But if people were smart enough to not try to scam us gun-toting and trigger-happy Americans, then there would be no cause for us to use physical violence.
It works about the same way as Capital Punishment for crimes.
Disclamer READ before bidding! Scam me, or attempt to scam me, and you will be beaten sevearly about the head and body with a water-soaked rattan cane!
Wow, I wish I had the kind of classes that would let me build stuff like this in them....but noooo, all we could do is sit there, read the books, and take the tests. Never actually applying the knowledge that we just learned.......
Gen X: mid-60's to mid-70's
Gen Lost: mid-70's to mid-80's
Gen TV: mid-80's to mid-90's
Gen "I don't give a f&(#, I want everything I want RIGHT NOW!": mid-90's to current
And the presence of my normal mail box does not give people the right to populate it with garbage either.....but it still happens. I pay for my house, I pay taxes for the US Postal Service, and I pay for stamps for the mail I want to send.......care to tell me how this is any diffrent than spam emails? It's junk, I throw it away without reading it, and it clutters up my mailbox. And my mailbox is on private property (yes, I'm still paying the mortgage, but it is my house)
And as to the comment above mine, I don't make a living by sending spam...I'm a computer technician with the Military Department of my state. I do have filters setup on all my routers and gateways to block email from most outside sources, but spam still gets through.......
Yes, I am aware that some municipalities do have laws regulating the use of large, corporate-sponsored ads, and they are limited in scope as to not be illegal, poronographic, or scams.
They are not a passive form of advertising, you have to think about ignoring them, they don't just go away on their own....about equivilent to deleting a spam email IMO.
As for not costing you anything, someone has to pay to put up and maintain those huge hunks of worthless metal, and the cost of advertising is passed on to who? That's right...you and me in the form of higher prices on consumer goods...or more ads on a radio station, or any number of other ways.
That's not true, and even your example proves it. There was a Highway Beautification act passed a long while back that made billboards along highways illegal. It ended up getting repealed. So- someone wanted those bilboards- they were far from "unwanted" advertising. Who do you think wanted those billboards?!? The people with advertising on them.....not the average consumer.....
And my personal favorite: You're saying that either to justify the action of spamming... or you are a true ignoramus who got modded up by some stupid people. I pay for my e-mail account, nobody has the right to spam me. As a citizen I do pay tax thus I am entitled use the highway and see the billboards, but nobody is allowed to put a billboard on my garden without my permission.
So you're saying that you pay taxes to see advertisements made by large companies while your driving along a highway that your taxes also pay for? And you forget the governmental principle of Imminent Domain. If the government wanted you to have a billboard in your garden, then they will put one there and there's nothing that you can do about it.
I'll grant that my metaphor might be slightly flawed, but there are plenty of other examples of unsolicated advertising that gets crammed down your throat everyday. Junk mail through the postal service, commercials during a television program, ads on the radio, telemarketers, even the previews when you go to a theater (or rent/buy) a movie that you paid to get into! Spam isn't just an email phenomonon, it's just an unregulated form of unsolicated mass advertisment.
That's the true cause of the uproar surrounding spam...not that it clutters our inboxes, or that it takes up network bandwith, it's the fact that there is no regulation stating that you can't send advertisements of X, Y, or Z types across the internet. When you get down to just the facts, I'm sure that there wouldn't be half as many complaints with spam if it wasn't:
Poronographic
Illegal
Scams
Other types of stupid advertising
If there was some way to keep all the poronography, illegal, and/or scams out of your email inbox, but keep the other advertising that meets the same guidelines as, say, television ads.....99% of people would sign up for that program.
Don't kid yourselves into believing that the Internet and email services shouldn't deliver advertisment emails.........it'll never happen.
And don't forget Oklahoma's up-until-recently Native American law:
It was fully legal to shoot a Native American (again, the wording of the law changed for the reasons stated above) for a covered wagon....but what qualifies as a covered wagon?:D
It could never be made illegal...simply because it's a form of unwanted advertising. Ever take a trip on the highway and seen all the billboards? I don't like the way that the billboards cover up the country side. I think that billboards are a physical equivilent of email spam......see my point?
Actually, to find that information out, you just have to ask the proper questions.
Yes, I do carry a TOP SECRET clearance level, and none of the information that I posted is in any way classified.
Notice that I didn't give any kind of key information (other than the basic structure), and I didn't reveal any information that would help in breaking through the COMSEC on the classified hardware. It's simple, unclassified information......
If you don't believe me, then ask someone
And if you would see the software that secures them for TOP SECRET data, you would be amazed...
That particular drive is not used for any other processing, nor is it removed for the secure COMSEC vault. It is coded and numbered, and is not used in any other computer. The computer itself has an encryption algorithm that I've never seen (not GOSH, BLOWFISH, or PGP algorithms) based upon a 1024-bit rotating key that not even the user knows. It is completly random (insofar as a computer can be random) and based upon a random seed. The user's login and password is also encrypted, and typically the computer is not connected to an ethernet network, but rather a dial-up connection through STU-3 or -4 secure modems.
And yes, the government uses Windows because of a licencing deal with the ever-pervasive MS.
all voting machines have to be able to keep track of who you voted for, and it has to be traceable back to you
I'm not sure that I want my vote to be traceable back to me, other than the fact that I did indeed vote. I don't think the anyone needs to know who I voted for except for myself. My vote should simply be counted, added to the total, and that's it. There shouldn't be any possible way to trace who I voted for, or the answer on a certan question back to me.
For instance, the following hypothetical National Question:
National Question 1034:
For repeated abuse of Amendment No. 1 to the United States Constitution (Right to Free Speach), the Question is proposed:
The internet news website, Slashdot.org (hereafter refered to as 'The Website'), shall be closed permenantly so that it can no long spread its vicious slandering of the Microsoft Corporation (hereafter refered to as 'The Slandered Party'). It has been logged on numerous occasions that The Website has posted, and accepted the post, of various anti-capitalistic individuals with strong feelings against The Slandered Party. Yadda Yadda Yadda...More Polit-Speech..........
If you wish this site to be closed, Vote No. If you wish this site to remain open, Vote Yes.
|begin flame protection v. 1.1|As I've already said, this is simply hypothetical, and I would never wish to see harm done to/.|/end flame protection v. 1.1|
Now, if I voted to keep/. open (which I would), and the government really wanted it shut down, they can now trace my vote back to me.
That means that if they really wanted to, they could come to my house, arrest me for something false, hold another election for the closing of/., then they could claim that the first vote was flawed, and the true will of the people is to close this site down....
JOOC, buy why do we need electronic voting systems? Why not just go to an older-style system, like the ScanTron still used to grade tests and the like in public schools (and some colleges)? It's not like we need anything high-tech for such an old concept. It's simple: you use ScanTron sheets, and if someone has a write-in vote, you manually tabulate those. You will never eliminate the need for manual counting of votes, expecally if you have a dispute over the number of votes from an area. If not ScanTron, the use a simple system. Voting definatly follows the KISS principle, the more complex you make it, the more that could go wrong.
And don't forget Murphy's Law: What ever can go wrong, WILL go wrong.:D:D
The DoD has had laser guided munitions for decades. Since Vietnam, in fact.
This isn't about LGMs, it's about fully-functional tactical laser weaponry. Right now, its the MTHEL system. Next, it will be hand-held laser weapons for the individual soldiers. The technology exists for laser weapons (basically just high-powered laser pointers), the problem is with a power supply.
Lasers to knock out 'metal things' have been around for decades as well. The difficult part has been tracking very high speed objects from a distance.
Where have these been? I haven't seen a one of them.
There was a big Navy project to put a laser on a ship. I have no idea if that was ever put into operation.
Nope...it was cancelled.
There was the 'Star Wars' Alpha program that was run during the Regean military buildup. And King George the Second appears to be trying to breath life back into the project.
The 'Star Wars' project was for a space-based laser missile-defense system.....this system is both ground based, and not meant for just ballistic missiles, as the 'Star Wars' project was.
What makes this news item 'interesting' is that the DoD seldom comments on successes like this unless program funding is at stake or some politico needs to be impressed.
Unless, of course, the release of the information causes the use of a weapon to fall. In this case, it would be targeted more at cruise missiles and other short- to medium-range weaponry rather than ICBMs.
who vote down the school budget every year because they think their taxes are too high.
So cut the budget for stupid projects (like Oklahoma's latest: the dome covering a very beautiful stained glass ceiling) and put it into the schools. I agree fully that the public school system needs a MAJOR overhaul.
Don't you see how inconsistent you are? I'm sure you don't think the military is just for your benefit - then why do you feel that way about Soc. Sec. and Medicare? Sure, they don't affect you directly... but do you want to see people begging on the street because they can't afford health care and they are so sick they can't hold a job?
Ok, first I'm in the military, so I'm slightly biased there...I admit that. I also have no problems with people who have legitemit (sp?) claims on SS or Medicare...but there are a great number that draw on those benifits that I pay for, but will never see, and don't need them
Again, I would agree that they named countries don't have the resources currently....but what about several months or years from now?
As far as arming the populace, I don't see anything stopping someone from going out and buying a firearm (rifle, handgun, pick your flavor) unless they're a convicted felon, in which case, I fully agree that they shouldn't be allowed to own a firearm. But that does NOT mean that an armed populace could defend the country effectivly.
In war, the 100,000 troops that China could land here would be more than enough to stomp over the entire population of the US if there was no standing military. There is a very good reason that there is a diffrence between sending soldiers to war, and sending civilians.
Despite the traning and knowledge of military leadership, it would account for exactly dick without a trained, disciplined , and motivated soldier to carry out his/her orders. A civilian that has not been in the military just wouldn't cut the muster. Also, most civilians have never been fired at or upon, and most lack the discipline and selfless courage to be a soldier. This would probably result in an unacceptable attrition rate in the American defenders because of fear and deserters.
And above all reasons there stands one alone: Soldiers Deserve Soldiers, not armed civilians.
Out of all the people that I know, there are very, very few that I would want to go to war with, and even less that I would trust in a foxhole.
Not meant to be a flame, please don't take what follows as such!!
I agree with you on several points, most especially about SocSec and Medicare (I will never see them either), and that a "general" tax on e-commerce and mail order would be a Bad Thing. But, I have to totally disagree that it should be optional to support the Defense Budget and similar programs paid with taxed moneys. I believe that if you made this optional, a great majority of the people (especially during the Clinton regime) would not choose to pay taxes for support of the military.
I hope I don't need to explain that without the money from taxes, the military would shrivel up and vanish. If this happened, I would be willing to bet that within a month, everyone would be required to learn a new language (German, Russian, Chinese, take your pick) because we no longer have a force to protect ourselves. I know there are many people on/. that are very anti-military, but that institution is one of America's greatest symbols, and about the only thing that protects us from a violent occupation from a diffrent country. If that went away, so would America, and any talk of tax for interstate commerce would then be moot.
I wasn't speaking of XP to any other compatibility...I was strictly speaking from my experance with Office 2000...which IS NOT compatable with older versions of Office unless you tell it to save to a diffrent format...they probably changed this with XP due to the anti-trust lawsuits
But have you tried to open any doc files from someone that has "upgraded" to Office 2000? Almost impossible unless that person has the sense-of-mind to save it in the old 97 Office format..........
Perhaps I'm wrong, but that fits the defination of "practically unusable" to me. Not to mention being an "MS Tax"...
"To open newer Office files, you will have to upgrade to Office 2000. This 'upgrade' will cost you all of your privicy rights (EULA), everything that's in your bank account (the actual monitary cost), and all your hair (from frustruation)."
"Thanks for calling Microsoft Tech Support, how can we mug you..I mean, help you...today?"
I've been thinking about this for awhile actually. Although wireless would be an option, it would probably be better to setup the entire complex in the following configuration:
1)Main T-x or even OC-x connection to server room with webserver, mail server, etc.
2)From server room, depending on number of seperate physical buildings, Gigabit or Fiber connections to sub-servers/routers in the diffrent buildings
3)From building wire rack, 100Base-T wires going to every unit, possibly every room
That would make a complete network/ISP for an apartment complex, and would enable it to use the service to turn an additional profit (beyond the installation of the lines and cost of servers etc). Not to mention being convienent for the people living there. Add approx. $20-40/mth to the rent, enable unlimited bandwidth, throw in on-site technical support for computer issues....I don't know many people that wouldn't jump on this.
The problem with running a wireless network is:
1)Unsecure unless you have someone that knows what their doing
2)Expensive for new tenents (having to buy a wireless network card, or if the complex rents them to tenents, replacing stolen ones)
3)Slower than 100Base-T, or possibly even Gigabit
4)Problems with wireless during storms/possible electical wire interferance (depending on age of complex)
If anyone knows a complex that is interested, tell them to get ahold of me!:P:P
Slashdot Mirror
Also, take a look at What's Up Gold
Expensive? kinda; Useful? undoubtable
Touche......I was not aware of that particular fact.
But if people were smart enough to not try to scam us gun-toting and trigger-happy Americans, then there would be no cause for us to use physical violence.
It works about the same way as Capital Punishment for crimes.
Disclamer READ before bidding!
Scam me, or attempt to scam me, and you will be beaten sevearly about the head and body with a water-soaked rattan cane!
Wow, I wish I had the kind of classes that would let me build stuff like this in them....but noooo, all we could do is sit there, read the books, and take the tests. Never actually applying the knowledge that we just learned.......
Toilet: "You have just exceeded your flush license. Please goto www.microsoft.com/flush_license/more_shit.html to purchase more flushes."
You: "But I don't have a computer in the bathroom!"
Toilet: "Flush Stack Over-flow error. (A)bort flush, (R)etry flush, (I)gnore."
Gen X: mid-60's to mid-70's
Gen Lost: mid-70's to mid-80's
Gen TV: mid-80's to mid-90's
Gen "I don't give a f&(#, I want everything I want RIGHT NOW!": mid-90's to current
And the presence of my normal mail box does not give people the right to populate it with garbage either.....but it still happens. I pay for my house, I pay taxes for the US Postal Service, and I pay for stamps for the mail I want to send.......care to tell me how this is any diffrent than spam emails? It's junk, I throw it away without reading it, and it clutters up my mailbox. And my mailbox is on private property (yes, I'm still paying the mortgage, but it is my house)
And as to the comment above mine, I don't make a living by sending spam...I'm a computer technician with the Military Department of my state. I do have filters setup on all my routers and gateways to block email from most outside sources, but spam still gets through.......
Who do you think wanted those billboards?!? The people with advertising on them.....not the average consumer.....
You're saying that either to justify the action of spamming... or you are a true ignoramus who got modded up by some stupid people. I pay for my e-mail account, nobody has the right to spam me. As a citizen I do pay tax thus I am entitled use the highway and see the billboards, but nobody is allowed to put a billboard on my garden without my permission.
So you're saying that you pay taxes to see advertisements made by large companies while your driving along a highway that your taxes also pay for? And you forget the governmental principle of Imminent Domain. If the government wanted you to have a billboard in your garden, then they will put one there and there's nothing that you can do about it.
I'll grant that my metaphor might be slightly flawed, but there are plenty of other examples of unsolicated advertising that gets crammed down your throat everyday. Junk mail through the postal service, commercials during a television program, ads on the radio, telemarketers, even the previews when you go to a theater (or rent/buy) a movie that you paid to get into! Spam isn't just an email phenomonon, it's just an unregulated form of unsolicated mass advertisment.
That's the true cause of the uproar surrounding spam...not that it clutters our inboxes, or that it takes up network bandwith, it's the fact that there is no regulation stating that you can't send advertisements of X, Y, or Z types across the internet. When you get down to just the facts, I'm sure that there wouldn't be half as many complaints with spam if it wasn't:
If there was some way to keep all the poronography, illegal, and/or scams out of your email inbox, but keep the other advertising that meets the same guidelines as, say, television ads.....99% of people would sign up for that program.
Don't kid yourselves into believing that the Internet and email services shouldn't deliver advertisment emails.........it'll never happen.
And don't forget Oklahoma's up-until-recently Native American law: :D
It was fully legal to shoot a Native American (again, the wording of the law changed for the reasons stated above) for a covered wagon....but what qualifies as a covered wagon?
It could never be made illegal...simply because it's a form of unwanted advertising. Ever take a trip on the highway and seen all the billboards? I don't like the way that the billboards cover up the country side. I think that billboards are a physical equivilent of email spam......see my point?
Luke (to Owen): "Uncle Owen! I think this R2 unit has a bad motivator!"
:D:D:D:D
Owen (to Jawas): "Hey, just what are you trying to push on us?"
--Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope circa 1976
Sorry...couldn't resist the explanation to all who haven't had the delight of watching the original 3 movies....
Actually, to find that information out, you just have to ask the proper questions. Yes, I do carry a TOP SECRET clearance level, and none of the information that I posted is in any way classified.
Notice that I didn't give any kind of key information (other than the basic structure), and I didn't reveal any information that would help in breaking through the COMSEC on the classified hardware. It's simple, unclassified information......
If you don't believe me, then ask someone
And if you would see the software that secures them for TOP SECRET data, you would be amazed...
That particular drive is not used for any other processing, nor is it removed for the secure COMSEC vault. It is coded and numbered, and is not used in any other computer. The computer itself has an encryption algorithm that I've never seen (not GOSH, BLOWFISH, or PGP algorithms) based upon a 1024-bit rotating key that not even the user knows. It is completly random (insofar as a computer can be random) and based upon a random seed. The user's login and password is also encrypted, and typically the computer is not connected to an ethernet network, but rather a dial-up connection through STU-3 or -4 secure modems.
And yes, the government uses Windows because of a licencing deal with the ever-pervasive MS.
Just something to think about....
My apologies, I didn't know that laser weapons were banned by the Conventions. Thanks for the info!
I'm not sure that I want my vote to be traceable back to me, other than the fact that I did indeed vote. I don't think the anyone needs to know who I voted for except for myself. My vote should simply be counted, added to the total, and that's it. There shouldn't be any possible way to trace who I voted for, or the answer on a certan question back to me.
For instance, the following hypothetical National Question:
|begin flame protection v. 1.1|As I've already said, this is simply hypothetical, and I would never wish to see harm done to
Now, if I voted to keep
That means that if they really wanted to, they could come to my house, arrest me for something false, hold another election for the closing of
Scary, isn't it?
JOOC, buy why do we need electronic voting systems? Why not just go to an older-style system, like the ScanTron still used to grade tests and the like in public schools (and some colleges)? It's not like we need anything high-tech for such an old concept. It's simple: you use ScanTron sheets, and if someone has a write-in vote, you manually tabulate those. You will never eliminate the need for manual counting of votes, expecally if you have a dispute over the number of votes from an area. If not ScanTron, the use a simple system. Voting definatly follows the KISS principle, the more complex you make it, the more that could go wrong.
:D:D
:)
And don't forget Murphy's Law: What ever can go wrong, WILL go wrong.
Just my Opinion, I could be wrong
The DoD has had laser guided munitions for decades. Since Vietnam, in fact.
This isn't about LGMs, it's about fully-functional tactical laser weaponry. Right now, its the MTHEL system. Next, it will be hand-held laser weapons for the individual soldiers. The technology exists for laser weapons (basically just high-powered laser pointers), the problem is with a power supply.
Lasers to knock out 'metal things' have been around for decades as well. The difficult part has been tracking very high speed objects from a distance.
Where have these been? I haven't seen a one of them.
There was a big Navy project to put a laser on a ship. I have no idea if that was ever put into operation.
Nope...it was cancelled.
There was the 'Star Wars' Alpha program that was run during the Regean military buildup. And King George the Second appears to be trying to breath life back into the project.
The 'Star Wars' project was for a space-based laser missile-defense system.....this system is both ground based, and not meant for just ballistic missiles, as the 'Star Wars' project was.
What makes this news item 'interesting' is that the DoD seldom comments on successes like this unless program funding is at stake or some politico needs to be impressed.
Unless, of course, the release of the information causes the use of a weapon to fall. In this case, it would be targeted more at cruise missiles and other short- to medium-range weaponry rather than ICBMs.
who vote down the school budget every year because they think their taxes are too high.
So cut the budget for stupid projects (like Oklahoma's latest: the dome covering a very beautiful stained glass ceiling) and put it into the schools. I agree fully that the public school system needs a MAJOR overhaul.
Don't you see how inconsistent you are? I'm sure you don't think the military is just for your benefit - then why do you feel that way about Soc. Sec. and Medicare? Sure, they don't affect you directly... but do you want to see people begging on the street because they can't afford health care and they are so sick they can't hold a job?
Ok, first I'm in the military, so I'm slightly biased there...I admit that. I also have no problems with people who have legitemit (sp?) claims on SS or Medicare...but there are a great number that draw on those benifits that I pay for, but will never see, and don't need them
Again, I would agree that they named countries don't have the resources currently....but what about several months or years from now?
As far as arming the populace, I don't see anything stopping someone from going out and buying a firearm (rifle, handgun, pick your flavor) unless they're a convicted felon, in which case, I fully agree that they shouldn't be allowed to own a firearm. But that does NOT mean that an armed populace could defend the country effectivly.
In war, the 100,000 troops that China could land here would be more than enough to stomp over the entire population of the US if there was no standing military. There is a very good reason that there is a diffrence between sending soldiers to war, and sending civilians.
Despite the traning and knowledge of military leadership, it would account for exactly dick without a trained, disciplined , and motivated soldier to carry out his/her orders. A civilian that has not been in the military just wouldn't cut the muster. Also, most civilians have never been fired at or upon, and most lack the discipline and selfless courage to be a soldier. This would probably result in an unacceptable attrition rate in the American defenders because of fear and deserters.
And above all reasons there stands one alone:
Soldiers Deserve Soldiers, not armed civilians.
Out of all the people that I know, there are very, very few that I would want to go to war with, and even less that I would trust in a foxhole.
Does anyone else see a comparison between this technology and the "telescreens" in 1984??
Call me paranoid, but suddenly, the words "Big Brother is Watching You" keep spinning through my mind.....
Not meant to be a flame, please don't take what follows as such!!
/. that are very anti-military, but that institution is one of America's greatest symbols, and about the only thing that protects us from a violent occupation from a diffrent country. If that went away, so would America, and any talk of tax for interstate commerce would then be moot.
I agree with you on several points, most especially about SocSec and Medicare (I will never see them either), and that a "general" tax on e-commerce and mail order would be a Bad Thing. But, I have to totally disagree that it should be optional to support the Defense Budget and similar programs paid with taxed moneys. I believe that if you made this optional, a great majority of the people (especially during the Clinton regime) would not choose to pay taxes for support of the military.
I hope I don't need to explain that without the money from taxes, the military would shrivel up and vanish. If this happened, I would be willing to bet that within a month, everyone would be required to learn a new language (German, Russian, Chinese, take your pick) because we no longer have a force to protect ourselves. I know there are many people on
Just my $.02, not meant to flame
ahhhh!!!! the paranoids are after me!!!!
I wasn't speaking of XP to any other compatibility...I was strictly speaking from my experance with Office 2000...which IS NOT compatable with older versions of Office unless you tell it to save to a diffrent format...they probably changed this with XP due to the anti-trust lawsuits
But have you tried to open any doc files from someone that has "upgraded" to Office 2000? Almost impossible unless that person has the sense-of-mind to save it in the old 97 Office format..........
Perhaps I'm wrong, but that fits the defination of "practically unusable" to me. Not to mention being an "MS Tax"...
"To open newer Office files, you will have to upgrade to Office 2000. This 'upgrade' will cost you all of your privicy rights (EULA), everything that's in your bank account (the actual monitary cost), and all your hair (from frustruation)."
"Thanks for calling Microsoft Tech Support, how can we mug you..I mean, help you...today?"
I've been thinking about this for awhile actually. Although wireless would be an option, it would probably be better to setup the entire complex in the following configuration:
:P:P
1)Main T-x or even OC-x connection to server room with webserver, mail server, etc.
2)From server room, depending on number of seperate physical buildings, Gigabit or Fiber connections to sub-servers/routers in the diffrent buildings
3)From building wire rack, 100Base-T wires going to every unit, possibly every room
That would make a complete network/ISP for an apartment complex, and would enable it to use the service to turn an additional profit (beyond the installation of the lines and cost of servers etc). Not to mention being convienent for the people living there. Add approx. $20-40/mth to the rent, enable unlimited bandwidth, throw in on-site technical support for computer issues....I don't know many people that wouldn't jump on this.
The problem with running a wireless network is:
1)Unsecure unless you have someone that knows what their doing
2)Expensive for new tenents (having to buy a wireless network card, or if the complex rents them to tenents, replacing stolen ones)
3)Slower than 100Base-T, or possibly even Gigabit
4)Problems with wireless during storms/possible electical wire interferance (depending on age of complex)
If anyone knows a complex that is interested, tell them to get ahold of me!