I wonder if they'd take the time to program only the phrases they'd expect to use, or would contract to the lowest bidder, who would adapt a commercial voice recognition package? Just because it's military doesn't mean it's custom made, only that it's expensive.
I wonder if you could simply say in court "It's a honey pot," (explain what that is) "it does not contain useful data, and I never planned to decrypt it." You are honestly telling the truth, you really do not have the password, and it's up to them to prove you false.
IANAL, but philosophically, saying "I never intended to decrypt it so I did not retain the password" is different from "I don't remember the password". It's up to the prosecution to prove intent.
There are lawyers who contribute here. Where is the flaw in my reasoning?
> You say it like standing in line for anything is a good thing.
I can't remember the last time I stood in line for anything not food or theater related. I've learned, however, not to go to my favorite coffee drive-thru on the way to work whenever Apple releases a new product. The coffee shop is right next to where the proselyte congregate waiting to receive their new icon, and it's impossible to drive a car through. (Except maybe really really fast, but then I'd have some 'splanin' to do.) (Oh c'mon, it's a joke!)
"Good" being defined not necessarily as being good at engineering, but being good at managing offshore junior engineers, who do the trivial work and get stuck on anything for which there isn't an existing template or procedure.
Although in my perception, any offshoring requires the local retention (usually as contractors) of a few really good engineers, who have to do all the non-trivial work that an order-of-magnitude-larger department used to do.
> The reason this guy hasn't been able to get a job for several years is that he doesn't want to network. He sees shmoozing as a stupid waste of time, because it's not how *he* would hire someone to do a job.
My response might be, the moment it's him hiring he can use any criteria with which he's comfortable, but if he's trying to *get* a job, what's important is how *others* would hire someone to do a job. As an engineer, he should be able to see the correlation.
"Shmoozing", ass-kissing and generally being un-genuine is really not necessary. (At least in engineering.) Networking, for the most part, is. It's not necessary to keep your soul in a box in the basement in order to keep in touch with professionals in your own field. If you want to be a loner, you should be prepared to be alone. It doesn't pay well.
I don't run a lot of applications on my smartphone; the important features are email, texting (teenage daughter...) and phone, with a small amount of browsing. The BB was perfect for me as it was email first (my most used function) phone second (as good as any dedicated phone I've owned) and texting third (the best keyboard in the business). When BES started to become unreliable, I switched to Android, and it's been just slightly behind the blackberry for usability. I get one or two "forced close" on apps per week, mostly novelty stuff I don't really need.
Compared to Windows Mobile, the BB and Android are both huge wins, in that neither have system resource crashes. (The Windows audio driver would die several times a day, and the screen driver two or three times a week.) I think this is an important distinction -- an app may crash and life goes on, but if parts of the OS crash on a regular basis, you have a problem.
My company issues iphones on request, and I was tempted at first, but on seeing the problems others were having with phone calls, I declined. I'm sure it's a great internet platform, but calls are important to me. I like to think that's the primary reason, but I have to admit that another reason I don't own an iphone is that I didn't want to be associated with the Apple fanatics in my workgroup. I have never camped on the sidewalk to get a new electronic device... or anything, actually, and I didn't want to be associated with those who did this regularly.
I think that's an important distinction. Watching the iphone users at my work go "hello... damn... hello... dammit.... hello... CRAP" but seeing the flawless (except for flash) browser function, I can understand why they are described that way.
So, if you need a really reliable phone, but also have the need for mobile internet.... I guess you could get a cheap flip phone and an iPad. But I've never seen an ipad owner who didn't also own laptop and iphone also. I guess email is good enough?
A year ago when we had this discussion, I responded "But what will the trees breathe?" and got marked troll. Oh well.
But seriously, I can see a possible counterbalance. At least in the US, we have been artificially repressing naturally occurring forest fires for over an hundred years. Could it be that periodic mass forest fires are one of nature's answers to too much carbon sequestering?
> I look forward to reading years from now how in the teens, scientists were all worried that more plants would turn the earth into an ice ball, and that everyone was told to cut down any green things they find.
Man, I never thought of that. PANIC! Cut down your trees! I'm buying stock in STIHL.
Oh c'mon, I'm a die-hard industrialist, own a "visualize armed insurrection" t-shirt and a "pave the planet" hat, [1] and even I wouldn't live in a domicile without a few trees nearby. There were none on my property when I bought it a couple decades ago, and I now have 15 full grown trees of various kinds. Trees are nice.
We might be talking the same thing. The country *was* young compared to other industrialized countries in the world, being a paltry 180 years or so old. We had not yet drowned in bureaucracy. We've gotten too good at turning a bag of money into a smaller bag every time it changes hands.
There were divisional issues; there are always issues, but as you pointed out, the country as a whole had just achieved great things. There was a mood to achieve greater things. They could be united for a national cause. Can you see that happening today?
The argument remains that in the current age of cost overruns and billion dollar airplanes, it couldn't be done today. It could be started, several times, but never actually delivered. We don't work like that anymore.
I think the moon program was during a "sweet spot" in our history, when the country was still relatively young and powerful, we were not so divided as a nation, and the government procurement process had not become so corrupt. I think that even a crash program would not work now -- that there's not enough money on earth to fund what a Saturn 5 project would cost today, given what the process has become. I think it's barely possible for private industry, but I suspect that even that would be essentially shut down by regulation. China would be willing to take more chances, and are accustom to achieving projects of large scale in recent times. They might be able to do it.
To answer the original question, had we missed the opportunity to do an Apollo crash program at the time in our history when it was done, we'd still be in low earth orbit, at staggering cost, today.
Sadly, that appears to be the case. Towards the end, I started fighting back. When my blood pressure refill was denied, I called the office the next morning and canceled my appointment. Then -- wait for it -- the nurse practitioner would call back in an hour or two, scold me, and attempt to make a new appointment. I'd do it on the condition that they allow the refill. Had to do that twice last year. But it was still too much money. And as someone else said, I don't begrudge doctors making money, if it's done legitimately, but it seemed like I was trapped in the role of abused spouse.
Slashdot Mirror
C'mon, anyone who didn't use recreational drugs from 1970 -- 1974 is lying or hadn't been born yet.
I wonder if they'd take the time to program only the phrases they'd expect to use, or would contract to the lowest bidder, who would adapt a commercial voice recognition package? Just because it's military doesn't mean it's custom made, only that it's expensive.
Seems to me that a very specific language would be better, similar to learning German commands to direct an Alsatian. Maybe an artificial language.
Is minor surgery?
Accents might be a problem.
"Follow me!"
"Command 'hollow tree' not recognized."
"Follow me!!"
"Command 'swallow flea' not recognized."
"Come this way!"
"Command 'drum this hay' not recognized."
So, someone pops out of the bushes and shouts "Return home!"
I wonder if you could simply say in court "It's a honey pot," (explain what that is) "it does not contain useful data, and I never planned to decrypt it." You are honestly telling the truth, you really do not have the password, and it's up to them to prove you false.
IANAL, but philosophically, saying "I never intended to decrypt it so I did not retain the password" is different from "I don't remember the password". It's up to the prosecution to prove intent.
There are lawyers who contribute here. Where is the flaw in my reasoning?
> You say it like standing in line for anything is a good thing.
I can't remember the last time I stood in line for anything not food or theater related. I've learned, however, not to go to my favorite coffee drive-thru on the way to work whenever Apple releases a new product. The coffee shop is right next to where the proselyte congregate waiting to receive their new icon, and it's impossible to drive a car through. (Except maybe really really fast, but then I'd have some 'splanin' to do.) (Oh c'mon, it's a joke!)
But then there'd be no reason to stand in the rain waiting to swap your 4 for a 4s.
"Good" being defined not necessarily as being good at engineering, but being good at managing offshore junior engineers, who do the trivial work and get stuck on anything for which there isn't an existing template or procedure.
Although in my perception, any offshoring requires the local retention (usually as contractors) of a few really good engineers, who have to do all the non-trivial work that an order-of-magnitude-larger department used to do.
> The reason this guy hasn't been able to get a job for several years is that he doesn't want to network. He sees shmoozing as a stupid waste of time, because it's not how *he* would hire someone to do a job.
My response might be, the moment it's him hiring he can use any criteria with which he's comfortable, but if he's trying to *get* a job, what's important is how *others* would hire someone to do a job. As an engineer, he should be able to see the correlation.
"Shmoozing", ass-kissing and generally being un-genuine is really not necessary. (At least in engineering.) Networking, for the most part, is. It's not necessary to keep your soul in a box in the basement in order to keep in touch with professionals in your own field. If you want to be a loner, you should be prepared to be alone. It doesn't pay well.
I don't run a lot of applications on my smartphone; the important features are email, texting (teenage daughter...) and phone, with a small amount of browsing. The BB was perfect for me as it was email first (my most used function) phone second (as good as any dedicated phone I've owned) and texting third (the best keyboard in the business). When BES started to become unreliable, I switched to Android, and it's been just slightly behind the blackberry for usability. I get one or two "forced close" on apps per week, mostly novelty stuff I don't really need.
Compared to Windows Mobile, the BB and Android are both huge wins, in that neither have system resource crashes. (The Windows audio driver would die several times a day, and the screen driver two or three times a week.) I think this is an important distinction -- an app may crash and life goes on, but if parts of the OS crash on a regular basis, you have a problem.
My company issues iphones on request, and I was tempted at first, but on seeing the problems others were having with phone calls, I declined. I'm sure it's a great internet platform, but calls are important to me. I like to think that's the primary reason, but I have to admit that another reason I don't own an iphone is that I didn't want to be associated with the Apple fanatics in my workgroup. I have never camped on the sidewalk to get a new electronic device... or anything, actually, and I didn't want to be associated with those who did this regularly.
I think that's an important distinction. Watching the iphone users at my work go "hello... damn... hello... dammit.... hello... CRAP" but seeing the flawless (except for flash) browser function, I can understand why they are described that way.
So, if you need a really reliable phone, but also have the need for mobile internet.... I guess you could get a cheap flip phone and an iPad. But I've never seen an ipad owner who didn't also own laptop and iphone also. I guess email is good enough?
See part about "mostly to piss off certain people". Looks like it worked.
In point of fact, I can afford a Hummer, I just don't have a use for one.
A year ago when we had this discussion, I responded "But what will the trees breathe?" and got marked troll. Oh well.
But seriously, I can see a possible counterbalance. At least in the US, we have been artificially repressing naturally occurring forest fires for over an hundred years. Could it be that periodic mass forest fires are one of nature's answers to too much carbon sequestering?
He has been described as "wooden"...
> I look forward to reading years from now how in the teens, scientists were all worried that more plants would turn the earth into an ice ball, and that everyone was told to cut down any green things they find.
Man, I never thought of that. PANIC! Cut down your trees! I'm buying stock in STIHL.
Oh c'mon, I'm a die-hard industrialist, own a "visualize armed insurrection" t-shirt and a "pave the planet" hat, [1] and even I wouldn't live in a domicile without a few trees nearby. There were none on my property when I bought it a couple decades ago, and I now have 15 full grown trees of various kinds. Trees are nice.
[1] Mostly to piss off certain people.
>>Stay home. Buy online.
>... and be tracked by Google and other companies' cookies.
It's not a perfect solution.
Stay home. Buy online.
We might be talking the same thing. The country *was* young compared to other industrialized countries in the world, being a paltry 180 years or so old. We had not yet drowned in bureaucracy. We've gotten too good at turning a bag of money into a smaller bag every time it changes hands.
There were divisional issues; there are always issues, but as you pointed out, the country as a whole had just achieved great things. There was a mood to achieve greater things. They could be united for a national cause. Can you see that happening today?
The argument remains that in the current age of cost overruns and billion dollar airplanes, it couldn't be done today. It could be started, several times, but never actually delivered. We don't work like that anymore.
>>So he's not just some random executive, he's a gamer at heart.
> A gamer who wants to badly fuck other gamers over to make an easy buck.
And this is different from any online gamer in what way? He's just taking the philosophy to real life.
I think the moon program was during a "sweet spot" in our history, when the country was still relatively young and powerful, we were not so divided as a nation, and the government procurement process had not become so corrupt. I think that even a crash program would not work now -- that there's not enough money on earth to fund what a Saturn 5 project would cost today, given what the process has become. I think it's barely possible for private industry, but I suspect that even that would be essentially shut down by regulation. China would be willing to take more chances, and are accustom to achieving projects of large scale in recent times. They might be able to do it.
To answer the original question, had we missed the opportunity to do an Apollo crash program at the time in our history when it was done, we'd still be in low earth orbit, at staggering cost, today.
Sadly, that appears to be the case. Towards the end, I started fighting back. When my blood pressure refill was denied, I called the office the next morning and canceled my appointment. Then -- wait for it -- the nurse practitioner would call back in an hour or two, scold me, and attempt to make a new appointment. I'd do it on the condition that they allow the refill. Had to do that twice last year. But it was still too much money. And as someone else said, I don't begrudge doctors making money, if it's done legitimately, but it seemed like I was trapped in the role of abused spouse.