I assume you really meant that America has 300,000,000 people. In any event, China and India are both attempting to extract as much advanced knowledge and skill from the United States as they can, while simultaneously preventing us from doing anything consequential. The best way to do that is to swamp our educational system with their own people, people who eventually return home with what they've learned leaving us with, well, not much.
On the other hand, given that America seems to have less and less use for advanced training I don't suppose it will matter in the long run.
Well, I tend to agree... but the politicians do count the poor when it comes to counting votes. That's what I mean by "power", because they can buy those votes by shifting massive amounts of tax dollars into welfare spending. Those of us who are footing that particular bill are the ones who aren't counted.
There's a big difference between a programmer not being willing to show you the code and a corporate suit refusing to allow the programmer to show his code. The coder may be too embarrassed by his work (unless he's unusually thorough and detail-conscious and has an understanding management, the code will suck) but the suit will have not the slightest understanding of coding style and structure... all he knows is that the code is a valuable part of the company's product (or maybe the only part) and sees no reason to give the competition a leg up. The problem comes in when, because of the suit's inability to judge the true value of the software, he will tend to lock it up on principle even if what's being kept secret is trivial. Or maybe especially for that reason.
That's why you release the source with "THIS CODE IS UNSUPPORTED - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK" stamped all over it and then don't leave any way for anyone to contact you. If you left an email address or a phone number and anyone finds your code useful they're going to drive you nuts. I learned that lesson a long time ago. The world is full of inconsiderate people who don't understand that their problems are not at the top of your to-do list.
The only thing that may be possible to reveal that way is if the hospital is doing a good job or if they are incompetent.
That, ultimately, is the issue. Keep in mind, however, that having the records may mean less than you think it does.
A certain local hospital in my area, a number of years ago, screwed up bigtime on one of my family members. It was pretty serious (major lawsuit material, had we chosen to pursue it) and involved flying my relative out the next day (via air ambulance) to a hospital in another state in order to get proper treatment. He lived a few more years, but never really recovered from what was done to him.
My uncle, an attorney, insisted that we get complete copies of all medical records so that the doctors at the new facility would have immediate access. Good advice, really: he didn't trust the hospital to do anything at that point. As it happened, the records people fought bitterly against releasing that information ("I'm sorry sir... it's against hospital policy.") My uncle had to get involved and told them flatly, "Federal law supersedes hospital policy. We want the records now." They complied, and at his suggestion a few months later I requested duplicate copies. Guess what... all reference to their mistake had been censored, new pages substituted.
So yeah, you can bet that hospital is trying to cover someone's ass. Probably many someones.
since they have proven they can police their network, they now have to respond to any illegal activities or risk a lawsuit.
Either way, they're probably going to regret that. If they respond to illegal activies... they risk a lawsuit. If they don't respond... they risk a lawsuit. Why they would even bother to open that can of worms is beyond me, I can't see the entertainment industry paying them enough to cover their losses.
They day may come when they'll be begging for Common Carrier status for their data services. They've been avoiding that so far.
1. If you don't push back then they'll keep doing whatever they please. Historically, when our government has gone overboard to the point where the voting public gets involved, Congress eventually reins in the offending bureacracy. It happened with the FBI back in the fifties: Congress placed a bunch of restrictions on them. Why? Because innocent people were getting hurt (when any organized group is infected with the disease of unaccountability bad things will happen. It is inevitable.) Many of those restrictions were removed with the Patriot Act and other irrational legislation, it is true, but we won't get these people under control again by doing nothing. That's what you appear to be advocating, and that's just stupid.
2. And the Hell it wasn't a fiasco! It was a fiasco of mammoth proportions: the fact that the Feds are fighting so hard to keep any more of this from getting out tells you we're only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Odds are this goes a lot further than we've already seen, with plenty of head-rolling potential, and we'll never know the full extent unless we push, and push hard! If I considered myself "outside the system" (whatever that means, I'm glad my "juvenile desires" to see my country survive amused you) I wouldn't care. Fact is, this is my system, like it or not, and I do care. Furthermore, you say "we got plenty"... exactly what did we get? What? You don't know... it's a secret? Ah, thanks for clarifying that, I feel much better now.
3. The ability of many foolish Americans (yourself included, I see) to simply ignore what is happening here, to make excuses for massive government and private sector breaches of the Supreme Law of our Land is, when you get right down to cases, more worrisome than what the NSA and the DHS have done. That's because they are us, and if we are unwilling or unable to acknowledge that what they have done is wrong, any hope for positive change is lessened.
4. Keep the rose-colored glasses on, buddy. Don't take them off. I said, DON'T TAKE THEM OFF. Because if you do, you'll start to feel like part of "the system" again, and might want to see things improve. Or maybe not.
The United States (I know, not a true democracy, etc. etc.) gives plenty of power to the poor. It's why our elected leaders spend so much of their time and our goddamned money buying their votes.
voter id problems like your boss demanding that you give him access to use the system so that he directly votes for you and locks you out.
Sure. Or maybe your wife making the same demand, "honey, you want to get any dessert tonight you better give me that damn phone. You know you don't know what's going on in politics anyway."
If you think I'm trusting my vote to the likes of Sprint, Verizon or AT&T you're nuts. I might consider it after all the people responsible for the NSA wiretapping fiasco have been put away for a reasonable number of years. Right now, though, I wouldn't trust any major communications carrier with my vote. Nope. Uh uh. No sir.
I have the feeling there are a number of higher-ups at Microsoft who are simply stunned that Vista wasn't the immediate and total success they've been publicly predicting for some time. What, you people aren't awed and amazed at our technical prowess? Can't you see the wonder that is Microsoft? You need more than eye candy? Really? I think they're completely out of touch.
I also won't be surprised if this extension is extended. People won't readily give up something that works for them, and certainly not when it's going to cost them substantial sums for little benefit. That's why there are still, to this very day, untold numbers of Windows 98 machines still out there. XP does the job, does it well, and people are still willing to give Microsoft money for it.
{sigh} that's pretty much how I figured it had to be, given the current state of affairs, but it's nevertheless depressing to hear it from one who knows.
All right. I'm up for another cold one. Who's with me?
I agree with your sentiment, but that is no longer possible for an increasing array of products. China has, deliberately and with malice aforethought, stripped us of much of our key manufacturing capability (much like Japan before it, but only on a vastly grander scale.) China has systematically purchased as much heavy equipment and machine tools from U.S. manufacturers as it can get its hands on... a lot of it for pennies on the dollar, after the previous owners either sold out to China or went out of business (no real difference there, when you get right down to it.) Much of that hardware we are no longer capable of reproducing. They may or may not have need of it themselves, but because we don't have it anymore we can't make anything with it.
Good for China. Not so good for us. I grew up thinking we were smarter than that... I'm sorry to find out I was wrong.
Really it was more like Win98(x) to Win2K to WinXP, and that was actually relatively painless for most people. There was a fair bit of effort put into backwards compatibility, and it showed. Matter of fact, it was impressive given that Windows 2000 (like XP) was based on the NT4 kernel, a far cry from Windows 98. You must have had an exceptionally bad experience: Win2K sold extremely well, because it was a solid product that had considerable value to users vs. any previous Microsoft OS. WinXP also sold very well but wasn't quite as big a splash, and now with Vista we have a situation where millions of Microsoft users are happy where they are, and don't see any reason to dump XP. Astonishing, that even Microsoft could have misjudged their customers this way.
At my current job, I was told that the individual who occupied my cubicle before I started working there would regularly doze off in the afternoon. He would snore blissfully away in his chair. Apparently, my coworkers took high delight in ringing his phone from across the room, and listening to him splutter and snort his way back to consciousness.
I, of course, would never dream of falling asleep at my desk. I usually dream of much more pleasant places.
"The challenge is going to be teaching our as-yet-nonexistent artificial intelligence to recognize suspicious behavior." said Smit. "Once we've accomplished that which no-one in the history of the field has ever come close to achieving, this will be a very impressive city in terms of public safety."
I give them twenty or thirty years. That's the bad news. The good news is that they'll already have all the cameras in place.
Yes, but the GP's point (actually, his boss' point) is still well-taken. Linux is extremely powerful in this context if you have the time and skills to devote to it. The bulk of computer users are utterly incapable of ever writing a shell script, or otherwise significantly automating their workflow processes. They depend upon someone like you to do it for them. If there's no you in the picture, they have to settle for whatever OS gives them the ability to get their jobs done.
For those people, Linux still isn't a clear winner.
Slashdot Mirror
I assume you really meant that America has 300,000,000 people. In any event, China and India are both attempting to extract as much advanced knowledge and skill from the United States as they can, while simultaneously preventing us from doing anything consequential. The best way to do that is to swamp our educational system with their own people, people who eventually return home with what they've learned leaving us with, well, not much.
On the other hand, given that America seems to have less and less use for advanced training I don't suppose it will matter in the long run.
Well, I tend to agree ... but the politicians do count the poor when it comes to counting votes. That's what I mean by "power", because they can buy those votes by shifting massive amounts of tax dollars into welfare spending. Those of us who are footing that particular bill are the ones who aren't counted.
There's a big difference between a programmer not being willing to show you the code and a corporate suit refusing to allow the programmer to show his code. The coder may be too embarrassed by his work (unless he's unusually thorough and detail-conscious and has an understanding management, the code will suck) but the suit will have not the slightest understanding of coding style and structure ... all he knows is that the code is a valuable part of the company's product (or maybe the only part) and sees no reason to give the competition a leg up. The problem comes in when, because of the suit's inability to judge the true value of the software, he will tend to lock it up on principle even if what's being kept secret is trivial. Or maybe especially for that reason.
That's why you release the source with "THIS CODE IS UNSUPPORTED - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK" stamped all over it and then don't leave any way for anyone to contact you. If you left an email address or a phone number and anyone finds your code useful they're going to drive you nuts. I learned that lesson a long time ago. The world is full of inconsiderate people who don't understand that their problems are not at the top of your to-do list.
Where else can you wake up on a Saturday morning and read an article about mutant algae fuels.
I understand the new KITT's license plate number will be "54".
The only thing that may be possible to reveal that way is if the hospital is doing a good job or if they are incompetent.
... it's against hospital policy.") My uncle had to get involved and told them flatly, "Federal law supersedes hospital policy. We want the records now." They complied, and at his suggestion a few months later I requested duplicate copies. Guess what ... all reference to their mistake had been censored, new pages substituted.
That, ultimately, is the issue. Keep in mind, however, that having the records may mean less than you think it does.
A certain local hospital in my area, a number of years ago, screwed up bigtime on one of my family members. It was pretty serious (major lawsuit material, had we chosen to pursue it) and involved flying my relative out the next day (via air ambulance) to a hospital in another state in order to get proper treatment. He lived a few more years, but never really recovered from what was done to him.
My uncle, an attorney, insisted that we get complete copies of all medical records so that the doctors at the new facility would have immediate access. Good advice, really: he didn't trust the hospital to do anything at that point. As it happened, the records people fought bitterly against releasing that information ("I'm sorry sir
So yeah, you can bet that hospital is trying to cover someone's ass. Probably many someones.
well, numb3rs was cancelled... but other than that you might have a point.
It was?
since they have proven they can police their network, they now have to respond to any illegal activities or risk a lawsuit.
... they risk a lawsuit. If they don't respond ... they risk a lawsuit. Why they would even bother to open that can of worms is beyond me, I can't see the entertainment industry paying them enough to cover their losses.
Either way, they're probably going to regret that. If they respond to illegal activies
They day may come when they'll be begging for Common Carrier status for their data services. They've been avoiding that so far.
A few more things:
... exactly what did we get? What? You don't know ... it's a secret? Ah, thanks for clarifying that, I feel much better now.
1. If you don't push back then they'll keep doing whatever they please. Historically, when our government has gone overboard to the point where the voting public gets involved, Congress eventually reins in the offending bureacracy. It happened with the FBI back in the fifties: Congress placed a bunch of restrictions on them. Why? Because innocent people were getting hurt (when any organized group is infected with the disease of unaccountability bad things will happen. It is inevitable.) Many of those restrictions were removed with the Patriot Act and other irrational legislation, it is true, but we won't get these people under control again by doing nothing. That's what you appear to be advocating, and that's just stupid.
2. And the Hell it wasn't a fiasco! It was a fiasco of mammoth proportions: the fact that the Feds are fighting so hard to keep any more of this from getting out tells you we're only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Odds are this goes a lot further than we've already seen, with plenty of head-rolling potential, and we'll never know the full extent unless we push, and push hard! If I considered myself "outside the system" (whatever that means, I'm glad my "juvenile desires" to see my country survive amused you) I wouldn't care. Fact is, this is my system, like it or not, and I do care. Furthermore, you say "we got plenty"
3. The ability of many foolish Americans (yourself included, I see) to simply ignore what is happening here, to make excuses for massive government and private sector breaches of the Supreme Law of our Land is, when you get right down to cases, more worrisome than what the NSA and the DHS have done. That's because they are us, and if we are unwilling or unable to acknowledge that what they have done is wrong, any hope for positive change is lessened.
4. Keep the rose-colored glasses on, buddy. Don't take them off. I said, DON'T TAKE THEM OFF. Because if you do, you'll start to feel like part of "the system" again, and might want to see things improve. Or maybe not.
The United States (I know, not a true democracy, etc. etc.) gives plenty of power to the poor. It's why our elected leaders spend so much of their time and our goddamned money buying their votes.
voter id problems like your boss demanding that you give him access to use the system so that he directly votes for you and locks you out.
Sure. Or maybe your wife making the same demand, "honey, you want to get any dessert tonight you better give me that damn phone. You know you don't know what's going on in politics anyway."
If you think I'm trusting my vote to the likes of Sprint, Verizon or AT&T you're nuts. I might consider it after all the people responsible for the NSA wiretapping fiasco have been put away for a reasonable number of years. Right now, though, I wouldn't trust any major communications carrier with my vote. Nope. Uh uh. No sir.
I have the feeling there are a number of higher-ups at Microsoft who are simply stunned that Vista wasn't the immediate and total success they've been publicly predicting for some time. What, you people aren't awed and amazed at our technical prowess? Can't you see the wonder that is Microsoft? You need more than eye candy? Really? I think they're completely out of touch.
I also won't be surprised if this extension is extended. People won't readily give up something that works for them, and certainly not when it's going to cost them substantial sums for little benefit. That's why there are still, to this very day, untold numbers of Windows 98 machines still out there. XP does the job, does it well, and people are still willing to give Microsoft money for it.
{sigh} that's pretty much how I figured it had to be, given the current state of affairs, but it's nevertheless depressing to hear it from one who knows.
All right. I'm up for another cold one. Who's with me?
I'm not arguing with you, but perhaps you should do what I'm about to do.
Have another drink.
Yes, and it does seem like organizations large and small (even governments) are using that threat to extort favors and better pricing from Microsoft.
Which is all well and good. That's what competition is supposed to do.
BUY AMERICAN ONLY!
... a lot of it for pennies on the dollar, after the previous owners either sold out to China or went out of business (no real difference there, when you get right down to it.) Much of that hardware we are no longer capable of reproducing. They may or may not have need of it themselves, but because we don't have it anymore we can't make anything with it.
... I'm sorry to find out I was wrong.
I agree with your sentiment, but that is no longer possible for an increasing array of products. China has, deliberately and with malice aforethought, stripped us of much of our key manufacturing capability (much like Japan before it, but only on a vastly grander scale.) China has systematically purchased as much heavy equipment and machine tools from U.S. manufacturers as it can get its hands on
Good for China. Not so good for us. I grew up thinking we were smarter than that
Really it was more like Win98(x) to Win2K to WinXP, and that was actually relatively painless for most people. There was a fair bit of effort put into backwards compatibility, and it showed. Matter of fact, it was impressive given that Windows 2000 (like XP) was based on the NT4 kernel, a far cry from Windows 98. You must have had an exceptionally bad experience: Win2K sold extremely well, because it was a solid product that had considerable value to users vs. any previous Microsoft OS. WinXP also sold very well but wasn't quite as big a splash, and now with Vista we have a situation where millions of Microsoft users are happy where they are, and don't see any reason to dump XP. Astonishing, that even Microsoft could have misjudged their customers this way.
Microsoft 'Stealth Update' Proving Problematic
Their regular updates often prove problematic.
At my current job, I was told that the individual who occupied my cubicle before I started working there would regularly doze off in the afternoon. He would snore blissfully away in his chair. Apparently, my coworkers took high delight in ringing his phone from across the room, and listening to him splutter and snort his way back to consciousness.
I, of course, would never dream of falling asleep at my desk. I usually dream of much more pleasant places.
To paraphrase Mr. Smith:
"The challenge is going to be teaching our as-yet-nonexistent artificial intelligence to recognize suspicious behavior." said Smit. "Once we've accomplished that which no-one in the history of the field has ever come close to achieving, this will be a very impressive city in terms of public safety."
I give them twenty or thirty years. That's the bad news. The good news is that they'll already have all the cameras in place.
Yes, but the GP's point (actually, his boss' point) is still well-taken. Linux is extremely powerful in this context if you have the time and skills to devote to it. The bulk of computer users are utterly incapable of ever writing a shell script, or otherwise significantly automating their workflow processes. They depend upon someone like you to do it for them. If there's no you in the picture, they have to settle for whatever OS gives them the ability to get their jobs done.
For those people, Linux still isn't a clear winner.
How the hell did that get so many views?
Because somebody posted it here, that's way.
Call it the "Revenge of the Slashdot Effect."
Gagh.
Who the hell was that? What the hell was that?