I don't think the average dimensions of the instrument is any different from non-geeks, it's the ability to use it that may be lacking.
I don't think the ability to use it is lacking either... it's the opportunity that is missing. Mostly because we're all spending time posting about it on Slashdot rather than going out and trying to get laid.
He's also neglecting to consider that Microsoft is a goddamn illegal monopoly that has long set the prices for its products, worldwide, at whatever the hell it wanted to set them at. Discussions about supply-and-demand and "competing" on anything are virtually meaningless in that context.
True enough, I suppose... but then again the Web designers weren't really supposed to have any control anyway. This idea that we can, if we just wish it hard enough, make HTML behave like PDF is the root of the evil. That stems from the marketeer's desire to turn the World Wide Web into a gigantic Tru-Color brochure, preserving corporate sacred-cows in all their blazing glory.
Too bad. I thought the Web was all about the ebb and flow of information, not the presentation of advertising at every opportunity. But still, underneath all the sales crap it is about content... but the urge to control what we see down to the last pixel is overpowering to some people.
Sir, I think you are completely over-the-top. And you may have a right to broadcast Internet access... unless your ISP's terms of service say you don't, and they probably do say you don't. But I wasn't talking about the right to broadcast Internet access. Somehow I think you knew that, but wanted an excuse to parade around your soapbox.
In any event my point was that, sure, you may have all the rights in the world but they effectively don't matter when some jerkoff corporation (or "industry trade group") hauls your ass into court for some imagined infraction. Most of us can't afford to mount a vigorous defense, or even any defense at all. Maybe you have sufficient means that you aren't concerned about such things. Good for you.
YOU seem to think that the law is "fair" and that just because you have some "rights" you should be able to exercise them to your heart's content. And in an ideal world that would be true, but this is far from an ideal world and all I was doing was counseling people to think about what an open connection means. Think about what happens when someone uses your connection for something illicit (face it... you'll be held responsible) or decides to take a gander at your hard drive to see if they can find some child porn or other contraband material. Federal judges have been brought down for less.
So go ahead. Exercise your right to broadcast free Internet to the world. But when somebody knocks on your door, don't blame me for having recommended a little caution.
Actually, it's their knowledge of guns that gives me some comfort. The people you see commenting about firearms here on Slashdot are the very last sort of people you're going to see committing a massacre, are the ones most likely to successfully use a firearm in a defensive situation, and least likely to shoot someone by accident. I'd rather have one of them holding a gun on me than you. At least, if I get shot it'll be because they had a good reason to shoot me, not because they pulled the trigger by accident.
You, on the other hand, are someone who by his own admission, knows nothing of what he is talking about, knows nothing of what is being discussed, and has expressed fear and loathing of what is, after all... only a machine. A gun is not an object worthy of such an emotional response, any more than your car or your refrigerator. Keep in mind that our nation was founded by people who saw the value of such machines, and in fact our freedoms were secured because they used those weapons well.
Now, I don't own a gun, either... but I acknowledge that guns are power, and as such may ultimately be the only form of power We the People have when the political process fails us completely (that is unavoidable, we all know it, the Founders knew it: it is only a matter of when.) In the meantime, I'm glad there are people out there who aren't cops, professional soldiers, or crooks, who own firearms and know how to use them. As I said, guns are power and I see no reason why one side should have all of it. Neither would you, if you were to look at the situation a little more dispassionately.
As an initiation into the world of firearms and defensive gun usage, I would recommend that you to check out the writings of one Gary Kleck. Here's another article. I'm sure you can Google for more (those are just the top few links I found by typing his name.)
It's eye-opening stuff, and he has the math and the numbers to back it up. I guarantee it will thoroughly upset your worldview, but sometimes the truth hurts.
I agree with your comments, but you have to admit, it was a brilliant bit of mass-psychology that's been working for over half a century.
I just want to beat my head against the wall when everyone I know gets all excited about the Government Savings Plan they're on (i.e., their Tax Refund). Some even tell me it doesn't bother them (giving the Federal Government an interest free loan every day of their working lives because, hell, they'd just have spent it anyway. What the fuck?
Back when I was an independent contract programmer, I generally never made quarterly payments. I just put a third of each check I received into a savings account. I kept that at a different bank than the one where my primary business accounts were located so it was easy to forget about it (kind of like my own private withholding system.) Then, at the end of the year I settled up with the Feds. They really didn't like that, of course. "Quarterly payments will help you stay out of trouble" I was told. Yes, well, that's fine but I'd really rather keep the money for as long as I can, thank you very much. After all, it's my money until I send them a check.
I don't think they predicted it so much as adapted very quickly to it. Of course, that doesn't sound like a particularly difficult thing to do so I'm surprised that the Klingons, Romulans and the rest hadn't figured that out millennia ago, making frequency-hopping shields the standard long before Starfleet was invented.
Anyway, unless Star Trek shields were modulated at a frequency in the tiny fractions of a Hz. they weren't magnetic. Generating enough electromagnetism to deflect high-energy particles is going to take magnets with some serious inductance. You're sure as hell not going to modulate them in the terahertz range or some such nonsense, even if they were essentially just dead shorts that your pour a few hundred thousand amperes across.
Heck, maybe what they need to do is set up a superconducting energy-storage system that doubles as a particle deflector shield.
Well, there's a difference when going from true small-town America to city life, or even the suburbs (maybe even especially the suburbs.) Nobody knows anyone, a criminal is unlikely to be observed going about his business, and even if he is nobody will probably take notice. If we'd had wireless back in the small town in Maryland where I grew up, I doubt anyone would have bothered with encryption or disabling SSID broadcasts, nor would anyone have cared if their neighbors shared their connetion now and then.
I live in a nice enough neighborhood nowadays, I guess... but I don't know many of the people that live around me and I sure has hell wouldn't trust them with my network.
Probably the best rationalization, pardon me, rationale for the Sexual Revolution yet put forth to date. "We're fucking like rabbits to improve the gene pool!" Unfortunately, you can spread defective genes that way just as easily, which I think explains a lot of what has happened to America since 1960.
We'd have been a whole lot better off if some people (and you know who you are) had just kept it zipped.
Caring for a family is alot more than just having the money.
Certainly that is true, but you need to have sufficient resources to pull it off or you'll become a burden to your extended family and the State. Now, your parents may have been poor, but not so poor that they were incapable of raising you. That's not always the case, and in fact much of the drain on our welfare system is from people who had kids and couldn't handle it. Is that fair to the children? No, not really. Is that fair to the taxpayers who foot the bill? "No" again.
As a side note birth control is readily available in our society and isn't very expensive (even free), and in any event is cheaper than raising a family. It's not an issue of liking sex and having it: as a society we have to come to grips with the fact that people will do that whether we want them to or not, whether they should do it or not (the right wing has a real problem with that, I've noticed.) However, it is about having sex when you are incapable of dealing effectively with the consequences. Millions of people do just that, and those consequences are often severe, both to the parents as well as to their offspring.
So, I'm glad that your parents raised you successfully under difficult circumstances, matter of fact I'm rather impressed, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for a lot of families who find themselves in the same position. Usually, the appearance of children when a couple is undergoing hard times makes things go from bad to worse.
On the other hand... why go to the trouble of having to prove yourself innocent (not an easy or painless process nowadays) when simply securing your WAP can largely eliminate the risk? Look, I understand the Good Samaritanism involved, and frankly I might be inclined to do something similar (although with some rate-limiting, no point in being too generous) if it weren't for the legal climate in this country (the U.S., in my case.) The courts are not to be trusted, they make too many mistakes when it comes to technology issues, even if you can afford to buy the requisite justice. I can't, so I have my access point secured as tightly as I can make it. Still don't trust the thing, so I severely restrict access to the rest of the network anyway. There are tons of 802.11b/g access points around my neighborhood, and a number of them are unsecured, so I let my neighbors provide the free WiFi to passersby... I don't see the risk as being worth it.
Of course, if you're an IP lawyer spoiling for a fight, I say go for it. Let me know how that works out for you.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think the average dimensions of the instrument is any different from non-geeks, it's the ability to use it that may be lacking.
... it's the opportunity that is missing. Mostly because we're all spending time posting about it on Slashdot rather than going out and trying to get laid.
I don't think the ability to use it is lacking either
What you're neglecting to consider is ...
He's also neglecting to consider that Microsoft is a goddamn illegal monopoly that has long set the prices for its products, worldwide, at whatever the hell it wanted to set them at. Discussions about supply-and-demand and "competing" on anything are virtually meaningless in that context.
... and more realistically 700 to 1000 years away, assuming we last that long as a species.
We'll probably last that long as a species. Whether we'll last that long as a civilization as another story entirely.
Short arms?
Long penis.
It's not as if broadband penetration means much of anything, if those who want to use it can use it at work anyway.
... what?
Uh
FCC Admits Mistakes In Measuring Broadband Competition
But I wish they'd admit to some more of their mistakes, and then do something about them. This one isn't even one of the most damning.
Can you say, "malware"?
True enough, I suppose ... but then again the Web designers weren't really supposed to have any control anyway. This idea that we can, if we just wish it hard enough, make HTML behave like PDF is the root of the evil. That stems from the marketeer's desire to turn the World Wide Web into a gigantic Tru-Color brochure, preserving corporate sacred-cows in all their blazing glory.
... but the urge to control what we see down to the last pixel is overpowering to some people.
Too bad. I thought the Web was all about the ebb and flow of information, not the presentation of advertising at every opportunity. But still, underneath all the sales crap it is about content
From the summary .. for transporting goods, electricity and natural resources.
... and troops.
Sir, I think you are completely over-the-top. And you may have a right to broadcast Internet access ... unless your ISP's terms of service say you don't, and they probably do say you don't. But I wasn't talking about the right to broadcast Internet access. Somehow I think you knew that, but wanted an excuse to parade around your soapbox.
... you'll be held responsible) or decides to take a gander at your hard drive to see if they can find some child porn or other contraband material. Federal judges have been brought down for less.
In any event my point was that, sure, you may have all the rights in the world but they effectively don't matter when some jerkoff corporation (or "industry trade group") hauls your ass into court for some imagined infraction. Most of us can't afford to mount a vigorous defense, or even any defense at all. Maybe you have sufficient means that you aren't concerned about such things. Good for you.
YOU seem to think that the law is "fair" and that just because you have some "rights" you should be able to exercise them to your heart's content. And in an ideal world that would be true, but this is far from an ideal world and all I was doing was counseling people to think about what an open connection means. Think about what happens when someone uses your connection for something illicit (face it
So go ahead. Exercise your right to broadcast free Internet to the world. But when somebody knocks on your door, don't blame me for having recommended a little caution.
Yes, well, when did you ever know a politician or government official to voluntarily give up a revenue stream?
Actually, it's their knowledge of guns that gives me some comfort. The people you see commenting about firearms here on Slashdot are the very last sort of people you're going to see committing a massacre, are the ones most likely to successfully use a firearm in a defensive situation, and least likely to shoot someone by accident. I'd rather have one of them holding a gun on me than you. At least, if I get shot it'll be because they had a good reason to shoot me, not because they pulled the trigger by accident.
... only a machine. A gun is not an object worthy of such an emotional response, any more than your car or your refrigerator. Keep in mind that our nation was founded by people who saw the value of such machines, and in fact our freedoms were secured because they used those weapons well.
... but I acknowledge that guns are power, and as such may ultimately be the only form of power We the People have when the political process fails us completely (that is unavoidable, we all know it, the Founders knew it: it is only a matter of when.) In the meantime, I'm glad there are people out there who aren't cops, professional soldiers, or crooks, who own firearms and know how to use them. As I said, guns are power and I see no reason why one side should have all of it. Neither would you, if you were to look at the situation a little more dispassionately.
You, on the other hand, are someone who by his own admission, knows nothing of what he is talking about, knows nothing of what is being discussed, and has expressed fear and loathing of what is, after all
Now, I don't own a gun, either
As an initiation into the world of firearms and defensive gun usage, I would recommend that you to check out the writings of one Gary Kleck. Here's another article. I'm sure you can Google for more (those are just the top few links I found by typing his name.)
It's eye-opening stuff, and he has the math and the numbers to back it up. I guarantee it will thoroughly upset your worldview, but sometimes the truth hurts.
Well ... we can always go back to the Browning Automatic Rifle.
Is anyone else having a problem getting to YouTube?
I agree with your comments, but you have to admit, it was a brilliant bit of mass-psychology that's been working for over half a century.
I just want to beat my head against the wall when everyone I know gets all excited about the Government Savings Plan they're on (i.e., their Tax Refund). Some even tell me it doesn't bother them (giving the Federal Government an interest free loan every day of their working lives because, hell, they'd just have spent it anyway. What the fuck?
Back when I was an independent contract programmer, I generally never made quarterly payments. I just put a third of each check I received into a savings account. I kept that at a different bank than the one where my primary business accounts were located so it was easy to forget about it (kind of like my own private withholding system.) Then, at the end of the year I settled up with the Feds. They really didn't like that, of course. "Quarterly payments will help you stay out of trouble" I was told. Yes, well, that's fine but I'd really rather keep the money for as long as I can, thank you very much. After all, it's my money until I send them a check.
Mebbe so ... but I'd like to see how a Star Destroyer (or better yet, a Death Star) would fare against a Borg Cube.
I have the feeling that Darth Vader would be getting a few more cybernetic implants.
I don't think they predicted it so much as adapted very quickly to it. Of course, that doesn't sound like a particularly difficult thing to do so I'm surprised that the Klingons, Romulans and the rest hadn't figured that out millennia ago, making frequency-hopping shields the standard long before Starfleet was invented.
Anyway, unless Star Trek shields were modulated at a frequency in the tiny fractions of a Hz. they weren't magnetic. Generating enough electromagnetism to deflect high-energy particles is going to take magnets with some serious inductance. You're sure as hell not going to modulate them in the terahertz range or some such nonsense, even if they were essentially just dead shorts that your pour a few hundred thousand amperes across.
Heck, maybe what they need to do is set up a superconducting energy-storage system that doubles as a particle deflector shield.
You don't get rich by spending money.
Very true. You get rich by spending other people's money.
Give me twenty million, and let me pick my team. I'll have something better for you in two years, and I'll make COTS compliant, how about that.
Well, there's a difference when going from true small-town America to city life, or even the suburbs (maybe even especially the suburbs.) Nobody knows anyone, a criminal is unlikely to be observed going about his business, and even if he is nobody will probably take notice. If we'd had wireless back in the small town in Maryland where I grew up, I doubt anyone would have bothered with encryption or disabling SSID broadcasts, nor would anyone have cared if their neighbors shared their connetion now and then.
... but I don't know many of the people that live around me and I sure has hell wouldn't trust them with my network.
I live in a nice enough neighborhood nowadays, I guess
The conclusion is, we need to fuck around more.
Probably the best rationalization, pardon me, rationale for the Sexual Revolution yet put forth to date. "We're fucking like rabbits to improve the gene pool!" Unfortunately, you can spread defective genes that way just as easily, which I think explains a lot of what has happened to America since 1960.
We'd have been a whole lot better off if some people (and you know who you are) had just kept it zipped.
Gosh, there are really intelligent Women in Computer Scientists
Another one that comes to mind is Grace Hopper.
Caring for a family is alot more than just having the money.
Certainly that is true, but you need to have sufficient resources to pull it off or you'll become a burden to your extended family and the State. Now, your parents may have been poor, but not so poor that they were incapable of raising you. That's not always the case, and in fact much of the drain on our welfare system is from people who had kids and couldn't handle it. Is that fair to the children? No, not really. Is that fair to the taxpayers who foot the bill? "No" again.
As a side note birth control is readily available in our society and isn't very expensive (even free), and in any event is cheaper than raising a family. It's not an issue of liking sex and having it: as a society we have to come to grips with the fact that people will do that whether we want them to or not, whether they should do it or not (the right wing has a real problem with that, I've noticed.) However, it is about having sex when you are incapable of dealing effectively with the consequences. Millions of people do just that, and those consequences are often severe, both to the parents as well as to their offspring.
So, I'm glad that your parents raised you successfully under difficult circumstances, matter of fact I'm rather impressed, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for a lot of families who find themselves in the same position. Usually, the appearance of children when a couple is undergoing hard times makes things go from bad to worse.
I dunno ... but frankly, the reason I close my access point is the same reason I keep my front door locked.
On the other hand ... why go to the trouble of having to prove yourself innocent (not an easy or painless process nowadays) when simply securing your WAP can largely eliminate the risk? Look, I understand the Good Samaritanism involved, and frankly I might be inclined to do something similar (although with some rate-limiting, no point in being too generous) if it weren't for the legal climate in this country (the U.S., in my case.) The courts are not to be trusted, they make too many mistakes when it comes to technology issues, even if you can afford to buy the requisite justice. I can't, so I have my access point secured as tightly as I can make it. Still don't trust the thing, so I severely restrict access to the rest of the network anyway. There are tons of 802.11b/g access points around my neighborhood, and a number of them are unsecured, so I let my neighbors provide the free WiFi to passersby ... I don't see the risk as being worth it.
Of course, if you're an IP lawyer spoiling for a fight, I say go for it. Let me know how that works out for you.