Re:the real terrorists are governments and media
on
Cyber-Attacks?
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· Score: 1
Incidentally, Al Qaeda is still out there, and they are probably pissed about what we did to the occupation of Afghanistan, their biggest training grounds. We also managed to piss off a bunch of other countries in the process too.
Also, don't tell me that missle defense is a lesser issue than public health. If everyone is dead from a missle attack, there's no point to a "health program". Don't think its not possible. China is NOT our friend, and they have a LOT of missiles. Have you noticed all the talk about a Chinese space program? Thats because they have long range launching capabilites now, the kind that can also target the USA with nuclear missles.
Since I was in high school (1995) I noticed just how ridiculous the radio was getting. I was commuting an hour each way, so I had plenty of time to listen to the radio.
You could compile a list of what songs they were going to play! Half of them played the same thing. I remember them playing a Dead-eye Dick song so many times, one time I listened to it four times in a row, simply changing the station. This was not an isolated incident-- frequently (at least twice a week) two stations would play the same song at the same time.
Its even worse now. There are three stations who play the same songs in almost the same order. They play a two hour block of popular music that is then essentially repeated, ALL DAY. The "mix" stations, which portend to play music from the 60's through today, apparently believe there was only about 80 songs ever written in 40 years.
I'm not stupid. I notice that mix stations all play the same songs. I notice other things too. Like when a different old song is put into the loop. "Oh, they played something different for a change" Then I change to another station after the song is over, and "mysteriously", ANOTHER station is playing the same song that was ignored for 20 years. Then I get the privelege of being bombarded by it for about 3 months.
Every artist has 1-3 songs they will play on the radio, and that is all they will play, EVER. Jesus Christ, just play something off the rest of the CD, please!
There's more to it than that. Privacy protects you from "casual" abuse by petty peons working in the government.
While a law doesn't offer you any iron guarantee that someone in a govt. position won't use his position to hurt you for any petty reason, it does provide sanctions. For example, a police officer can use his job to find out just about anything he wants to know about just about anyone--easily, and without suspicion. He could use that information to blackmail or harass someone, and get himself a little cash. Or he could use that computer system to get phone numbers of pretty girls in cars by their license plate numbers (I think Slashdot did a story on this before).
While a privacy law doesn't directly prevent the officer from doing any of these things, most people won't take the risk if they think they could get into serious trouble for it. The citizen's privacy was protected. That "secret" information might still be known by some people, but they aren't going to act to abuse it.
Maybe some mittens, its frickin feezing in here...
Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids
on
Greenbacks No More
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· Score: 0
There would be a black market for currency that was last in the hands of dead people. People would be killed for their cash, which is now untraceable to the person who had it last.
Thank you for your post. I got modded down to 0 in the windependence day article for suggesting that until we have a fully functional (not with brand-new updates within the last two weeks, as the previous post seems to suggest) desktop, most users aren't going to exercise their "indpendence" from Windows.
I've been waiting to switch completely to Linux, but many of the problems you listed (and others) run right up against things graphic artists (web AND print, thank you) do on a daily basis. Also to the previous poster you were responding to: It can't just be possible to do something, it has to be easy. If a GUI is complicated to use, it's a failure.
Thank you.
Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...
on
Windependence Day
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· Score: 0
You can live in your smug, superior little world, or you can acknowledge that consumers have demands for products. Isn't the point of "windependence day" to get people to ditch Windows???
"Help" means that I can get pertinent, pragmatic information quickly. Its also called a "necessity" if you are into things like usability.
Let's declare a Windows independence day...
on
Windependence Day
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· Score: 0, Redundant
when we get a unified, working, intuitive desktop with a HELP BUTTON.
Linux is all good and well for server replacement, but seriously, anybody even remotely knowledgeable was already using something besides windows, even if not linux.
Independence for consumers means desktop. period. For who else is this meaningful?
I don't quite understand Iowa's involvement in this lawsuit. Every Place (save one) that I've worked at since 1995 has been pretty entrenched in win95/NT4.0, placing it firmly in "IE not yet integrated" territory. The last two places I've worked at were just installing Win2k within this last year.
Furthermore, no one here even seems aware that "we" are suing anyone. If this is being done by the people's will, what people? Where are they? I haven't met any.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be sued, but that its pretty unconvincing that anyone besides a few money-grubbing bureaucrats are begind these lawsuits.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, don't tell me that missle defense is a lesser issue than public health. If everyone is dead from a missle attack, there's no point to a "health program". Don't think its not possible. China is NOT our friend, and they have a LOT of missiles. Have you noticed all the talk about a Chinese space program? Thats because they have long range launching capabilites now, the kind that can also target the USA with nuclear missles.
In short, I'm worried and why aren't you?
No, seriously.
You could compile a list of what songs they were going to play! Half of them played the same thing. I remember them playing a Dead-eye Dick song so many times, one time I listened to it four times in a row, simply changing the station. This was not an isolated incident-- frequently (at least twice a week) two stations would play the same song at the same time.
Its even worse now. There are three stations who play the same songs in almost the same order. They play a two hour block of popular music that is then essentially repeated, ALL DAY. The "mix" stations, which portend to play music from the 60's through today, apparently believe there was only about 80 songs ever written in 40 years.
I'm not stupid. I notice that mix stations all play the same songs. I notice other things too. Like when a different old song is put into the loop. "Oh, they played something different for a change" Then I change to another station after the song is over, and "mysteriously", ANOTHER station is playing the same song that was ignored for 20 years. Then I get the privelege of being bombarded by it for about 3 months.
Every artist has 1-3 songs they will play on the radio, and that is all they will play, EVER. Jesus Christ, just play something off the rest of the CD, please!
and blunt head trauma from soccer riots. Can't forget those.
While a law doesn't offer you any iron guarantee that someone in a govt. position won't use his position to hurt you for any petty reason, it does provide sanctions. For example, a police officer can use his job to find out just about anything he wants to know about just about anyone--easily, and without suspicion. He could use that information to blackmail or harass someone, and get himself a little cash. Or he could use that computer system to get phone numbers of pretty girls in cars by their license plate numbers (I think Slashdot did a story on this before).
While a privacy law doesn't directly prevent the officer from doing any of these things, most people won't take the risk if they think they could get into serious trouble for it. The citizen's privacy was protected. That "secret" information might still be known by some people, but they aren't going to act to abuse it.
For ONE...MILLION...DOLLARS!
Maybe some mittens, its frickin feezing in here...
There would be a black market for currency that was last in the hands of dead people. People would be killed for their cash, which is now untraceable to the person who had it last.
I've been waiting to switch completely to Linux, but many of the problems you listed (and others) run right up against things graphic artists (web AND print, thank you) do on a daily basis. Also to the previous poster you were responding to: It can't just be possible to do something, it has to be easy. If a GUI is complicated to use, it's a failure.
Thank you.
"Help" means that I can get pertinent, pragmatic information quickly. Its also called a "necessity" if you are into things like usability.
when we get a unified, working, intuitive desktop with a HELP BUTTON. Linux is all good and well for server replacement, but seriously, anybody even remotely knowledgeable was already using something besides windows, even if not linux. Independence for consumers means desktop. period. For who else is this meaningful?
Furthermore, no one here even seems aware that "we" are suing anyone. If this is being done by the people's will, what people? Where are they? I haven't met any.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't be sued, but that its pretty unconvincing that anyone besides a few money-grubbing bureaucrats are begind these lawsuits.