And the latest scam from the UK government? They are talking about charging drivers by the mile, with different rates depending on where you are and at what time of day - so more expensive in congested areas.
The kicker is they are intending to use GPS in everyone's cars to see where you are. Nice little earner for the State! I wonder if they thought it'd be nice to know where everyone is first, then thought about charging for road use second!
I get what you're saying, but I still think you are missing the point. Unless you are sending emails to people who read it and decide you are the email equivalent of a nuisance caller, they won't take your bond, so it won't cost you a penny (or cent) unless you are annoying people.
That's the point. It costs money to annoy people. This is doubly good because it somewhat alleviates the annoyance to have been paid a little amount, and it puts off the annoyers because it costs them money.
- If someone sets a huge bond they will effectively be ostracised from the wider community.
- It is likely that the good guys will put, say, $5 in their escrow account and NEVER USE IT - because no one will take their offered bonds, so losing one's credit card should have no effect. Also, whenever you take someone's bond, it will presumably be credited to your escrow account.
- OK, under 18 so no credit card... it also seems likely that kids will be given bond funds by their parents/guardians, much like they probably don't pay for their ISP access right now! It also wouldn't be rocket science to allow people in internet cafes (for example) to pay cash to the proprietor in return for fund transfer to their escrow account - perhaps by simply sending them a bonded email!
- Need complete anonymity eh? I can imagine that this might be the case for some correspondence and this might be a sticking point, but there are anonymous remailers etc. Also, create a hotmail account, send bonded msg to your self from other email account - voila... anonymous account with escrow backing... (repeat new account/bonded email trail as many times as makes you happy!).
- "Very poor" returns to my original point. WiFi on a bike eh. So not so poor as you can't get a laptop, wireless card, and a bike!
And your finances are NOT connected to the internet. You have a seperate escrow account with a multitude of methods for putting your couple of bucks in - direct by credit card sure, but paypal, email from a mate who owes you a beer, etc, etc.
I like being able to contact random people I don't know. That's the beauty of the Internet. If I find a webpage that strikes my fancy, I can contact the owner of the site to discuss the ideas on the webpage with him/her. I do not want to go away.
You are missing the point completely. Lets just imagine this system has been implemented and everyone has the new email software.
You visit a website and reckon its interesting enough to want to chat to the webmaster. You hand craft an email and post your usual bond (some setup screen for sending emails allows you to set a usual bond - lets say $1).
The webmaster chap has his software setup (similar setup page for receiving emails) with a bond level of $1 (so your email gets through). He opens it and reads it and thinks that you might be an interesting chap, and so will decline to take your dollar. If he really likes the cut of your gib he may well put you in his white list.
If your bond is too low to get through, you could get an autoreply telling you your bond wasn't big enough, and you can either up your bond (assuming you think your message was interesting enough) or give up.
If he gets sent spam, he will keep the dollar, so spammers will go bust, so he won't get spam!
Even if he didn't think you were that interesting a person, he might still decline the dollar.
The whole concept is much better than the 'everyone pays for email' ideas, because the only people who will always end up paying are the spammers!
Only a fool would turn it on for any domain with legitimate uses.
I guess I must be one of those fools then. I have a domain I run for my family, including parents, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces and I have a catch-all account. I have been running this domain now for 3 or 4 years and in that time I have not had ANY spam emails to anything other than my real email address(es) (that I use to register with various websites).
I have had a handfull of miss-spelt ones which I duly pass on to which ever sibling it was meant for.
So who's the fool? The foolee who's fooled or the fooler who fools!
For example, I know that if you are standed at the North Pole and are starving and are
a) foolish enough to try and kill a polar bear... and
b) lucky enough to succeed
do NOT eat the liver as it will kill you because it is loaded with Vitamin A (as discovered by some hapless explorers many years ago!).
Would you agree that the capsule on the top of a Saturn V is a 'space craft'? 'cos it sure as hell couldn't make it into space without a whole bunch of help from the rest of the Saturn V.
We can build rockets and we can build aircraft. Getting rockets into space is expensive, and what we really need is to build 'spaceships' in orbit, and travel to them in some sort of 'shuttle'. Now a 'shuttle' is going to be, give or take, an aircraft with a rocket motor attached..
Actually, you are doing Pfizer somewhat of a disservice here. They were actually looking into drugs to be used during heart surgery, specifically drugs to be used to lower blood pressure during same.
During some trials an interesting side effect was noticed. I expect there were some happy happy people.
FYI & FWIW For those interested, high blood pressure is often a cause of impotence (though many might incorrectly argue that a higher pressure might be useful!). Of course, stress causes high blood pressure, and not being able to get (or retain) an erection causes stress! My but men are just a big mixed up bag of emotions!
The problem is that the muscles that restrict blood flow out of the penis are overwhelmed by the excessive blood pressure, and the erection subsides, or is never present. Along comes this wonder-drug for lowering blood pressure during heart surgery, and, as a side effect, it also lowers the pressure so that those handy muscles can retain the blood in the penis and hence keep (or allow) an erection.
Saddam was an evil shit and should bhe eliminated, WMDs or not.
I agree with you. The problem is, the fact that he was/is a nasty piece of work wasn't the given reason for the war, the imaginary WMD was!
If it was just that he was a V. unpleasent man, apparently hell-bent on wiping out large sections of his population, then how come no one has lifted a finger against Mugabe?
Perhaps it is simply coincidental that Iraq sits on rather a lot of oil, and Zimbabwe (the former "Bread Basket of Africa") is now a dust bowl full of starving people and V. Rich politicians.
Interestingly, the England Rugby squad (current World Champions FWIW!) had, amongst other things, a "... vision coach supervising special eye tests to enhance a player's peripheral awareness."
Part of the training regime involved sitting in front of what looked like PC screens and focusing on the various images that were displayed (at least that's what it looked like from the TV report!).
So when a teenage boy who now has almost unlimted access to porn, rapes your daughter; will you still say that? Both are bad.
Hey, isn't that the same argument that says that if people watch violence on TV they will go out and do violent things?
Others might argue that the boy might have been thinking about (sexually) attacking someone, and was able to stave off the urges by using porn as a substitute.
Both arguments are somewhat naive, and often used by bigots from either end of the spectrum. The truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle.
I think the key here is consent. If both (ok, all!) parties have consented then the porn should perhaps be allowed. Similarly, if the viewer has consented to look at the images. This allows that it is understood that animals and children are not able to consent, for the obvious reasons.
Of course, this opens a whole new can of worms, because children now means different things to different people - eg age of consent in the UK is 16 and in the Netherlands is somewhat lower I think (might even be 12?), and that's just Europe.
The "Freedom of Speech" argument is valid though. It's a bad precident to set that some group of do-gooders can decide that something you're doing, or saying, is bad and should be banned.
I do think the.sex domain is a good idea, though as always with these things, it'd be tough to enforce across national boundaries.
A friend has one of the HP ones with finger print checker, bluetooth, wireless, etc all build in. He walked into my house and connected to my wireless network. Out and about, it uses bluetooth to communicate with his cell phone in his rucksack and connects that way. He has a small bluetooth GPS that it will connect to, and it will track his movement and overlay it on the maps (full Landranger set of maps for England and Wales for 150 pounds or so), including the admiralty maps offshore so he can see where he is sailing. It's amazing!
It seems to me that having the various components seperate is better than lumping them all together though. This allows parts to be upgraded or new parts added, and allowing him to choose best of breed, cheapest, etc for each component as he requires.
I suppose the downside might be that you are carrying multiple sets of batteries etc, but then you only have the bits you actually need with you, and multiple batteries perhaps equates to longer up time?
As I understand it, SETI was the first distributed system. The other ones (folding, etc) got the idea from SETI. So SETI deserves a few cycles for coming up with the idea.
BOINC presumably grew out of the new idea too, so it is right that SETI should move to the new system, and especialy so if we can indeed share our CPU cycles with more than one project.
... space aliens...
LOL.... you yanks make me laugh! So I guess non-yank humans would be Earth Aliens then right? See the irony? Nope, I guess not!
A Venus transit is one of the most unique astronomical events in our time...
That's why! Because this unique event is by far and away the most unique event. Far more unique than other, often known as "lesser", unique events that happen from time to time.
Oh yes, and this unique event has happened before and will happen again. That sure is a special kind of unique event that sets it apart from the other unique events and no mistake!
Said visitors land, disembark, and are immediately hit with advertising and ushered into a starbucks
I hope they're going to get the same sort of grilling that non-US visitors are currently getting trying to get into the good 'Ol US-of-A!
But how's the finger printing and retinal scans going to work if they don't have fingers or retinas?
As a side note, I once mis-read "Retinal Scan" as "Rectal Scan". I can tell you, I wasn't queuing up to go there for my holidays!
It'd sure be an interesting looking machine though! Queues of tourists all waiting to take their turn at Passport Control. "Please wait behind the white line until called". You bet!
there's a screw loose somewhere between keyboard and the chair
My favourites are Pilot Error and Fat Fingers.
Also, heard story about TV repair man turning up at some house and looking at the TV, before wandering over and hitting the TV, which fixes it. Hand a bill for 100 pounds to the homeowner who says it's too much and wants an itemised bill.
TV Repair man writes note:-
Hitting Television - 5 Pounds
Knowning where
to Hit Television - 95 pounds
Slashdot Mirror
The kicker is they are intending to use GPS in everyone's cars to see where you are. Nice little earner for the State! I wonder if they thought it'd be nice to know where everyone is first, then thought about charging for road use second!
This really deserves a Big Brother award.
That's the point. It costs money to annoy people. This is doubly good because it somewhat alleviates the annoyance to have been paid a little amount, and it puts off the annoyers because it costs them money.
- If someone sets a huge bond they will effectively be ostracised from the wider community. ... it also seems likely that kids will be given bond funds by their parents/guardians, much like they probably don't pay for their ISP access right now! It also wouldn't be rocket science to allow people in internet cafes (for example) to pay cash to the proprietor in return for fund transfer to their escrow account - perhaps by simply sending them a bonded email! ... anonymous account with escrow backing ... (repeat new account/bonded email trail as many times as makes you happy!).
- It is likely that the good guys will put, say, $5 in their escrow account and NEVER USE IT - because no one will take their offered bonds, so losing one's credit card should have no effect. Also, whenever you take someone's bond, it will presumably be credited to your escrow account.
- OK, under 18 so no credit card
- Need complete anonymity eh? I can imagine that this might be the case for some correspondence and this might be a sticking point, but there are anonymous remailers etc. Also, create a hotmail account, send bonded msg to your self from other email account - voila
- "Very poor" returns to my original point. WiFi on a bike eh. So not so poor as you can't get a laptop, wireless card, and a bike!
And your finances are NOT connected to the internet. You have a seperate escrow account with a multitude of methods for putting your couple of bucks in - direct by credit card sure, but paypal, email from a mate who owes you a beer, etc, etc.
You are missing the point completely. Lets just imagine this system has been implemented and everyone has the new email software.
You visit a website and reckon its interesting enough to want to chat to the webmaster. You hand craft an email and post your usual bond (some setup screen for sending emails allows you to set a usual bond - lets say $1).
The webmaster chap has his software setup (similar setup page for receiving emails) with a bond level of $1 (so your email gets through). He opens it and reads it and thinks that you might be an interesting chap, and so will decline to take your dollar. If he really likes the cut of your gib he may well put you in his white list.
If your bond is too low to get through, you could get an autoreply telling you your bond wasn't big enough, and you can either up your bond (assuming you think your message was interesting enough) or give up.
If he gets sent spam, he will keep the dollar, so spammers will go bust, so he won't get spam!
Even if he didn't think you were that interesting a person, he might still decline the dollar.
The whole concept is much better than the 'everyone pays for email' ideas, because the only people who will always end up paying are the spammers!
I like it .... and I say Bring It On!
Are you lonesome tonight? - Yes I Am!
Thank you very much - you've been wonderful punters
Or as a French Elvis might say ... Merci!
I guess I must be one of those fools then. I have a domain I run for my family, including parents, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces and I have a catch-all account. I have been running this domain now for 3 or 4 years and in that time I have not had ANY spam emails to anything other than my real email address(es) (that I use to register with various websites). I have had a handfull of miss-spelt ones which I duly pass on to which ever sibling it was meant for.
So who's the fool? The foolee who's fooled or the fooler who fools!
Obviously the same genius who came up with the name Palm Pilot.
I mean ... Palm Pilot! What was the man thinking! In my part of the world, call someone a Palm Pilot and yer asking for a slap!
What's going to be next, the IBM Knuckle Shuffle or maybe the HP Ness
all competitors are encouraged to use performance enhancing drugs
Yes, I noticed the topic header doesn't mention the massive amounts of "recreational pharmaceuticals" these fellas snork!
Without the drugs, the Tour de France would just be another Sunday bike ride!
Afraid of the Canadian Linux user groups/lynch mobs?
Nope, you get frostbite.
You have to take your gloves off to remove the foil.
As mentioned in a previous Slashdot article about Blaise Gassend's Notes from the Third Annual Space Elevator Conference.
For example, I know that if you are standed at the North Pole and are starving and are ... and
a) foolish enough to try and kill a polar bear
b) lucky enough to succeed
do NOT eat the liver as it will kill you because it is loaded with Vitamin A (as discovered by some hapless explorers many years ago!).
This is why it is useful.
Actually, you are doing Pfizer somewhat of a disservice here. They were actually looking into drugs to be used during heart surgery, specifically drugs to be used to lower blood pressure during same.
During some trials an interesting side effect was noticed. I expect there were some happy happy people.
FYI & FWIW For those interested, high blood pressure is often a cause of impotence (though many might incorrectly argue that a higher pressure might be useful!). Of course, stress causes high blood pressure, and not being able to get (or retain) an erection causes stress! My but men are just a big mixed up bag of emotions!
The problem is that the muscles that restrict blood flow out of the penis are overwhelmed by the excessive blood pressure, and the erection subsides, or is never present. Along comes this wonder-drug for lowering blood pressure during heart surgery, and, as a side effect, it also lowers the pressure so that those handy muscles can retain the blood in the penis and hence keep (or allow) an erection.
I agree with you. The problem is, the fact that he was/is a nasty piece of work wasn't the given reason for the war, the imaginary WMD was!
If it was just that he was a V. unpleasent man, apparently hell-bent on wiping out large sections of his population, then how come no one has lifted a finger against Mugabe?
Perhaps it is simply coincidental that Iraq sits on rather a lot of oil, and Zimbabwe (the former "Bread Basket of Africa") is now a dust bowl full of starving people and V. Rich politicians.
Part of the training regime involved sitting in front of what looked like PC screens and focusing on the various images that were displayed (at least that's what it looked like from the TV report!).
Hey, isn't that the same argument that says that if people watch violence on TV they will go out and do violent things?
Others might argue that the boy might have been thinking about (sexually) attacking someone, and was able to stave off the urges by using porn as a substitute.
Both arguments are somewhat naive, and often used by bigots from either end of the spectrum. The truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle.
I think the key here is consent. If both (ok, all!) parties have consented then the porn should perhaps be allowed. Similarly, if the viewer has consented to look at the images. This allows that it is understood that animals and children are not able to consent, for the obvious reasons.
Of course, this opens a whole new can of worms, because children now means different things to different people - eg age of consent in the UK is 16 and in the Netherlands is somewhat lower I think (might even be 12?), and that's just Europe.
The "Freedom of Speech" argument is valid though. It's a bad precident to set that some group of do-gooders can decide that something you're doing, or saying, is bad and should be banned.
I do think the .sex domain is a good idea, though as always with these things, it'd be tough to enforce across national boundaries.
It seems to me that having the various components seperate is better than lumping them all together though. This allows parts to be upgraded or new parts added, and allowing him to choose best of breed, cheapest, etc for each component as he requires.
I suppose the downside might be that you are carrying multiple sets of batteries etc, but then you only have the bits you actually need with you, and multiple batteries perhaps equates to longer up time?
Why not stay at the pole, but just out of the sunlight, and tow a trailer full of solar panels a few hundred meters behind you, in the sunlight.
As I understand it, SETI was the first distributed system. The other ones (folding, etc) got the idea from SETI. So SETI deserves a few cycles for coming up with the idea.
BOINC presumably grew out of the new idea too, so it is right that SETI should move to the new system, and especialy so if we can indeed share our CPU cycles with more than one project.
LOL .... you yanks make me laugh! So I guess non-yank humans would be Earth Aliens then right? See the irony? Nope, I guess not!
PAH!
Splitters! We're "The Popular IRA Front"!
That's why! Because this unique event is by far and away the most unique event. Far more unique than other, often known as "lesser", unique events that happen from time to time.
Oh yes, and this unique event has happened before and will happen again. That sure is a special kind of unique event that sets it apart from the other unique events and no mistake!
Not in the UK when too often they appear to be incapable of doing either!
I hope they're going to get the same sort of grilling that non-US visitors are currently getting trying to get into the good 'Ol US-of-A!
But how's the finger printing and retinal scans going to work if they don't have fingers or retinas?
As a side note, I once mis-read "Retinal Scan" as "Rectal Scan". I can tell you, I wasn't queuing up to go there for my holidays!
It'd sure be an interesting looking machine though! Queues of tourists all waiting to take their turn at Passport Control. "Please wait behind the white line until called". You bet!
My favourites are Pilot Error and Fat Fingers.
Also, heard story about TV repair man turning up at some house and looking at the TV, before wandering over and hitting the TV, which fixes it. Hand a bill for 100 pounds to the homeowner who says it's too much and wants an itemised bill. TV Repair man writes note :-
Hitting Television - 5 Pounds
Knowning where
to Hit Television - 95 pounds