Now that leaves me with another questions: why on Earth would it be thought reasonable to put the private case files of thousands of citizens on thumb drives? It's bad enough when people copy confidential stuff onto their laptops and then sell the data or get their machines stolen... but this is a case where we have a solution trying to find a problem.
Arthur C. Clarke was the archetypical hard science-fiction author. Science-fiction, if you please. In his stories, the math always worked, the science was as real as it could be. Since I was a kid I read everything he wrote that I could get my hands on... and now I think I'm going to go select one of my favorites and re-read it.
Oh, sure... some corporations have always been cutthroat, and it has largely been government's role to counterbalance that to one degree or another, to correct the really egregious excesses. Overall though, the United States' business community generally was not cutthroat to the degree that we're seeing now. Corporations have always done bad things in the name of profit, but we're seeing a new set of extremes nowadays. Hell, if you want to see what unbridled corporate nastiness looks like, China is a much better example than the U.S. at its worst. I really don't think we want to go there, but we are.
In any event, I am noticing that there are things that simply were not done in the past that are now commonplace, such as threatening public servants with impunity. I'm generally against the government (any government) here in the U.S. coming up with more law, but it does seem like corporations like Sequoia and the Taser outfit need to get slapped back. Maybe the Justice Department or the FBI could lay off the media-driven "piracy" bandwagon for a couple years, and put some of these corporate assholes in their place.
The real issue is, how did things get so fucked up that companies feel entitled to operating in such secrecy?
Yes indeed, and this behavior on the part of private corporations is hardly limited to the voting industry. It's happening all over the place. The Taser is another excellent example: medical examiners being threatened and sued by the manufacturer of that device if they put "death by Tasing" in their official reports. Doesn't matter one bit if the person who was killed did die from a tasing. The company doesn't want the publicity and will send their lawyers after anyone that makes a complaint, legitimate or otherwise.
Now, this is serious shit, because it is giving corporations the power to intimidate and influence public servants who are simply doing their jobs, jobs that We the People pay them to do. That's just WRONG and needs to be addressed at some point. Really, what we're seeing here is what happens when a society becomes fundamentally amoral: America operated on what was essentially an honor system for centuries. People didn't do this kind of thing because, well... good people just didn't do this kind of thing. Even corporate leaders had some respect for the system.
Now that we've become very much a cutthroat capitalist society, nothing matters so long as you have your way, no matter who is hurt in the process. That's not the America I grew up in, let me tell you.
Sequoia welcomes all such responsibly executed review activities.
Obviously they don't. Anyone claiming that Ed Felten is unable to responsibly execute such a review should have her head examined. More to the point however, it is equally obvious that they are very much aware of Professor Felten's reputation, and would very much rather he didn't execute a responsible review of their equipment.
So they've implemented semi-active laser guidance. Not exactly revolutionary, we've been doing it in missiles for years...
Yes, well, there's a difference between "pick something up" and "blow the fuck out of it." Still, sometimes a little cross-fertilization between disciplines comes up with some useful results.
The thing is, electric vehicles may prove practical from a technological perspective, but it's unlikely they'll ever be usable on a significant scale. Put it this way: if you're pro-electric-vehicles, you'd best be pro-nuclear as well, because that's about the only way we're going to get enough power to run a nation full of electric cars. Not that the United States' power grid (or the grid of any major industrial power) could handle the load without a massive buildout of new infrastructure. Either that, or a major reworking of our society so that we don't need to travel as much. I can't see either happening in the near future: America is too broke to make any such major investments: hell, we can't even maintain what we already have.
Meanwhile, national governments in the path of the fungus are telling folks that there is nothing to worry about.
Naturally. The people at the top never have to worry about food. They do, however, have to contend with angry hordes of starving people who have nothing to lose.
I think you missed my point. Recovering damages for actual copyright infringement is secondary to the goal of trying to reduce the perceived quantity of infringement. Given that they don't care whether or not actual infringement occurred, only that they have the appearance of infringement, indicates that true redress of grievance is simply not the idea. Out-of-court settlements extracted from terrified people that haven't had their day in court aren't damages... they're extortionate. Besides, all those settlements do is provide funding for the lawsuit mill: they don't repay the artists a penny with them.
Keep also in mind that the RIAA is not in charge here: they're a front organization for several large media companies. Those assholes couldn't care less about damages... they care about deterrence.
I was born and raised in the United States, I've lived here all my life... that's a sufficient assertion, pompous or otherwise. That and the cameras I see popping up everywhere. America is currently headed down the same path, we're just not as far along as our overseas friends. The thing is, the same kind of thinking exists at the highest levels of government in both countries, and it remains to be seen if we're going to avoid the same fate.
It's just a wafer-thin excuse to get people accustomed to yet another loss of privacy. I guess they feel that they owe it to the population to give some sort of rationale when they are required to bend over and take it up the ass again. I swear (and the U.S. is no better) these people must have miniscule penises.. sure seems like they're doing a lot of compensation for something.
We have a substantial number of permanent politicians here in the U.S. as well. Theoretically they could be voted out but it never seems to happen. The good news is that, eventually, they die of old age.
Al Gore was once asked his opinion on term limits for Congresspersons. He was wide-eyed with astonishment, and replied, "But that would deprive the American people of the benefits of professional politicians!"
Dubious benefits indeed, no matter what country you hail from.
I mean, Orwell *showed* them in "1984" how bad it could be, but they keep moving towards it. It's very strange.
Not at all. The people in power are generally immune to any consequences, which is why they can do this and not care. The United States Congress was originally structured in such a way that the lawmakers would serve their term of office (a civic responsibility, much like jury duty) and then return to their previous lives to live under the very laws they instituted. That very powerful negative feedback loop was opened (to our detriment) when the idea of "career politician" was born. Now, I don't know enough about England's governmental structures to know if there were any similar controls that have also since lapsed into uselessness. If so, it would explain a lot.
Maybe not... but as another poster pointed out, if this capability were activated on a temporary basis solely for the purpose of regenerating lost or damaged tissue, it would prove invaluable. Hell, if this did become practical, one could chop out diseased parts of an organ and simply regenerate them. Transplants could become a thing of the past. Lose an extremity? Regrow it!
That's usually the way it's done in most science-fiction stories, anyway. Does make the most sense, although it would be cool to be like the guy that instantly regenerates in the movie Silent Rage. Well... minus the murderous psychopathy, anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Now that leaves me with another questions: why on Earth would it be thought reasonable to put the private case files of thousands of citizens on thumb drives? It's bad enough when people copy confidential stuff onto their laptops and then sell the data or get their machines stolen ... but this is a case where we have a solution trying to find a problem.
What would your choice be for programmers extending beyond their normal boundaries?
It depends largely upon whether you want a job or not.
The other major handset maker -- Apple -- doesn't support Flash on the iPhone and has no plans to do so in the near future.
Sometimes I think there's hope for Apple after all.
Yeah well I'm willing to bet the New Jersey government has more money to blow than some stupid election company
... but does Ed Felten? Besides, NJ already caved in. Wimps (or corrupt assholes, hard to say which.)
Sure they do
Arthur C. Clarke was the archetypical hard science-fiction author. Science-fiction, if you please. In his stories, the math always worked, the science was as real as it could be. Since I was a kid I read everything he wrote that I could get my hands on ... and now I think I'm going to go select one of my favorites and re-read it.
Rest in peace, Arthur.
Their threat matters in the only way such a threat ever matters: the cost required to defend against it.
Oh, sure ... some corporations have always been cutthroat, and it has largely been government's role to counterbalance that to one degree or another, to correct the really egregious excesses. Overall though, the United States' business community generally was not cutthroat to the degree that we're seeing now. Corporations have always done bad things in the name of profit, but we're seeing a new set of extremes nowadays. Hell, if you want to see what unbridled corporate nastiness looks like, China is a much better example than the U.S. at its worst. I really don't think we want to go there, but we are.
In any event, I am noticing that there are things that simply were not done in the past that are now commonplace, such as threatening public servants with impunity. I'm generally against the government (any government) here in the U.S. coming up with more law, but it does seem like corporations like Sequoia and the Taser outfit need to get slapped back. Maybe the Justice Department or the FBI could lay off the media-driven "piracy" bandwagon for a couple years, and put some of these corporate assholes in their place.
The real issue is, how did things get so fucked up that companies feel entitled to operating in such secrecy?
... good people just didn't do this kind of thing. Even corporate leaders had some respect for the system.
Yes indeed, and this behavior on the part of private corporations is hardly limited to the voting industry. It's happening all over the place. The Taser is another excellent example: medical examiners being threatened and sued by the manufacturer of that device if they put "death by Tasing" in their official reports. Doesn't matter one bit if the person who was killed did die from a tasing. The company doesn't want the publicity and will send their lawyers after anyone that makes a complaint, legitimate or otherwise.
Now, this is serious shit, because it is giving corporations the power to intimidate and influence public servants who are simply doing their jobs, jobs that We the People pay them to do. That's just WRONG and needs to be addressed at some point. Really, what we're seeing here is what happens when a society becomes fundamentally amoral: America operated on what was essentially an honor system for centuries. People didn't do this kind of thing because, well
Now that we've become very much a cutthroat capitalist society, nothing matters so long as you have your way, no matter who is hurt in the process. That's not the America I grew up in, let me tell you.
Sequoia welcomes all such responsibly executed review activities.
... if they've nothing to hide ...
Obviously they don't. Anyone claiming that Ed Felten is unable to responsibly execute such a review should have her head examined. More to the point however, it is equally obvious that they are very much aware of Professor Felten's reputation, and would very much rather he didn't execute a responsible review of their equipment.
Hey
So they've implemented semi-active laser guidance. Not exactly revolutionary, we've been doing it in missiles for years ...
Yes, well, there's a difference between "pick something up" and "blow the fuck out of it." Still, sometimes a little cross-fertilization between disciplines comes up with some useful results.
The thing is, electric vehicles may prove practical from a technological perspective, but it's unlikely they'll ever be usable on a significant scale. Put it this way: if you're pro-electric-vehicles, you'd best be pro-nuclear as well, because that's about the only way we're going to get enough power to run a nation full of electric cars. Not that the United States' power grid (or the grid of any major industrial power) could handle the load without a massive buildout of new infrastructure. Either that, or a major reworking of our society so that we don't need to travel as much. I can't see either happening in the near future: America is too broke to make any such major investments: hell, we can't even maintain what we already have.
Meanwhile, national governments in the path of the fungus are telling folks that there is nothing to worry about.
Naturally. The people at the top never have to worry about food. They do, however, have to contend with angry hordes of starving people who have nothing to lose.
I think you missed my point. Recovering damages for actual copyright infringement is secondary to the goal of trying to reduce the perceived quantity of infringement. Given that they don't care whether or not actual infringement occurred, only that they have the appearance of infringement, indicates that true redress of grievance is simply not the idea. Out-of-court settlements extracted from terrified people that haven't had their day in court aren't damages ... they're extortionate. Besides, all those settlements do is provide funding for the lawsuit mill: they don't repay the artists a penny with them.
... they care about deterrence.
Keep also in mind that the RIAA is not in charge here: they're a front organization for several large media companies. Those assholes couldn't care less about damages
I was born and raised in the United States, I've lived here all my life ... that's a sufficient assertion, pompous or otherwise. That and the cameras I see popping up everywhere. America is currently headed down the same path, we're just not as far along as our overseas friends. The thing is, the same kind of thinking exists at the highest levels of government in both countries, and it remains to be seen if we're going to avoid the same fate.
What, you mean we can't do that?
... but if they catch you they come take your DNA.
Well, you can
It doesn't even make sense!
.. sure seems like they're doing a lot of compensation for something.
It's just a wafer-thin excuse to get people accustomed to yet another loss of privacy. I guess they feel that they owe it to the population to give some sort of rationale when they are required to bend over and take it up the ass again. I swear (and the U.S. is no better) these people must have miniscule penises
Now, if we were talking two year olds here, I could see it. Most parents wish they could lock their two-year-olds up 'til they grow out of it.
Unbe-fucking-lievable.
Huh. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that.
Mainly because Dr. Weir is incompetent.
We have a substantial number of permanent politicians here in the U.S. as well. Theoretically they could be voted out but it never seems to happen. The good news is that, eventually, they die of old age.
Al Gore was once asked his opinion on term limits for Congresspersons. He was wide-eyed with astonishment, and replied, "But that would deprive the American people of the benefits of professional politicians!"
Dubious benefits indeed, no matter what country you hail from.
I mean, Orwell *showed* them in "1984" how bad it could be, but they keep moving towards it. It's very strange.
Not at all. The people in power are generally immune to any consequences, which is why they can do this and not care. The United States Congress was originally structured in such a way that the lawmakers would serve their term of office (a civic responsibility, much like jury duty) and then return to their previous lives to live under the very laws they instituted. That very powerful negative feedback loop was opened (to our detriment) when the idea of "career politician" was born. Now, I don't know enough about England's governmental structures to know if there were any similar controls that have also since lapsed into uselessness. If so, it would explain a lot.
"Forever young" this is not.
... but as another poster pointed out, if this capability were activated on a temporary basis solely for the purpose of regenerating lost or damaged tissue, it would prove invaluable. Hell, if this did become practical, one could chop out diseased parts of an organ and simply regenerate them. Transplants could become a thing of the past. Lose an extremity? Regrow it!
Maybe not
I'm reminded of a story from Analog in the 60s, where they figure out how to stimulate toot regeneration
Nothing special about that. I do it with pepperoni pizza all the time. Legumes also work well.
That's usually the way it's done in most science-fiction stories, anyway. Does make the most sense, although it would be cool to be like the guy that instantly regenerates in the movie Silent Rage. Well ... minus the murderous psychopathy, anyway.