You are making the assumption that nothing will happen in the future to make currently acceptable, moral, lawful behavior illegal.
If the law changes in such a way as to be tyrannical and you have allowed no possibility for revolt without getting caught you have sealed your fate long before the tyranny came to pass .
The tyrant doesn't need a reason to kill.
He only needs the desire to kill - to become the Angel of Death - and that he will possess in abundance.
The first to die in Hitler's Germany weren't the intellectuals.
It was the politically innocent and physically helpless. The elderly and infirm, the mentally retarded and the insane.
The tyrant is a reductionist.
He doesn't give a damn about your posts to some long-forgotten blog. The simplest distinctions of race, class and religion are all he really sees.
$6 billion spent on a factory in upstate New York is good news for upstate New York.
It takes guts to put that much money into new industrial development during a financial crisis. The money could have been invested in AAA rated bonds from Microsoft.
But yeah, if they screw that trust over this seems like a pretty good punishment. I just hope no parents enable these features on their poor children by default. .
When a kid screws up badly enough on the road there often aren't any second chances.
if parents think it is good to limit performance while kids are driving, what if your government thinks it is a good idea to limit performance for all drivers? .
The government sets speed limits.
It sets the standards you must meet to drive a certain type of vehicle. It limits the type of vehicle that can be used on certain roads.
If you own a high-performance classic that pumps more pollutants in the air than a steam locomotive the government can restrict your driving to the Labor Day Parade.
But it was the private insurance companies that brought an abrupt end to the muscle car era of the sixties.
If someone wants to do back ups, why not simply buy a 1.5 TB hard drive for ~200 dollars? .
if it is a stable read-only media that will cost a buck-fifty in bulk and can be slipped into a media-rated fire safe or safety deposit vault, I want it.
if you are serious about back-ups, a single HDD won't be enough. you'll want at least two or three drives for redundant storage- and a UPS to keep them up and running.
it gets expensive.
and still leaves your data exposed to damage from fire and flood.
Back in the '80s and early '90s, people coped perfectly well with competing computers and operating systems
.
No they didn't.
What you had were small communities built around hopelessly incompatible systems from Apple. Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments, etc.
The numbers were never as big as the Geek remembers them.
The C-64 was remarkably successful in the 8-bit era with 30 million sold.
Windows in 2008 has one billion users.
When you started using computers, you became computer literate, just like everyone's more or less washing-machine-literate and DVD-player-literate
No you didn't.
You became application-literate.
Magazines like Creative Computing and Compute faded into the background as computers became more powerful and applications more sophisticated and professional.
People stopped looking "under the hood" for the same reason their grandparents abandoned the Tin Lizzy for a Ford V-8. The machine was complex and powerful - delivered a comfortable ride - and if you needed a mechanic, there was always a garage.
Of course, this has now bitten Microsoft too: it's one reason why Vista and Office 2007 are so unpopular.
Microsoft is the first industrial company to earn a AAA credit rating in 10 years.
Office 2007 flies off the shelves - the 700 pound gorilla in PC software sales regardless of platform.
.
In the moment of decision the cop makes do with what he has.
If you can say - with a straight face - that there are no errors in the massive database you maintain - then you have earned the right to demand perfection.
Otherwise, I would have to ask how your organization can hope to continue to do its job without making decisions based on "good faith" reliance on its records.
On one side, they'd provide resources to work on an interesting project. On the other, it would make me an outcast in the project's community. .
You might begin by asking if your community of developers has any realistic prospect of driving the project to completion - and whether the end result will be as good as it might have been.
But then I tend to be user-oriented not developer-oriented.
If you do not examine the source, how can you trust any piece of software? You are in effect agreeing to trust the unknown people that have looked at the source. .
It gets even better:
You've read the source.
Do you trust the people who taught you how to read the source?
Do you really understand what is going on here - not only on paper but in the real world?
For example: the code implements a cryptographic or routing algorithm that looks sound or at least plausible.
But you were never that strong in math or the topology of physical networks and you don't have the resources the NSA can bring to the attack.
You know it's an amazing coincidence. You're saying the exact same thing that Henry Paulson and his cronies say. I'm sure that it is just that - a coincidence - and that you independently came up with the identical position completely on your own. .
It is the first week in October. Both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates stood by the bill. The fear beyond Wall Street is real and growing. Job Losses Pushing U.S. Economy Into `Significant' Recession You act when action becomes possible. You act before fear becomes panic.
I'm surprised that the inflation rate is so low for what had to be cutting edge technology of the era .
The cylinder had a playing time of two to four minutes.
That is the equivalent of $8 dollars for a single, not an LP. Columbia began releasing double sided disc pressings in 1908.
While Victor began aggressively signing major artists to exclusive contracts: Caruso, Rachmaninoff, Heifitz and so on.
The geek looks at distribution and tends to forget the significance and the cost of production. It doesn't matter if a pressing costs pennies to stamp out if the talent and performance isn't strong enough to sell the product.
"If it's not yours, don't take it." Why do some people find basic ethics so hard?:( .
It is a little disheartening to see so so many posts playing on the hiker's supposed cleverness, greed - and desire for fame. So unlike the response when a fellow geek is under the microscope:
Is it just me or does the wife seem really really indifferent.
.
They had been married forty years.
She surely knew how his life was likely to end:
In college at Stanford University, Fossett was already known as an adventurer; his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers convinced him to swim to Alcatraz and raise a banner that read "Beat Cal" on the wall of the prison, closed two years previously. He made the swim, but was thwarted by a security guard when he arrived.Steve Fossett
Houston, I think we have a problem here.
on
GIMP 2.6 Released
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The American Federal courts have a long standing tradition - a Constitutional tradition - of not issuing advisory opinions. What they want to see is "a case or controversy" that has evolved and matured in the real-world, if you can excuse the accidental pun.
There is the very real prospect of a financial meltdown in the states.
The "unlimited" Internet service the geek wants to build is going to be hit and hit hard as families under strain continue to retrench --- and I'd not be in the least surprised if access through the public terminal or dial-up at $10/month lies in the immediate future for many a Slashdot poster whining about the 250GB monthly cap he faces today.
After 100 years science fiction still hasn't escaped its literary ghetto >.
I beg to differ:
The Library of America is a non profit publisher of the best in American literature, classics published in handsome hard cover editions.
The editors quite clearly do not believe that genre fiction is beneath their notice:
Philip K. Dick, Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Ubik
Philip K. Dick, Five Novels of the the 1960s and 70s: Martian Time-Slip - Dr. Bloodmoney - Now Wait for Last Year - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - A Scanner Darkly
H.P. Lovecraft, Tales: The Call of Cthulhu - The Colour Out of Space - At the Mountains of Madness - The Shadow Over Innsmouth - The Shadow Out of Time - and 17 other stories
Slashdot Mirror
If the law changes in such a way as to be tyrannical and you have allowed no possibility for revolt without getting caught you have sealed your fate long before the tyranny came to pass
.
The tyrant doesn't need a reason to kill.
He only needs the desire to kill - to become the Angel of Death - and that he will possess in abundance.
The first to die in Hitler's Germany weren't the intellectuals.
It was the politically innocent and physically helpless. The elderly and infirm, the mentally retarded and the insane.
The tyrant is a reductionist.
He doesn't give a damn about your posts to some long-forgotten blog. The simplest distinctions of race, class and religion are all he really sees.
You are a number and not a name.
.
$6 billion spent on a factory in upstate New York is good news for upstate New York.
It takes guts to put that much money into new industrial development during a financial crisis. The money could have been invested in AAA rated bonds from Microsoft.
.
When a kid screws up badly enough on the road there often aren't any second chances.
Top 20 Causes of Death - Older Teen (15 - 19), Teen Drivers Responsible for 31,000 Auto Accident Deaths
.
The government sets speed limits.
It sets the standards you must meet to drive a certain type of vehicle. It limits the type of vehicle that can be used on certain roads.
If you own a high-performance classic that pumps more pollutants in the air than a steam locomotive the government can restrict your driving to the Labor Day Parade.
But it was the private insurance companies that brought an abrupt end to the muscle car era of the sixties.
.
But how many years will you be able to this? No one stays twenty-something forever.
I've seen too many cyclists unprepared for conditions that can be very, very unforgiving in a northern Winter.
.
if it is a stable read-only media that will cost a buck-fifty in bulk and can be slipped into a media-rated fire safe or safety deposit vault, I want it.
if you are serious about back-ups, a single HDD won't be enough. you'll want at least two or three drives for redundant storage- and a UPS to keep them up and running.
it gets expensive.
and still leaves your data exposed to damage from fire and flood.
.
No they didn't.
What you had were small communities built around hopelessly incompatible systems from Apple. Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments, etc.
The numbers were never as big as the Geek remembers them.
The C-64 was remarkably successful in the 8-bit era with 30 million sold.
Windows in 2008 has one billion users.
When you started using computers, you became computer literate, just like everyone's more or less washing-machine-literate and DVD-player-literate
No you didn't.
You became application-literate.
Magazines like Creative Computing and Compute faded into the background as computers became more powerful and applications more sophisticated and professional.
People stopped looking "under the hood" for the same reason their grandparents abandoned the Tin Lizzy for a Ford V-8. The machine was complex and powerful - delivered a comfortable ride - and if you needed a mechanic, there was always a garage.
Of course, this has now bitten Microsoft too: it's one reason why Vista and Office 2007 are so unpopular.
Microsoft is the first industrial company to earn a AAA credit rating in 10 years.
Office 2007 flies off the shelves - the 700 pound gorilla in PC software sales regardless of platform.
It's bigger than games, bigger than anything.
Vista has 18% of the desktop market, based not on licenses sold, but users on the web. Top Operating System Share Trend
.
In the moment of decision the cop makes do with what he has.
If you can say - with a straight face - that there are no errors in the massive database you maintain - then you have earned the right to demand perfection.
Otherwise, I would have to ask how your organization can hope to continue to do its job without making decisions based on "good faith" reliance on its records.
.
and perhaps you need to read the parent post more closely: "various legitimate and less-than-legitimate methods over the last 4 years. ."
.
You might begin by asking if your community of developers has any realistic prospect of driving the project to completion - and whether the end result will be as good as it might have been.
But then I tend to be user-oriented not developer-oriented.
.
It gets even better:
You've read the source.
Do you trust the people who taught you how to read the source?
Do you really understand what is going on here - not only on paper but in the real world?
For example: the code implements a cryptographic or routing algorithm that looks sound or at least plausible.
But you were never that strong in math or the topology of physical networks and you don't have the resources the NSA can bring to the attack.
.
It is the first week in October. Both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates stood by the bill. The fear beyond Wall Street is real and growing. Job Losses Pushing U.S. Economy Into `Significant' Recession You act when action becomes possible. You act before fear becomes panic.
.
I'll remember that while my neighbors are trying to survive an upstate New York Winter on HEAP, Food Stamps, a Medicaid HMO and SSI.
.
The 700 billion keeps the investment banking and credit markets from a total melt-down.
If that should happen, you, your employer, your local government, won't be able to borrow money at any price.
.
The cylinder had a playing time of two to four minutes.
That is the equivalent of $8 dollars for a single, not an LP. Columbia began releasing double sided disc pressings in 1908.
While Victor began aggressively signing major artists to exclusive contracts: Caruso, Rachmaninoff, Heifitz and so on.
The geek looks at distribution and tends to forget the significance and the cost of production. It doesn't matter if a pressing costs pennies to stamp out if the talent and performance isn't strong enough to sell the product.
.
It is a little disheartening to see so so many posts playing on the hiker's supposed cleverness, greed - and desire for fame. So unlike the response when a fellow geek is under the microscope:
The Pirate Bay - "Just a Very Large Hobby", Sysadmin Steals Almost 20,000 Pieces of Computer Equipment
.
The source code doesn't tell you what resources the NSA or the Chinese can bring to the problem.
You control a single node or super node.
Your adversary controls ten thousand nodes or super nodes - whatever it takes to insure that almost nothing moving across the net escapes their eyes.
.
They had been married forty years.
She surely knew how his life was likely to end:
In college at Stanford University, Fossett was already known as an adventurer; his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers convinced him to swim to Alcatraz and raise a banner that read "Beat Cal" on the wall of the prison, closed two years previously. He made the swim, but was thwarted by a security guard when he arrived. Steve Fossett
.
There is really nothing I can add to this.
The American Federal courts have a long standing tradition - a Constitutional tradition - of not issuing advisory opinions. What they want to see is "a case or controversy" that has evolved and matured in the real-world, if you can excuse the accidental pun.
.
There is the very real prospect of a financial meltdown in the states.
The "unlimited" Internet service the geek wants to build is going to be hit and hit hard as families under strain continue to retrench --- and I'd not be in the least surprised if access through the public terminal or dial-up at $10/month lies in the immediate future for many a Slashdot poster whining about the 250GB monthly cap he faces today.
>.
I beg to differ:
The Library of America is a non profit publisher of the best in American literature, classics published in handsome hard cover editions.
The editors quite clearly do not believe that genre fiction is beneath their notice:
Philip K. Dick, Four Novels of the 1960s: The Man in the High Castle - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Ubik
Philip K. Dick, Five Novels of the the 1960s and 70s: Martian Time-Slip - Dr. Bloodmoney - Now Wait for Last Year - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - A Scanner Darkly
H.P. Lovecraft, Tales: The Call of Cthulhu - The Colour Out of Space - At the Mountains of Madness - The Shadow Over Innsmouth - The Shadow Out of Time - and 17 other stories
.
I'll not be asking where you mounted the camera.
.
and maybe if they had talent they would be performing their own material.
the geek's notion of creativity seems to begin and end in imitation - when he writes, it's fan fiction. when he plays music, it's a cover.
give him a video camera and his first thought will be to recreate an episode of Star Trek: TOS.
.
Pixar.
Independent studios have always found it a struggle to survive.
Pixar hasn't had a commercial failure. But you can burn through $200 million dollars in production costs alone for a feature like WALL-E.
That can bring you down very fast if you have a string of failures - and not much in the way of alternative revenue streams.