It takes a lot of people, time and money to manually create that much paperwork. How likely is it no one involved in generating and handling this work would have leaked to the press that they were just making complicated organizations and fincancial reports off the top of their heads?
Of course, the fact that a large quantity of paper exists isn't the only point, it's the information contained within them. I'm not talking about reports saying "$5 million to project x" but "$1000 for project A for purpose B ($500 for engineer, $50 for seceratary, $100 for office supplies, $350 contengency) with further reports describing exactly what happened to the allocated money, all dated, signed and certified.
Too bad you're not in Boulder, CO. I would simply take the guy down to the local university library, down to the basement where there's an archive of papers from the Apollo project (all original, dating back to the 60s). It's at Norland at CU if you're in the area, mostly boring financial papers (who'd want to generate 10s of thousands of pages of bogus financial papers on manual typewriters?), but a fair amount of interesting engineering stuff in there too.
All it would take would be a thin, removable wrapper. This would block any incoming (and outgoing) radio signals. The way RFID works is by bombarding a radio antenna with a frequency. This causes the antenna to give off a weak, residual frequency which can be recorded. In theory, you could use this technique to find any GPS receivers hidden in a store, unless, of course, if the antenna is shielded from radio waves. For all I know, the aluminum can provides sufficient shielding.
Err, why would you want to dupe 3 original dual-layered DVDs per day? There are increadibly few pressed dual-layered DVDs that are freely shareable (MindCandy, err.., MindCandy..actually I think it's single-layered...) and personal (copyrighted) DVDs last a very long time if properly stored. If you're backing up data, you're better off with single-layer DVDs (fewer write errors, better/cheaper media, burns faster, etc).
They probably have thought of this and blocked the GPS antenna and cellphone antenna with some lead or something so that the RFID technique wouldn't work.
I agree, but it's still a good idea to carry the minimum number of cards with you, in case your wallet is lost/stolen.
I've seen female customers at some department stores with at least a dozen cards in their wallet! Can you imagine how long it would take to figure out which cards were in there and then how long it would take to cancel them all? Some of them would probably be maxed out by then.
I completely agree with you that a balance needs to be drawn. Clearly your rights as an inventor should terminate before 70 years after your death (Disney anyone?). The parent of my post implied that the advancement of the sciences and arts may be exclusive to commercial advancement, which is rather silly when you think about it.
by the original intent of IP law, advancement of arts and science is (not advancement of commerce) the root justification
Actually, I'm pretty sure IP law is meant to both advance the arts and science and advance commerce (implicitly).
From the US Constitution (regarding the scope of powers of the legislature):
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
While this regards patent law specifically (they didn't regard it IP back in those days), it is clearly intended that the sole reason that the inventors would have exclusive right to their invention for some time so that they could enrich themselves using the proceeds of their invention. So the advancement of the arts and sciences is insured by protecting the commercial interests of the inventors.
A fellow programmer once called C++ a "write-only" language.
Compared to what, exactly? I've programmed in several languages and have found that it is relatively simple and only takes a bit of discipline to write comprehendable code in C++. For instance, with a simple vector class and matrix class, you can emulate Matlab/Octave readability for (some) vector/matrix manipulation.
A write-only language would be something like assembly or spaghetti-code Basic.
I used both the equation type and wrote programs, depending on the problem. For instance, I still have a program on my Ti-85 that I wrote in high school to use Newton's method to find a root of a given equation. Granted that the logic part of the program is two lines long nested in a loop, it still was a pleasant feeling when entering the equation (as input) and pressing enter a couple of times during the test (jotting down the answer each time to show that I was using Newton's method).
Most of the kids in my class hadn't read a single page of their calculator's manual, so I certainly wouldn't have been snide to them if they had 'only' programmed on their calculator.
I think most of the complaints here on Slashdot about electronic voting have been focused on Diebold itself, not e-voting in general. If the software is certified, and better yet open sourced, you wouldn't find too many complaints here.
I believe you're right on the money. For those that are skeptical, simply poor yourself a glass of ice water, mark the level of water on your glass, wait for the ice to melt and then see if the level has changed.
What about Somalia? We tried that remember? We got the shit kicked out of our forces that we sent, and Clinton gave up. Futhermore, don't you think our forces have enough on their hands currently?
That's because we were fighting with our gloves on (remember 'Black Hawk Down'? insufficient air support...)
...Bush won the election constitutionally the moment the Florida State Legislature declared they were setting aside the popular vote and simply naming the electors for Bush.
But by keeping you ignorant, you become the useful pawn of certain groups who like the throw out phrases like Selected and not Elected.
Sounds like "Selected and not Elected" is still true enough, just Constitutional.
Thanks for the edification. I knew that architects were closer to 'true' engineers than system architects, but wasn't aware that most architects were poorly compensated. You always hear about huge architect firms being payed millions of dollars to design such and such building and I've personally stayed at a house in Las Vegas that was owned by a local architect who primarily designed houses if I remember correctly (in a gated community, by far the coolest/largest/best designed house I've ever stayed at--left an impression on me for sure). I sort of thought of architects as lawyers on the pay scale.
I presume that he's shocked that the house could be custom designed by a real architect for 4 months and still cost only ~$70k. The architect fees alone would be a fortune here in the US.
The reason for selective availability (S/A) is so the military can selectively degrade the civilian frequency of GPS in different parts of the world (so that the enemy can't use the GPS system effectively against them). In addition, they can turn the civilian frequency off over a given region, effectively disabling any consumer GPS device in the area.
However, unless you plan on getting lost in a war zone, you shouldn't have any problems. Also, the military tends not to degrade even civilian channels anymore because too many of their soldiers are using civilian GPS receivers (they're much cheaper than military receivers and most/all of the enemies the US forces are fighting today can't afford advanced, GPS-guided missiles).
The fourth edition of "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday, Resnick and Walker (the physics book I used in college). It was a particularly aweful book on physics, combined with (for me) a terrible physics professor. So, it has a certain sentimental value to me.
Why does everything have to be in the name of SCIENCE?
Think of the irony of sending a college textbook on physics as the payload! Actually, I have a specific one in mind, care to chip in? I was considering making a bonfire out of it, but this would be MUCH more fun.
I read in the news not too long ago that here, in Boulder, CO, they spend about 2-3 times (or more, can't remember precisely) as much on traffic enforcement as they receive from fines. That's for municipal enforcement, not the traffic enforcement at the university here (which I'd bet the university definitely get more from fines than they spend on enforcement).
Drivers can shift into neutral at lights so they don't have to hold down the clutch (which wears the clutch bearing faster as well as tiring the leg muscles), and only shift back into first gear when the light is ready to become green.
That seems good in theory, but is overkill IMO. I drive a manual here in the US and don't have any trouble getting to/from neutral without over using the clutch at stop lights. All one has to do is keep an eye on the cross-traffic light if you're close to the intersection, or keep an eye on the cars ahead of you if you are further away. It isn't that hard, really.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, the fact that a large quantity of paper exists isn't the only point, it's the information contained within them. I'm not talking about reports saying "$5 million to project x" but "$1000 for project A for purpose B ($500 for engineer, $50 for seceratary, $100 for office supplies, $350 contengency) with further reports describing exactly what happened to the allocated money, all dated, signed and certified.
Too bad you're not in Boulder, CO. I would simply take the guy down to the local university library, down to the basement where there's an archive of papers from the Apollo project (all original, dating back to the 60s). It's at Norland at CU if you're in the area, mostly boring financial papers (who'd want to generate 10s of thousands of pages of bogus financial papers on manual typewriters?), but a fair amount of interesting engineering stuff in there too.
All it would take would be a thin, removable wrapper. This would block any incoming (and outgoing) radio signals. The way RFID works is by bombarding a radio antenna with a frequency. This causes the antenna to give off a weak, residual frequency which can be recorded. In theory, you could use this technique to find any GPS receivers hidden in a store, unless, of course, if the antenna is shielded from radio waves. For all I know, the aluminum can provides sufficient shielding.
Err, why would you want to dupe 3 original dual-layered DVDs per day? There are increadibly few pressed dual-layered DVDs that are freely shareable (MindCandy, err.., MindCandy..actually I think it's single-layered...) and personal (copyrighted) DVDs last a very long time if properly stored. If you're backing up data, you're better off with single-layer DVDs (fewer write errors, better/cheaper media, burns faster, etc).
They probably have thought of this and blocked the GPS antenna and cellphone antenna with some lead or something so that the RFID technique wouldn't work.
Well, MiniDisc players have had much better market penetration in Japan than in the US, so they may stand a chance there.
I've seen female customers at some department stores with at least a dozen cards in their wallet! Can you imagine how long it would take to figure out which cards were in there and then how long it would take to cancel them all? Some of them would probably be maxed out by then.
I completely agree with you that a balance needs to be drawn. Clearly your rights as an inventor should terminate before 70 years after your death (Disney anyone?). The parent of my post implied that the advancement of the sciences and arts may be exclusive to commercial advancement, which is rather silly when you think about it.
Actually, I'm pretty sure IP law is meant to both advance the arts and science and advance commerce (implicitly).
From the US Constitution (regarding the scope of powers of the legislature):
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
While this regards patent law specifically (they didn't regard it IP back in those days), it is clearly intended that the sole reason that the inventors would have exclusive right to their invention for some time so that they could enrich themselves using the proceeds of their invention. So the advancement of the arts and sciences is insured by protecting the commercial interests of the inventors.
Compared to what, exactly? I've programmed in several languages and have found that it is relatively simple and only takes a bit of discipline to write comprehendable code in C++. For instance, with a simple vector class and matrix class, you can emulate Matlab/Octave readability for (some) vector/matrix manipulation.
A write-only language would be something like assembly or spaghetti-code Basic.
Or what if I have a Ti-85? Where the heck is it on the chart? Is the Ti-86 essentially the same thing?
Most of the kids in my class hadn't read a single page of their calculator's manual, so I certainly wouldn't have been snide to them if they had 'only' programmed on their calculator.
I think most of the complaints here on Slashdot about electronic voting have been focused on Diebold itself, not e-voting in general. If the software is certified, and better yet open sourced, you wouldn't find too many complaints here.
I believe you're right on the money. For those that are skeptical, simply poor yourself a glass of ice water, mark the level of water on your glass, wait for the ice to melt and then see if the level has changed.
By taking down this poor, defensless website, did we just help Bush in some way? I feel so dirty.
And before Enron, Waste Management (big time fiasco there too).
That's because we were fighting with our gloves on (remember 'Black Hawk Down'? insufficient air support...)
But by keeping you ignorant, you become the useful pawn of certain groups who like the throw out phrases like Selected and not Elected.
Sounds like "Selected and not Elected" is still true enough, just Constitutional.
Thanks for the edification. I knew that architects were closer to 'true' engineers than system architects, but wasn't aware that most architects were poorly compensated. You always hear about huge architect firms being payed millions of dollars to design such and such building and I've personally stayed at a house in Las Vegas that was owned by a local architect who primarily designed houses if I remember correctly (in a gated community, by far the coolest/largest/best designed house I've ever stayed at--left an impression on me for sure). I sort of thought of architects as lawyers on the pay scale.
I presume that he's shocked that the house could be custom designed by a real architect for 4 months and still cost only ~$70k. The architect fees alone would be a fortune here in the US.
However, unless you plan on getting lost in a war zone, you shouldn't have any problems. Also, the military tends not to degrade even civilian channels anymore because too many of their soldiers are using civilian GPS receivers (they're much cheaper than military receivers and most/all of the enemies the US forces are fighting today can't afford advanced, GPS-guided missiles).
The fourth edition of "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday, Resnick and Walker (the physics book I used in college). It was a particularly aweful book on physics, combined with (for me) a terrible physics professor. So, it has a certain sentimental value to me.
Think of the irony of sending a college textbook on physics as the payload! Actually, I have a specific one in mind, care to chip in? I was considering making a bonfire out of it, but this would be MUCH more fun.
I read in the news not too long ago that here, in Boulder, CO, they spend about 2-3 times (or more, can't remember precisely) as much on traffic enforcement as they receive from fines. That's for municipal enforcement, not the traffic enforcement at the university here (which I'd bet the university definitely get more from fines than they spend on enforcement).
That seems good in theory, but is overkill IMO. I drive a manual here in the US and don't have any trouble getting to/from neutral without over using the clutch at stop lights. All one has to do is keep an eye on the cross-traffic light if you're close to the intersection, or keep an eye on the cars ahead of you if you are further away. It isn't that hard, really.