors than some other Euro countries (except maybe the UK) -- but France additionally is proud of French culture -- it has a long history of being an exporter of civilizing influence on culture and science, so to see ill-mannered, bulls-in-a-china shop being ridden by American loud-voice cowboys, comes across a bit grating.
Of course it is always the loud Americans that are the most noticed -- by mere fact of their loudness....and as in most social situations, bad-impressions count about 10x the weight of good ones.
This is news? On slashdot? Um...I haven't written a regular recurring monthly payment on any bill since the 80's. Automatic and electronic payment are pretty old tech. I think it started with my 1st credit card in the early 80's and my paycheck which was auto-deposited. Only ding on my credit report (gone now), from back in the late 80's on a store credit card that refused to take auto-payment.
How many of us got into computers exactly to have computers do mundane, repetitive tasks like this?
You are incredibly deluded.
It's incredibly easy for police to create circumstances to prosecute you and imprison you.
The cops can and do lie -- OFTEN to get convictions, but you, under the principles of "free speech" are not allowed to lie to them. Two very good videos:
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1 and
Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2.
The cop admits it -- he can follow anyone driving around and find something to arrest them for.
It's the same throughout the U.S. Our laws are crafted to make *everyone* a law breaker -- this enables the police to selectively enforce laws against anyone they don't like for any reason. Of course, they don't go hog wild -- prosecutions take time & paperwork. But the police get to selectively choose who to arrest -- where to focus efforts, and even whether or not to prosecute. With "consensual crimes" (activity you engage in by yourself or with consenting adults), they have turned to using "asset seizure" as a tool that they rely on to fund their departments and budgets. As an example -- the DEA has almost exclusively been using cash & property seizures against medical marijuana co-ops -- and NOT prosecuting the people. If they prosecute the people, they would potentially have to make a case in front of a non-sympathetic California jury, but if they just take the cash, product and easily disposed of assets, they can get large amounts of cash added to their budgets -- and little that the victims can do to get the money back (since, unlike laws regarding people, the current courts have ruled that property doesn't have to be assumed innocent until proven guilty -- it only takes a lesser "preponderance of evidence", instead of the "beyond a reasonable doubt". Any Cannabis defenders that become too public -- they'll try to take them down -- but they really only want to go for the ones that are causing the most problems (politically). A recent case where the feds prosecuted a grower had him only get a few months (he was growing as a medical provider) -- so then they called in the IRS to have them examine his operation -- and they are trying to go for tax evasion now. Of course if you pay income tax on drug proceeds, the IRS will turn you into the feds. Not sure why that doesn't count as self-incrimination.
The police and judicial system in the US is very corrupt -- with 5% of the population and 66% of the illegal drug consumption in the world --- and the US leading in pressuring other countries to crack down, the absurdity is hard to miss.
The claims are we are having problems affording prisons because of all the prisoners -- but the fact is, if we turned out all the non-violent Cannabis offenders, we'd cut the prison population by 60-66% (its about 450-500 thousand out of 750,000 in the federal system that are in for drug-related offenses -- often with mandatory sentencing being used to ensure the prisons stay full. Treatment programs are another big and growing business (as well as drug testing) -- with the biggest increase coming from those needing "treatment" programs for marijuana -- not because of a problem with marijuana -- but because they can trade prison time for taking a rehab program instead on 1st offenses. So the stats for those in rehab for "marijuana addiction" are used to fuel the myth that it's a "growing problem". The growing problem is that our screwed up legal system has turned everyone into criminals -- with selective enforcement used as a tool to strike at political undesirables.
Unfortunately, prohibition was proven not to work and was theoretically repealed, but the joke was they just moved onto finding a new substance to prohibit. Marijuana criminalization was lead by ex-anti-alcohol FBI enforcers (Anslinger, primarily) who were out of a job after prohibition was repealed -- but they needed to create a crime to stay on the "public dole"...so they did. Since Cannabis was made illegal, consumption has
Why was the above marked "offtopic", or is Perl somehow not considered a scripting language, and is Perl-6 somehow not giving similar-flavor 'warm-fuzzies' as Vista?
Perl6 != Perl, Larry admits this -- he just took the perl name for recognition, but it's a new language.
The question is -- will the community of perl5 users just let perl die?
At least with Perl, there is an option. With XP vs. Vista, ... well, there *should* be an option, but...
There is one flaw in your argument.
You don't have to send more current through a wire to get power from A->B. You can raise
the voltage. Double the voltage => double the power, but at the same *current*. The wire
size can be the same. The only problem with higher voltages is increased chance that the voltage will jump through whatever is being used to insulate the + and -.
For long distances -- it would be cheaper to up the voltage, use smaller wires (less copper), with more 'cheap' insulation between the + and -.
OTOH -- maybe what we need is a better power-over-IP protocol -- and just make it a broadband capacity issue...
The infrastructure for all of those draconian penalties is already active and being used for minor pot possession charges. One strike and you can lose all federal aid, or be forced to go to prison and/or buy into some expensive re-education program -- I can easily see a "file-sharer's reeducation school" like a "traffic school" -- where students can go to get reduced sentences. The corporations are close to pushing for penalties like these already. The populace gets used to outrageous sentencing being the 'norm'. It is much easier to permanently control the under-class if they have a criminal record. It's easy to get people to ignore these abuses -- because most people feel it's not about 'them'. So it gives enforcers carte blanche to go after anyone they wish. The only think limiting full enforcement is prison capacity -- and they are constantly building new prisons. Just a matter of time.
It's already common knowledge that anyone can be arrested, *today*. There are so many laws on the books -- police will admit or sometimes brag -- that they can just tail someone long enough and eventually find something. Everyone violates the law. Many laws are aimed at particular groups of people with a particular agenda in mind. Reagan-era Republicans started pursuing a campaigning to "defund the left" -- in everything from individuals to organizations -- to waste their money or take it through legal penalties that the left was more likely to be hit with. Thus arose property forfeiture and mandatory sentencing for minor casual, recreational (or medicinal) drug usage.
Property forfeiture is the easiest to use, since the victims of the forfeiture have to prove the property's innocence to get it back at their own expense. They don't get a free lawyer because they aren't charged with a crime -- so that's the tactic the DEA is using in California against medical dispensaries. They come in and simply take all the money, equipment and stock -- usually equivalent to 100-500 thousand dollars. They also take property when they can -- and they make sure that landlords know that their property can be seized if they allow illegal activity on their property (if you think about it, that could be used to confiscate even rental housing of those possessing pot -- especially if more than one renter has been busted at a particular address. Of course property seizure is why all our state and federal parks now have become riddled with booby-trapped grow-farms. I doubt people will relocate their computers to federal parks -- but imagine if they implemented property forfeiture as a penalty for file sharing -- the computers obviously get taken -- but might they go for the house too possibly being tainted with money-savings from having "pirated" songs? What, they aren't pirated? Can we see your receipts? How about licenses for music like those for software -- then like the software companies have a sw license inspection company that goes around doing pop-inspections, could they make that work for music licenses as well?
All the infrastructure needed for these schemes is already in use in other areas -- just needs to be activated for music and video content. :-/
The police already fire on citizens -- there's tons of cases of police abuse with SWAT teams -- which are close enough to military to wipe out any resistance the FBI and BATF would allow to exist (they usually come up with some reason to break into any well-armed defensive group -- tax evasion, child abuse rumors, whatever...they always find some excuse.
Not to mention that in some states, you can't even own semi-automatics, let alone machine guns or powerful electronic scrambling equipment needed to deflect much of today's advanced weaponry.
Hey, I'm as slow as the next guy...(or not), but not upgrading to FF3 seems to be a fairly stupid action unless you know of a particular problem with your plugins that you can't work around.
Vista had and HAS known feature deficits compared to XP -- not to mention incompatibilities with drivers, software, and a 10% speed hit vs. xp2, and (given that xp3 is about 10% faster than xp2, that would make Vista around 1/5th slower than XP. It uses more resources for no functional gain except to control Hi-Definition A/V to allow more creator content control -- like disabling Media-Player based recording systems on broadcaster command (or 'accident' as NBC (as in MSNBC, or MicroSoftNBC) would have us believe). It unlikely that the NBC broadcasting arm of MSNBC would "accidentally" turn on a recording block that only MS-based players honored -- it is likely that that NBC of MSNBC would test MS's digital content recording control. Sounds like it worked. Next test will take a bit longer since people are resisting BluRay -- but certainly, something company will take the jump and offer some compelling content with special content control to only output hi-def on end-to-end encrypted paths (only supported on Vista with a newer generation HDCP encrypted monitor). It might even be on 'optional' content and not the main movie as a market 'test' -- to see what feedback they get -- just like Disney and WB added the "enhanced region encoding" feature designed to break playback on region-free DVD players (which was was easily evaded on better players, but a shot across the bow to consumers hoping to be able to view purchased foreign material on a 'domestic' player. But it will happen -- and it will get worked around -- but the slowness added to all Vista drivers for this harassment will never be eliminated -- it will just be covered up by lower expectations and faster hardware -- eventually...
FF3, on the other hand is faster than FF2, uses less memory, seems to have fixed the memory leakage problems, despite more security hoops needed for developing and using custom extensions -- which is likely a good thing, usually, but could be annoying for those who were used to doing things the easier way. But from a performance and feature viewpoint, FF3 is certainly NOT like Vista -- exactly the opposite -- like Vista SHOULD have been if MS hadn't sold the customers out to Hollywood -- but end users, or customers have never been important for Microsoft. Big Business is where the money is, and there is no government regulation to stop MS from offering whatever features other corporations want to buy on our computers (assuming we stay on the MS treadmill).
With FF3, extensions are the only drag on switching for most people and even there, you can just unpack most of them, and add V3.X compatibility in the contents.rdf file (or whatever its called) or turn off extension-version compatibility checking -- but those workaround won't solve real compatibility problems, but those are thankfully few. This is coming from someone who uses about 60-70 extensions...
If we collect the infrared rays then won't all those cute animations have to be rewritten to show a different method of heating? What will be reflected back by the CO2?
They were not wrong.
Think of the recent court ruling that gave weight to partial-rights contacts like the the Artistic license. Just because the 'right owner' didn't prohibit all access to the mall property -- they can requiring you abide by a set of rules, or your right to access the property is 'void', and you are thus trespassing. So either you can comply with their requests or leave the facility.
>I bet it also puts a hurting on your ability to tell the truth. Or tell anything.
>
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Not exactly. They target the inhibition centers or the imagination system -- which has to maybe create the lie -- more a right brain than left brain activity, maybe? with magnetic waves which blunt that area's activity. Thus if you were to speak, it would be temporarily hard to access your imagination easily. Certainly not an exact science at this point, but results are mostly repeatable (probably more so in males who tend to localize function more than women, allowing for more precise targeting, but I'm not sure how accurate or reliable a tool it would be. I wouldn't bet a court case on it, but it might psyche out a confession.
> This stuff promises to get ugly, but any contractors that claim enough info to disriminate between connections
> firing during lies vs truth is overselling their tech.
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I thought fMRI's could pretty much pinpoint use of recall areas, or creative area -- tending to be different locations of the brain and fairly consistent -- especially within the same brain (allowing calibration)?
-l
Wasn't too friendly to my browser.
Even trying setting a downloading it & installing; the content wouldn't activate.
Parts of it already are....like interpreting tests, reading medical imaging output, writing the reports, etc.
It's a big deal from the standpoint that the contractors that are typing in the results and interpreting your medical diagnostics are not regulated by US law nor subject to the the US HIPPA medical privacy rules -- since they don't have to have privacy safeguards, their services can be offered due to lower overhead in procedures and safeguards as well as lower labor costs. I'm sure having an 'expert on call' would be much cheaper if on call from other continents.
Taking samples is something that isn't likely to be outsourced overseas any time soon. But remote surgery? Trans-atlantic surgery was done via remote 7 years ago.....
Blu-Ray offers significantly better DRM control than DVD. Some (many?) of the content protection features in BluRay discs and players just haven't been activated in order to make the "trap" more inviting to consumers -- like the 'accidental' test of MSNBC's "no copy" flag on MS (Vista et al) software. When consumers are forced to move to the next gen of software beyond XP, it seems MS and content providers will have, essentially, won. :-(
Personally I think XP should be "Open Sourced". If MS doesn't want to provide it and support it, it should be opened up to consumers. Vista OS and beyond will be accepting Hollywood control over our computers -- with any alterations being detected by the OS, and high-quality output being downgraded or disabled. It's really scary and it's currently the 600-lb gorilla that, as things stand, will eventually become the defacto standard for the next generation of content control.
In other words, the data would point to the non-existence of life on Mars.
Why?
Since the atmosphere is so thin, oxygen in the atmosphere couldn't support life -- but there were soil-based organisms that could use the perchlorate as an oxidizing agent in driving life machinery? I.e. we use oxygen from the air, but why couldn't a bacteria or something evolve that needed perchlorates -- an adaptation martian life made as oxygen in the atmosphere became too thin to support life...or...otherway around....
One mistake I'd see about claiming no life based on this -- didn't they land at the equivalent of the arctic circle? If someone landed in certain areas on earth, they could certainly come back as poisoned and unable to support life. Isn't the northern hemisphere, where they landed the part that seems to have had a mile of soil stripped off of it as well?
Besides...aren't we all going to be told this was all done in a film studio in 20 years?
People sent him nasty and embarrassing things voluntarily and what they believe about the intent or pretense of the situation is immaterial.
Not necessarily -- and unlikely. They implicitly authorized him to look at those pictures because they were sent to him -- that doesn't give him the right to republish the pictures. If an author sends a copy of a book to someone that doesn't give that person the 'copyright'.
He illegally reproduced that material without the original authors permission. While he may have thought it was real funny, and neo-pervs love to expose and shame pervs, that doesn't mean he had any legal right to do what he did. Doing crime for a what one considers a justifiable reason is what vigilante's do. There's a reason why Batman wears a mask.
Justification:
If somebody exposes themselves to complete stranger it's their liability.
More justifications (they deserved to be hung!):
I have no sympathy that a bunch of irresponsible pervs got baited into a trap because of their gullibility, lack of foresight, lack of restraint, and general idiocy. Nobody forced them to do anything, all the 'victims' did was set themselves up for failure and embarrassment.
None of the victims did any 'crime'. These were intended as private actions between consenting adults, within legal bounds. What great moral imperative justifies their embarrassment that could have happened to any number of people on the internet.
The claim that he exposed an area of personal vulnerability on the net is especially specious since he is an example of the threat that they were vulnerable to.
-l
"Designers" who can't code have absolutely no business "working" in software. If you think you really know how an interface should work and look, then learn to code it. Otherwise, you're just a critic of the kind that the NYT doesn't hire.
Why should Designers have to program when so many programmers get by without knowing Design?
Maybe...but was google "perfect" when it first hit the web? (I don't know)
When I found out about google, it was already getting to be top on the block...
altavista was best before it, I think...but everyone has to start somewhere...
CERTAINLY, Google needs some competition ... As "benign" as they appear to be, a little competition can still help them keep focused on improvements...
No competition -- no strong push to "grow"....too much competition, you get squished, but some competition can be good for users/consumers as well as the company and furthering the technology...
Can I play? ?? The next two responders assume a particular "scenario"...which is the people living in the house...but there are scenarios that make up the *lion's* share of the housing market that don't fit this scenario...
How about they didn't live in the house, but it was one of 10 they bought in a rising market that they
hoped they could turn around and resell...
During much of the recent housing surge, this was one of the bigger inflationary pressures -- real estate speculators... There are tons of 'get rich' courses on the market that talk about profiting in the real estate market without using any of your own money -- or for little or no money down. While some of these are legit, like buying a house as a longer term investment -- and eventually expecting rental income will exceed monthly payments -- a time-tested way to *slowly* build wealth -- many were get-rich quick schemes -- where they talked about buying up distressed, auction or "deal" properties, throw in a clean-up and coat of paint (if even that), and turn around for a quick sale. So...Gee... my "S-Corp" bought 20 houses, turned them for 10% profit, each, but the last few didn't sell before the market went down -- so I walk away." Now who is out? The single-person corp, walks away with their "salary" (paid from the corp), but walks away from the house that's below worth. Their S-corp takes a hit. Their S-corp dissolves and reforms under a new name....no credit downside, and I have the 20 houses I sold for a 500,000 profit each....I walk away with $10 mill.
The media is focusing on the many "little guys" that got caught in the "wake" of the high-fliers -- high fliers who were assisted by policies sent down from top -- (Bush lately, maybe going back to Reagan).
I don't know how many heard about this -- but real estate appraisers were pushed by government and industry to inflate the values of appraisals. There were complaints from a few "ethical" weenies, who didn't want to get with the program and toe the inflation line, and got kicked to the curb, but most cooperated due to their own pockets getting increased $$.
In order to mirror the excess spending of the Federal gov. and their deficit spending -- the gov needed a way to prop up people's "standard of living" -- even though they have been over-extending since Reagan "corrected" inflation problems with deficit spending (going from a debt of millions to TRILLIONS) to stop inflation and create economic happiness (at the expense of future generations). So appraisers were "encouraged" to inflate properties beyond their worth to provide "pseudo-backing" for higher and higher "secured loans" so Americans could continue their luxury lifestyle...
So who walks away with the money? The investors who had beaucoup bucks to begin with. Those left holding the bag -- were the ones holding houses when the real-values of the houses began to "hit". That and those left dealing with the 9+Trillion -- 9+ Tera-$ (T$) debt -- that has to come out of taxes (if we take the money from those who benefited most from the Reagan+Bush, tax-cut to Rich while increasing spending ("Voodoo Economics"), OR by massive deflation of the currency.
The Fed is, of course, owned by the "rich" (the Fed isn't part of the US Government) -- he's appointed by those who own the richest banks. So who does he help? He coughs up 22Billion in "aid" to Bear Stearns, to bail out Bear Stearns investors -- about 40-45% of the debt held by JP Morgan/Chase Manhattan Bank. Most of that wasn't a loan -- it didn't come from the Gov -- it came from the "US-Dollar-Common-STock" -- fo
so I assume that the idiots simply are a very vocal minority.
It's mostly our elected officials...the corporations preferred the office holders to be not-so-smart idiots so they were easier to control. The people have very little to say in the matter...
*cough*...
I really hate 'guess what the author had in mind' games...it makes me pick apart some egoists mind to solve their puzzle. That's not my idea of fun (it is for some people...the thrill of solving a carefully crafted and difficult puzzle, that find -- not me). I like the adventure -- combination of some puzzles but ways to keep the game moving and not get stuck, be it hints or skips, whatever...On some game that have had harder puzzles I could skip - I enjoy getting through "the story" -- that implies having a good story line -- Oblivion was my favorite so far. Allowed user mods, console access to get around game bugs or stuck points -- or make it playable in any way I wanted -- I could play ever part and didn't have to start from scratch each time. Bought all the extras they sold..even though I quickly got the game hack to play w/o the DVD (what a pain!). But it had real action -- not totally fighting to solve everything -- but different ways to play the game -- not a "script", but a wider-quest/story line. Puzzles virtually never devolved down into pure guessing -- which is pitting me against dice -- oh, how challenging! (sarcasm) The AI of the game...throughout enjoyable.
I liked Lara Kroft Legend as a balance between story and puzzle - but I had a puzzle guide through all of it that made it bearable. I didn't like it anywhere near as much as Oblivion though, and Anniversary -- just was too much work/no fun. Never finished it. It wasn't challenging -- just work. With enough mindless repetition I could do it, but that requires no-mind...too booring.
So maybe audiences are becoming more diverse -- other types of audiences -- not that puzzle games are disappearing, just that they are not the only ones out there.... Just off the top of my head -- it seems there are more now, in fact, than there were 20 years ago.
-l
Would techniques to burn lines into silicon at wavelengths that could match light at various angles improve absorption?
Or, for example, if one built cells not using flat silicon, but in bubbles, they would capture more light at odd angles -- it wouldn't be "as" efficient/unit silicon versus flat at ideal angles, but it should gather more energy overall. It should even be easy to create sunflower-type auto-following of the sun using different metals with no moving parts to get worn.
But depending on the chip complexity -- it might will be able to progress much faster than now, but at 38$ for something the size of a fingernail, it would make for expensive .01 are (m**2) slabs.
Uh....maybe it would be more practical to launch that type of mass from the moon?
I.e. -- What's the feasibility of extracting the needed mass from the moon and using rockets to launch from there?
Certainly the moon would be close enough. 1/6th gravity, so only 3 Ares-V rockets to launch the same mass?
However -- instead of applying that thrust to another mass...what would be the effect of attaching one or more rockets to the incoming asteroid? Could that thrust change the asteroid's direction? Is it possible to limit the amount of thrust so that the asteroid wouldn't be likely to break up?
If we had reached the "asteroid belt"...the cost of accelerating a mass from there would be small -- not much gravity to overcome.
If we had the tech -- what about moving several asteroids from the asteroid belt into earth, lunar or solar orbit -- so if we needed a large mass, we could toss one or more of the asteroids we've stored for that purpose at the incoming rock? Seems like all of these might be possible (but expensive and slow to setup) given our current tech -- but might give best possibility of deflecting a problem.
Or is this just too expensive to make sense?
Certainly there are others who agree with Hawkings that it is only a matter of time before an extinction level event hits earth again -- and that the only way for humans to survive it is by populating other planets or satellites in our solar system.
As for launching *mass* from the earth -- we need to develop something besides chemical rockets -- chemical fuel is limited and expensive to produce. The space elevator is one option -- though it has alot of problems, not the least of which it would be extremely vulnerable to terrorist attack.
But...a rail-gun could be used to launch mass (not likely humans) -- with the energy being electrical energy -- it could be recharged/powered via solar.
For getting humans launched -- what would be the hypothetical effect of launching humans via a rail-gun -- but for
the launch phase, have the humans suspended in water where our "weight" was near zero? Would that allow humans to survive such G-factors?
Curious...