has anyone considered- and i know that many of you probably already have, but i'm wondering whether anyone has read articles, has inside views, etc- the fact that these stupid patent issues maybe keep coming up because you can't buy publicity like this? For every 50 people who look at amazon now and think, 'stupid patent lawsuit,' there are going to be a half dozen like my grandmother, who only remember, "hey! came up with the first internet ad system!" regardless, of course, of whether this is true or not.
And those half dozen or so, the ones who answer spam, the ones who believe everything that they see on the TV ads for Ebay, are now the targets for a whole new realm of name-awareness advertising... Patent lawsuits, class action lawsuits, and so on. The whole McDonald's thing- that's one in reverse. People say, 'oh, look at the dumb class-action lawsuit' (regardless of its validity or silliness, these people are only going to hear about it in the media, where it's been given the general spin already) and will recite, 'people who can't control their eating habits-' then go on to discount the lawsuit altogether, and the "McDonald's" logo has gotten one more creep into their brains. So they go have a Bic Mac. Yeah, i know that this might get a lot of nasty responses from clever people who have something to pick at with all this ramblimng, but how bout it? Are lawsuits becoming a whole new marketing venue?
This poses interesting valid questions
on
Baldness Be Gone?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
such as
-Is this going to lead to genuine cancer-related research, or are they going to go straight for the money and fame of introducing the latest chia-hair?
I'm thinking of Botox, and how it can be used for treating genuine muscular ailments, but is most widely known for its wrinkle-smoothing face-paralysing capacity...
On the other hand, i guess i know the sad but true answer to this one: the research follows the money. So Maybe we aren't looking for a cure for Melanoma here... but the bald might die prettier??
Cynicism aside, this IS serious stuff, and we COULD be looking at a way to deal with more serious skin ailments, and it will certainly put a damper on the serious scars that people are still occasionally getting from laser hair removal, or those home electrolysis kits.... (talk about a dangerous product) How long before we have do-it-yourself home stem-cell-into-hair-follicle sets?
Leave PC by street. Wait one day. PC gets picked up by neighbours, leaving monitor.
MIT Kids come by the next day, pick up all the cables that the neighbours left behind, decide that the monitor is a piece of uselessness, leave it by street.
Day 3. Neighbours come back for monitor, ignoring the lack of cables.
Next day, computer and monitor are both at curbside next to their driveway.
MIT kids come by, examine, computer, decide whether it has usable spare parts. Leave monitor and most of PC, which is THEN picked up by neighours on other side of street. Repeat from step one...
When asked who had done the most to promote and advance modern medicine, he replied that it had been gatling. THe question was asked in a medical context, so everyone was quite taken aback as he explained that gatling had in fact invented the gatling gun (more or less), thus making the battlefield damage quota infinitely higher, and producing a genuine need for modern medical advancement....
needless to say, there's so much wrong with this that i don't even know where to start...
For example, the page ranking system will consistently return results based on who's linked with what, so a link to, oh, say... slashdot... would change your ranking completely when turning up in results, regardless of how actually relevant your page were????
Me, i'm all in favour of googlewatch. But, on the other hand, i might just be paranoid.... Tinfoil hat, anyone? But big companies online seem as much worth paying attention to as big corporations in the brick market, so i see this as one to pay attention to, and i really liked it when companies started ditching google. Yay for small webworks!!!
raise your hand if you're projecting your own issues onto other people's posts... you there at the back of the room, put your foot down, that's not funny.
...umm... whatever you're on, keep it the hell out of the water supply!? My comment was about the fact that different family members have whole different approaches to computers and their maintenance... my brother's is organised. My stepfather's isn't, and this has no reflection on our family life. if i wanted a CAR fixed, he'd be the first one i'd call. And if i wanted a bathtub re-enameled, i'd call my mum. And if i needed a horse trained, i'd have called my stepfather's father (who recently passed on, and i was present at his bedside.) We all have specialties, and some of us have hobbies in which we do not excel as much as those of us who have made those specialties our career...
Am i angry when it comes to family computing? Yes, you did pick up on that- but it's more with the various 'friends' who have felt that they were qualified to 'fix' things and so left me with two- count them, two- broken machines in less than three months. And the trouble is... they weren't broken before!!! I don't fix computers, so this has been a source of frustration and annoyance, and so has the fact that more friends and family whom i happen to know will do just as jerry-rigged a job have been stepping forward to volunteer, and getting cranky when i turn them down.
Congratulations, You've just failed distance diagnosis 101. Do not pass go, do not collect your therapist's license.
Because my stepfather would rather be. However, since i want a computer that isn't just 'good enough' but in fact, actually works at real speed with some reliability, i have had to tell my family point-blank that would-be tech support is not the same as actual tech support.
My Mother understands, having been forced to make do on barely-there computers for years, and when i finally said, damn it, i'm just buying a new computer, and my bro will help me pick it out and make it what i want, i then had to explain to everyone other than her WHY i wasn't allowing my other family to help. Understand that my stepfather has a steadfast refusal to buy new parts, and will instead salvage things (old computers, trees, bits of rock and bark) and try to make them work together, even if they shouldn't. Ever. Even in an ideal world. My brother will actually check to see whether the pieces he's putting in, like the ethernet card, actually have drivers to make them work- which is why a good friend of mine is ALSO no longer allowed to 'fix' my computer. When even *i* can tell something's wrong with what you're doing... well, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
Or we could discuss the idea of friends who fix friends' computers and start playing with registry files until the darn thing no longer has an identity at all, just a blue screen. We could discuss that, but i'm still in therapy.
Instead, let's go with the caveat: never let anyone near your computer whom you wouldn't trust with, say, the task of making your respirator connect to the other hospital equipment if you were in an accident. I.e., trained professional...
I don't think that we should tackle only one at a time; you're right about that. Problems do not occur in linear fashion and cannot be sorted out that way. And We are never going to completely eradicate all of the problems. And... solving hunger, homelessness, disease, and lack of education won't remove ignorance and unhappiness from the face of the earth. But... it would be a good start. It just drives me crazy that more isn't being done to at least START with those ideas, that's all- i feel there's a certain amount of effort that should be made in those areas first, and I don't feel we're there yet. I'm not sure what proportion is the right amount, but I definitely feel like we aren't there yet.
I don't advocate working on them exclusively- i just immediately thought about the idea that a government which just put the gag rule back on its AIDS funding, is threatening to cut humanitarian aid in response to the Iraq issue, and can't even keep its own citizens employed and housed and fed... maybe should be focusing just a little bit more on fixing those areas before looking into something like this... because those are also serious ethical matters.
On the other hand, i have to say- at least they are asking questions about the ethics involved, and that's actually a major step FORWARD for us... you raise good points. What would your ideal plan for the exploration of this issue look like? Mine is really more about spending a certain proportion of attention and money in the right directions on those issues- before step four. It's too late now, of course, because people are always going to want to look younger, feel younger, etc... i would just hate to see these benefits restricted to those who could pay (i'm one of those who couldn't, although i have it pretty good compared to a great many out there. I'm fed and i'm free.)
incidentally, i don't respond to your point about this changing society, well, because i want to think about that some more... Thanks.
In fact, it's being separated into some interesting subcategories even now, and there's an interesting opinion essay on it here. with more interesting stuff here and HERE is some dept of Health (US) stuff on it.
First Priority, Bring the lower ends of the scale on the global lifespan spectrum up to par. That means dealing with AIDS, Starvation, Poverty, Pollution, and other major population decimators haunting the young and old in impoverished (and even in supposedly wealthy) countries.
Second Priority. Get their health care up to par, too. They're living longer, now let's get them something for that crippling illness.
Step three: Let's see some sustainability. That's right, now that we've raised both lifespan and quality of life, let's see if we can sort something out where the planet doesn't get destroyed by healthy humans.
Step four: now we're ready to talk about stretching the upper maximum age limit. Because before we do those things, all that we're offering is a new caste, one who can outlive those who are already dying of hunger and preventable diseases. Are we crazy? Yeah, it's great to live longer, but shouldn't we be more worried about those even right here in the US who don't have a chance of living up to the global average?
Incidentally, another chance to give somebody else's money can be found at the Hunger Site.
Oke. Here on quackwatch there's a whole lot about what to look for in an illness description that might not be, well, as deductively logical as we'd like. But while MCS may not be generally acknowledged by the standard med community, that doesn't mean that there aren't conditions which can cause extreme sensitivity. For example, there are autoimmune illnesses with measurable, detectable effects, such as Celiac sprue, in which the body can't quite identify what it's fighting- and a whole host of new allergies and sensitivities can crop up. Including verifiable ones- sensitivities to latex, nickel, even hay fever allergies where there were none before. Get rid of the immune-triggering agent, and some of those go away. (YAY!) So... My MedAlert tag doesn't read MCS. But it has each other allergy listed carefully. does this mean that all MCS patients are just autoimmune patients waiting for a Dx??? No. Nor does it mean that MCS does or doesn't exist as a separate medical entity... but it does mean that there are certainly cases where allergies and sensitivities can be induced by other causes.
Incidentally, there are also illnesses that are actually being proven to exist, like fibromyalgia, where the complex list of ailments is also real... again, NOT to be taken as evidence that every ailment with such a laundry list of symptoms is genuine yet unproven, in fact this is the exception, rather than the rule. This list of ailments comes up with almost any new toxin. It came up with"Electricity Allergy," where the patient claims to have an allery to Electromagnetic fields which can even break the devices that bear the fields. Again, cases where the patient does the describing and the diagnosis. *shaking head* Doesn't anybody believe in double blind studies any more??
i hope this fellow gets better. I hope that people stop referring to empirical- science based medicine as 'allopathic,' which is a label that only self-stylised 'holistic' pseudomedics seem to use. I just wanted to point out the exception or two where the symptoms are diagnosable, distinct, testable, and can be demonstrated not to be psychosomatic. I didn't read anything that leads me to believe that he's had all the tests to rule such things out. Medicine is NO PLACE for shoddy science!!!!
We probably wouldn't be carrying hydrogen canisters. After all, we don't carry gold in our supposedly-gold-backed economy. We'd probably have hydrogen credits instead, and everything would operate much the same. With, of course, the splendid difference that laypeople could manufacture hydrogen, in exactly the way thathome alchemists have NOT (to my knowledge) been able to manufacture gold...
1. the lifespan of the facility is expected to be "about twenty years." I'm curious as to whether this is expected to be a result of technological obsolescence, or the depreciation factors which affect a unique type of facility such as this?
2. The French promised to help fund it. And then pulled out of it. When? This article is lacking in a little depth and background, here... does anyone know more about this?
3. 'understanding the proteins of genes' (paraphrase)??? let me get this straight... you're going to batter a gene with electrons, and see if the X-Men really were just a comic book concept? Or are we going to try to understand basic matter, which should take, oh, say, 19 years 364 days and twelve hours, and then *hurrah* just before the building collapses, we suddenly understand the complete human genome!!! Too bad our proof is buried under the rubble... This article ties together every modern theme, in a facility shaped remarkably like a hubcab...
The qwerty keyboard went through some interesting rumours and competition... this site is entertaining if only for the pages on antique typewrites (i own an early Smith-Corona)and the "dispelling of myths behind qwerty keyboards."
The more people who know about the situation, your stance on it, and your formal complaint, the better off you'll be when it comes to light, legally speaking. So i trust that you've made copies of your correspondence. Next time, write a letter referring to the situation, and indicating their lack of response. Send THAT letter- the one without the details- to your legislative representatives in cc. As well as any other body who might have jurisdiction, include state compliance boards if you have any. Indicate the number of times that you have attempted to address this.
And get a GOOD lawyer. NOW. You're gonna need one. But if you're the whistleblower, you stand a good chance of being oke- just make sure that you've got documentation of the incidents when they happen, and of your attempts to let your workplace correct the situation. Did i mention the really good lawyer you should be calling?
I'll admit that you have a good point there. But i think that in this case, since he's a very high profile individual with a lot of people watching his moves, there would've been quite a fuss in the general slashdot society (i could be wrong, of course) if he'd stuck with it. SHould he leave his other work? Don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what happens now. THere are worse things than building a reputation for sticking to yer guns... maybe he'll go work in other areas, who knows. (my crystal ball is in the shop.)
Should you leave yours? probably not. Phone lines are pretty generic, and there are a lot of other people whom you're helping by working to get phone connection up and running 24/7. If you were developing a wiretapping device, AND the government were purchasing it en masse to use on citizens, AND if your particular company were determined to help out the TIA in every possible way, AND you felt very strongly about this... AND you had taken a public stand on the issue in the past... maybe so. Integrity issues and all. But you did give me stuff to think about. (nonsarcastic.) Thanks. I respect what he did because i know that i'd have to really think about it before i left MY job...
I'm paralleling the moral dilemma of 'leaving one's job because one's otherwise harmless and useful shared whiteboards and calendars have been snapped up by the government as a handy tool for a goal which one doesn't agree with'...to... well, 'the moral dilemma of having one's hardware technologies and one's physics work appropriated as part of a government project with goals that one doesn't agree with.'
The point here is not the measure of the potential threat, it's the matter of taking action as a matter of principle. It's a valid statement that the two are not morally 'equivalent'- but it IS true (at least in my view) that the two actions are morally parallel in that they do both make a public statement against an actively directed specific use by the government of a specific technology.
When the TIA creeps are sharing your desktop, then you at least have one person who will have said, hey, i worked on this, and this was NOT what we had in mind.
You're right. Practically anything written out there in softwareland could be used to erode rights, could be used to persecute individuals- the question isn't can a hammer be used to break heads? but more importantly, When the company you design hammers for starts selling them to the guys using them to break heads, are you still going to be there designing hammers for them?
Remember, folks, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
1. He left his job because he was uncomfortable with what was happening with what they'd built.
Anybody remember the line that was used on production lines/ development for the atom bomb? "Our job is to build them, not to decide where they fall."
Take heart, folks. Add this one to the tiny corner of the bulletin board labelled "The world is not all bad." People really do sometimes help total strangers, people really do sometimes care about what their work is being used for, and frankly, i'm ALL IN FAVOUR of a guy who can turn around and quit based on what he thinks is an appropriate use of his work. (of course, i might not feel that way if he felt that what he was building SHOULD be spyware and they hadn't been headed there)I'm more willing to respect a belief the less it looks like it's going to mess with other people's- relatively innocent people's- lives. Granted, we can't all pay the rent if we walk off the job for moral reasons, so choose your battles carefully, and we don't all have a widespread fanbase to keep the world aware of what we've just done. (So when you choose them, do it as publicly as possible.) But sometimes, it's worth it, and i'll lead the cheer. Thanks!!!! Good example of what's not all wrong with the world.
Anybody remember Max Headroom? Quote from the site:
"It predicted the use of Internet-like e-mail to cast election votes, such as is commonly done for taking polls nowadays by CNN and many other Web sites, and as is done by Web page-hit counters. And some states are now talking of instituting political elections via Internet.
It predicted the rise of "BlipVerts" as advertising, in the use of short ads that flash constantly-moving and -changing images to the viewer because the viewers' attention spans had become so increasingly short.
It predicted the common occurrences of computer viruses, tapeworms, timebombs, and Trojan horses as ways of defeating other programs. In fact, one episode showed Max invading an enemy's computer network with an image of a wooden Trojan horse! Of course, today, these are well-known hackers' (crackers') products.
It predicted what is known today as "page-jacking," or the surrepticious taking over of another's Web page, calling it "zipping" (of an online broadcast station's signal) in one episode.
In the same "zipping" episode it introduced the idea of on-line shopping.
It predicted, in a sense, the clandestine use of Web anonymizers or ways of being online without being tracked, calling the people who can do this "blanks."
It also included features such as televisions functioning as webcams, by remote control with two way feed, televisions which are manufactured without shutoff buttons, in a world where the television show/ network with the most ratings wins an election. And of course, my alltime favourite quote from The Max himself, "Why do you think they call it 'programming?'"
a.) there were more stories and an ability to access the junk bin now and then. I'm betting some folks come up with some stuff worth seeing, and this community is quite limited. Now, mind you, i LIKE slashdot. I keep coming here in spite of the trolls, the redundancies, the fervent abuse of the English language, and the juvenile humour. In between all that, there's some vital and important stuff, and i want to see that continue.
Now, i realise that it needs to continue with more than just my chosen fields of commentary and content. But i haven't subscribed for a couple of reasons. One is that i haven't seen anything htat would make me want to. I don't mind the banner ads, and i occasionally pay close attention to them. A time delay, well, look. You've built this community. And there are a lot of people who don't help- it's like high schiool, there are people at the back of the class throwing spitballs. I'd like to see some better form than the ambiguous karma system to deal with this- maybe moving the worst of it into separate categories. Add more content, maybe play with the categories and try to see that more gets put up than just the latest whimsy. Whimsy is good and i like it, but this place is a valuable tool for those of us who really want to share and know.
I'm rambling a bit, and i realise that. My main point is that frankly, if Slashdot were a little different in setup for the subscription site, i might pay for it, and if it were a little steadier in its day-to-day presentation, i'd donate just for the hell of it. I do that for other sites that i belong to. But i'm not likely to subscribe just for a time advantage, because frankly, i think that's an unjust punishment for nonsubscribers, and i think it's unclear whether you're actively trying to set up a caste system here. The mod system appears to be quirky and frequently unfair- and i'm saying htis in spite of some points i've been given for various reasons. I've seen a lot of things that should be modded down not be, and then repeated, and repeated. If there's a way to set up an individual mod system for subscribers, i'd pay a LOT more. A way to say, well, x number of users have just hit 'ignore' and deleted your post from their screens. Yeah, i know you have foes and fans and freaks. I'm still relatively new here, i guess. And i don't want to make people be enemies, i just want to be able to dump the dumb stuff and read the really fascinating stuff that people have to say.
So here's my vote: develop a couple of different models and run this by us again. I think that there should be a subscription option. I think it should include access to your junked news pile, and i think that it should have NOTHING to do with the banner ads. I mean, the benefits of registering an identity are that you are a clearer member of the community. The benefits of subscription are that you are then a contributing member of the community- but that doesn't mean that those who can't subscribe or won't shouldn't have access. You're on the right track here.
One other thing that i would like to add: the fact that you sought our input means a lot, and is one reason why i want to pitch in. Do this without selling out; do this without exiling those who are just milling around, and install some traffic cops to put the flamebait out and the trolls back in their cages. I really appreciate what i've found here, respect the people who think well and clearly and frquently with incredible humour, even when i don't agree with the lines of thought represented. I come here because of the people who think. I stay here because this place is held together by them. Don't form an elite class; just let us have the option of individualising our experience a bit more. After all, that's why we register in the first place.
And keep up the good work.
I'm HOPING that the slashdot community uses this for good, rather than for evil. C'mon, people, these people DO want to help.... "
Sorry. Been a long week already. Use it for 'email?' *duh*
&they posted emails. Brave souls, i guess they
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Cornucopia of Spam
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· Score: 1
...really do want to research spam... "The ASRG Chair is Paul Judge paul.judge@ciphertrust.com.
Mail List
The email list is asrg@ietf.org. You must be a list member to send mail to the list. Subscribe via asrg-request@ietf.org. An archive of the email list is available at the ASRG mail archive."
I'm HOPING that the slashdot community uses this for good, rather than for email. C'mon, people, these people DO want to help.... (on a side note entirely, i was hoping for "Anti-Spam Governing Alliance for Research Developments" or some such... you know, ASGARD? Bloody Vikings!! I mean, who else would be keeping them in line?)
Would-be airline passenger: I want to buy a ticket.
Airline employee: Cash or credit?
Would-be Airline Passenger: Credit.
Airline employee: Let me check this against your ID number to verify identity... (for red non-resident 'terrorist' flags, of course) Would-be airline passenger: Oke, Cash.
Airline employee: SECURITY!!!!
Of course, this is only one scenario. But the point is: it proves residency, at least, if all the members of the household are listed as 'associate household members' in the database. This raises lots of questions of course (like, who the heck would do this voluntarily?) but it's a step towards that Total Information Awareness mess we've been facing here in the states...
There was an old woman who swallowed a ..
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Server In A Fly
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· Score: 5, Funny
Gods help me, i can't do it. Well, i'll give it a try:
There was an old woman who swallowed a server
It didn't deserve her, but there went the server
and i don't know why/she swallowed the fly/ But we can light up her eyes...
i think this one has to end with...
i know an old woman who took windows source
she's dead, of course!
oke, i think it's out of my system now. Apologies for the temporary insanity...
Slashdot Mirror
And those half dozen or so, the ones who answer spam, the ones who believe everything that they see on the TV ads for Ebay, are now the targets for a whole new realm of name-awareness advertising... Patent lawsuits, class action lawsuits, and so on. The whole McDonald's thing- that's one in reverse. People say, 'oh, look at the dumb class-action lawsuit' (regardless of its validity or silliness, these people are only going to hear about it in the media, where it's been given the general spin already) and will recite, 'people who can't control their eating habits-' then go on to discount the lawsuit altogether, and the "McDonald's" logo has gotten one more creep into their brains. So they go have a Bic Mac. Yeah, i know that this might get a lot of nasty responses from clever people who have something to pick at with all this ramblimng, but how bout it? Are lawsuits becoming a whole new marketing venue?
-Is this going to lead to genuine cancer-related research, or are they going to go straight for the money and fame of introducing the latest chia-hair?
I'm thinking of Botox, and how it can be used for treating genuine muscular ailments, but is most widely known for its wrinkle-smoothing face-paralysing capacity...
On the other hand, i guess i know the sad but true answer to this one: the research follows the money. So Maybe we aren't looking for a cure for Melanoma here... but the bald might die prettier??
Cynicism aside, this IS serious stuff, and we COULD be looking at a way to deal with more serious skin ailments, and it will certainly put a damper on the serious scars that people are still occasionally getting from laser hair removal, or those home electrolysis kits.... (talk about a dangerous product) How long before we have do-it-yourself home stem-cell-into-hair-follicle sets?
needless to say, there's so much wrong with this that i don't even know where to start...
granted, we had already this article and then there was playing with google, and don't forget why you should fear google .
Me, i'm all in favour of googlewatch. But, on the other hand, i might just be paranoid.... Tinfoil hat, anyone? But big companies online seem as much worth paying attention to as big corporations in the brick market, so i see this as one to pay attention to, and i really liked it when companies started ditching google. Yay for small webworks!!!
raise your hand if you're projecting your own issues onto other people's posts... you there at the back of the room, put your foot down, that's not funny.
Am i angry when it comes to family computing? Yes, you did pick up on that- but it's more with the various 'friends' who have felt that they were qualified to 'fix' things and so left me with two- count them, two- broken machines in less than three months. And the trouble is... they weren't broken before!!! I don't fix computers, so this has been a source of frustration and annoyance, and so has the fact that more friends and family whom i happen to know will do just as jerry-rigged a job have been stepping forward to volunteer, and getting cranky when i turn them down.
Congratulations, You've just failed distance diagnosis 101. Do not pass go, do not collect your therapist's license.
My Mother understands, having been forced to make do on barely-there computers for years, and when i finally said, damn it, i'm just buying a new computer, and my bro will help me pick it out and make it what i want, i then had to explain to everyone other than her WHY i wasn't allowing my other family to help.
Understand that my stepfather has a steadfast refusal to buy new parts, and will instead salvage things (old computers, trees, bits of rock and bark) and try to make them work together, even if they shouldn't. Ever. Even in an ideal world. My brother will actually check to see whether the pieces he's putting in, like the ethernet card, actually have drivers to make them work- which is why a good friend of mine is ALSO no longer allowed to 'fix' my computer. When even *i* can tell something's wrong with what you're doing... well, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
Or we could discuss the idea of friends who fix friends' computers and start playing with registry files until the darn thing no longer has an identity at all, just a blue screen. We could discuss that, but i'm still in therapy.
Instead, let's go with the caveat: never let anyone near your computer whom you wouldn't trust with, say, the task of making your respirator connect to the other hospital equipment if you were in an accident. I.e., trained professional...
It just drives me crazy that more isn't being done to at least START with those ideas, that's all- i feel there's a certain amount of effort that should be made in those areas first, and I don't feel we're there yet. I'm not sure what proportion is the right amount, but I definitely feel like we aren't there yet.
I don't advocate working on them exclusively- i just immediately thought about the idea that a government which just put the gag rule back on its AIDS funding, is threatening to cut humanitarian aid in response to the Iraq issue, and can't even keep its own citizens employed and housed and fed... maybe should be focusing just a little bit more on fixing those areas before looking into something like this... because those are also serious ethical matters.
On the other hand, i have to say- at least they are asking questions about the ethics involved, and that's actually a major step FORWARD for us...
you raise good points. What would your ideal plan for the exploration of this issue look like? Mine is really more about spending a certain proportion of attention and money in the right directions on those issues- before step four. It's too late now, of course, because people are always going to want to look younger, feel younger, etc... i would just hate to see these benefits restricted to those who could pay (i'm one of those who couldn't, although i have it pretty good compared to a great many out there. I'm fed and i'm free.)
incidentally, i don't respond to your point about this changing society, well, because i want to think about that some more... Thanks.
Incidentally, another chance to give somebody else's money can be found at the Hunger Site.
does this mean that all MCS patients are just autoimmune patients waiting for a Dx??? No. Nor does it mean that MCS does or doesn't exist as a separate medical entity... but it does mean that there are certainly cases where allergies and sensitivities can be induced by other causes.
Incidentally, there are also illnesses that are actually being proven to exist, like fibromyalgia, where the complex list of ailments is also real... again, NOT to be taken as evidence that every ailment with such a laundry list of symptoms is genuine yet unproven, in fact this is the exception, rather than the rule. This list of ailments comes up with almost any new toxin. It came up with"Electricity Allergy," where the patient claims to have an allery to Electromagnetic fields which can even break the devices that bear the fields. Again, cases where the patient does the describing and the diagnosis. *shaking head* Doesn't anybody believe in double blind studies any more??
i hope this fellow gets better. I hope that people stop referring to empirical- science based medicine as 'allopathic,' which is a label that only self-stylised 'holistic' pseudomedics seem to use. I just wanted to point out the exception or two where the symptoms are diagnosable, distinct, testable, and can be demonstrated not to be psychosomatic. I didn't read anything that leads me to believe that he's had all the tests to rule such things out. Medicine is NO PLACE for shoddy science!!!!
...to run the new Hydrogen Economy?
We probably wouldn't be carrying hydrogen canisters. After all, we don't carry gold in our supposedly-gold-backed economy. We'd probably have hydrogen credits instead, and everything would operate much the same. With, of course, the splendid difference that laypeople could manufacture hydrogen, in exactly the way thathome alchemists have NOT (to my knowledge) been able to manufacture gold...
2. The French promised to help fund it. And then pulled out of it. When? This article is lacking in a little depth and background, here... does anyone know more about this?
3. 'understanding the proteins of genes' (paraphrase)??? let me get this straight... you're going to batter a gene with electrons, and see if the X-Men really were just a comic book concept? Or are we going to try to understand basic matter, which should take, oh, say, 19 years 364 days and twelve hours, and then *hurrah* just before the building collapses, we suddenly understand the complete human genome!!! Too bad our proof is buried under the rubble... This article ties together every modern theme, in a facility shaped remarkably like a hubcab...
The qwerty keyboard went through some interesting rumours and competition... this site is entertaining if only for the pages on antique typewrites (i own an early Smith-Corona)and the "dispelling of myths behind qwerty keyboards."
And get a GOOD lawyer. NOW. You're gonna need one. But if you're the whistleblower, you stand a good chance of being oke- just make sure that you've got documentation of the incidents when they happen, and of your attempts to let your workplace correct the situation. Did i mention the really good lawyer you should be calling?
Should you leave yours? probably not. Phone lines are pretty generic, and there are a lot of other people whom you're helping by working to get phone connection up and running 24/7. If you were developing a wiretapping device, AND the government were purchasing it en masse to use on citizens, AND if your particular company were determined to help out the TIA in every possible way, AND you felt very strongly about this... AND you had taken a public stand on the issue in the past... maybe so. Integrity issues and all. But you did give me stuff to think about. (nonsarcastic.) Thanks. I respect what he did because i know that i'd have to really think about it before i left MY job...
The point here is not the measure of the potential threat, it's the matter of taking action as a matter of principle. It's a valid statement that the two are not morally 'equivalent'- but it IS true (at least in my view) that the two actions are morally parallel in that they do both make a public statement against an actively directed specific use by the government of a specific technology.
When the TIA creeps are sharing your desktop, then you at least have one person who will have said, hey, i worked on this, and this was NOT what we had in mind.
You're right. Practically anything written out there in softwareland could be used to erode rights, could be used to persecute individuals- the question isn't can a hammer be used to break heads? but more importantly, When the company you design hammers for starts selling them to the guys using them to break heads, are you still going to be there designing hammers for them?
Remember, folks, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Anybody remember the line that was used on production lines/ development for the atom bomb? "Our job is to build them, not to decide where they fall."
Take heart, folks. Add this one to the tiny corner of the bulletin board labelled "The world is not all bad." People really do sometimes help total strangers, people really do sometimes care about what their work is being used for, and frankly, i'm ALL IN FAVOUR of a guy who can turn around and quit based on what he thinks is an appropriate use of his work. (of course, i might not feel that way if he felt that what he was building SHOULD be spyware and they hadn't been headed there)I'm more willing to respect a belief the less it looks like it's going to mess with other people's- relatively innocent people's- lives. Granted, we can't all pay the rent if we walk off the job for moral reasons, so choose your battles carefully, and we don't all have a widespread fanbase to keep the world aware of what we've just done. (So when you choose them, do it as publicly as possible.) But sometimes, it's worth it, and i'll lead the cheer. Thanks!!!! Good example of what's not all wrong with the world.
It predicted the rise of "BlipVerts" as advertising, in the use of short ads that flash constantly-moving and -changing images to the viewer because the viewers' attention spans had become so increasingly short.
It predicted the common occurrences of computer viruses, tapeworms, timebombs, and Trojan horses as ways of defeating other programs. In fact, one episode showed Max invading an enemy's computer network with an image of a wooden Trojan horse! Of course, today, these are well-known hackers' (crackers') products. It predicted what is known today as "page-jacking," or the surrepticious taking over of another's Web page, calling it "zipping" (of an online broadcast station's signal) in one episode. In the same "zipping" episode it introduced the idea of on-line shopping. It predicted, in a sense, the clandestine use of Web anonymizers or ways of being online without being tracked, calling the people who can do this "blanks."
It also included features such as televisions functioning as webcams, by remote control with two way feed, televisions which are manufactured without shutoff buttons, in a world where the television show/ network with the most ratings wins an election. And of course, my alltime favourite quote from The Max himself, "Why do you think they call it 'programming?'"
Now, i realise that it needs to continue with more than just my chosen fields of commentary and content. But i haven't subscribed for a couple of reasons. One is that i haven't seen anything htat would make me want to. I don't mind the banner ads, and i occasionally pay close attention to them. A time delay, well, look. You've built this community. And there are a lot of people who don't help- it's like high schiool, there are people at the back of the class throwing spitballs. I'd like to see some better form than the ambiguous karma system to deal with this- maybe moving the worst of it into separate categories. Add more content, maybe play with the categories and try to see that more gets put up than just the latest whimsy. Whimsy is good and i like it, but this place is a valuable tool for those of us who really want to share and know.
I'm rambling a bit, and i realise that. My main point is that frankly, if Slashdot were a little different in setup for the subscription site, i might pay for it, and if it were a little steadier in its day-to-day presentation, i'd donate just for the hell of it. I do that for other sites that i belong to. But i'm not likely to subscribe just for a time advantage, because frankly, i think that's an unjust punishment for nonsubscribers, and i think it's unclear whether you're actively trying to set up a caste system here. The mod system appears to be quirky and frequently unfair- and i'm saying htis in spite of some points i've been given for various reasons. I've seen a lot of things that should be modded down not be, and then repeated, and repeated. If there's a way to set up an individual mod system for subscribers, i'd pay a LOT more. A way to say, well, x number of users have just hit 'ignore' and deleted your post from their screens. Yeah, i know you have foes and fans and freaks. I'm still relatively new here, i guess. And i don't want to make people be enemies, i just want to be able to dump the dumb stuff and read the really fascinating stuff that people have to say.
So here's my vote: develop a couple of different models and run this by us again. I think that there should be a subscription option. I think it should include access to your junked news pile, and i think that it should have NOTHING to do with the banner ads. I mean, the benefits of registering an identity are that you are a clearer member of the community. The benefits of subscription are that you are then a contributing member of the community- but that doesn't mean that those who can't subscribe or won't shouldn't have access. You're on the right track here.
One other thing that i would like to add: the fact that you sought our input means a lot, and is one reason why i want to pitch in. Do this without selling out; do this without exiling those who are just milling around, and install some traffic cops to put the flamebait out and the trolls back in their cages. I really appreciate what i've found here, respect the people who think well and clearly and frquently with incredible humour, even when i don't agree with the lines of thought represented. I come here because of the people who think. I stay here because this place is held together by them. Don't form an elite class; just let us have the option of individualising our experience a bit more. After all, that's why we register in the first place.
And keep up the good work.
-Sol
Sorry. Been a long week already. Use it for 'email?' *duh*
paul.judge@ciphertrust.com.
Mail List
The email list is asrg@ietf.org. You must be a list member to send mail to the list. Subscribe via asrg-request@ietf.org. An archive of the email list is available at the ASRG mail archive."
I'm HOPING that the slashdot community uses this for good, rather than for email. C'mon, people, these people DO want to help....
(on a side note entirely, i was hoping for "Anti-Spam Governing Alliance for Research Developments" or some such... you know, ASGARD? Bloody Vikings!! I mean, who else would be keeping them in line?)
Think of it this way:
Would-be airline passenger: I want to buy a ticket.
Airline employee: Cash or credit?
Would-be Airline Passenger: Credit.
Airline employee: Let me check this against your ID number to verify identity... (for red non-resident 'terrorist' flags, of course)
Would-be airline passenger: Oke, Cash.
Airline employee: SECURITY!!!!
Of course, this is only one scenario. But the point is: it proves residency, at least, if all the members of the household are listed as 'associate household members' in the database. This raises lots of questions of course (like, who the heck would do this voluntarily?) but it's a step towards that Total Information Awareness mess we've been facing here in the states...
Well, i'll give it a try:
There was an old woman who swallowed a server
It didn't deserve her, but there went the server
and i don't know why /she swallowed the fly/
But we can light up her eyes...
i think this one has to end with...
i know an old woman who took windows source
she's dead, of course! oke, i think it's out of my system now. Apologies for the temporary insanity...