If I were to seriously think about Speed and Distance Tracking - which I'm against - I'd say that you require cell phones to report this information by law. Its already spying on you and if people let you do that you may as well leverage the smart phones do to it.
Sure... people would turn off the phone. or not own a phone... or not take it in the car... This would be great for smart people who'd know how to turn off their phone... and costly for the morons who use their phone WHILE DRIVING.
A lot of these silly laws start out as political ploys and veiled schemes which are not honest attempts to do what is written. Also, dumb segments of a bill can serve to distract or harm supporters of that bill-- obviously, it is used as a poison pill to kill bills as well. Unless a wingnut is behind it - its probably not seriously there for its stated purpose.
If you look at the actual cost to build roads (as i have) you'll find that the biggest factors are SPEED and weight with possible surprise costs after site inspection. Lower road speeds and you get the biggest cost reduction of all. But we never ever could dare to limit the speed - your time is sooo important!! (so important you work too many hours with little vacation time and then zone out on the crap on tv... do the math for a change... 5mph faster probably wouldn't even gain you a minute of time but it ups the bad statistics. Hell your crash regulations for your car are not likely above 35mph!)
Its really basic physics and the velocity of these heavy machines on the roads is the biggest factor in road wear; car weight is less of a factor because of the numbers (there are more cars than big trucks and high speed limits makes them all go faster not just the heavy ones.) I skipped the obvious winner - not driving on the road at all.
If Americans were responsible, we wouldn't be in this mess - nothing is free and skimping on the roads only costs you more later.
Logistically, it makes most sense to tax by weight. Automated tolls for tax heavy congestion or even highway use (high speed = high cost) can more fairly apply the cost burden upon those who use it. Speed tracking involves "big brother" as does distance tracking.
I wasn't so keen on GPLv2. Its bad enough already but to create revisions when most people hardly understand v1 (most are not slashdot readers.)
I think it should just be GPL+ where the author slaps on additional restrictions instead of pushing more stuff into GPL v# so we end up with a bunch of different things under the same heading.
I like sometimes fixing something in GPL code - for the contribution factor, not because somebody might be locking down an installation of the software. The lock-in part I don't mind and in many situations volunteers wouldn't mind but a few big contributors or some non-profit then decides to shift it to something else -- that kind of bugs me. GPL v4 should state that all future modifications must stick to the GPL it started with and not be allowed to migrate to something else. Sure its still GPL at its core-- until microsoft embraces GPL and their lawyers get GPLv5 in 10 years... (Apple wouldn't they'd do APLv2 or something and claim it was a compatible thing to transition the GPL code to..)
Don't think the law actually works on its own forever; the lawyers seem to have less respect for it than.... May I suggest a documentary which illustrates my point: "The Art of the Steal" which shows just how strong a good legal document actually is.
They are working on the car, this is a side thing that will bring in things from the outside. You can't work on the car but you could add cool things to it and contribute to it in that way. It also means they may have some great new ideas that SELL the car to people who are less interested in going green. If they get a community going around this aspect they can free up resources.... like if the linux people take over the system and save MS taxes so later the smaller car can be cheaper.
Its not just about batteries - which they don't do - its about getting an affordable CAR that people can buy and actually drive. It has to be expensive, so they went with the high end sports car and now they've worked down to the expensive car next they can work down to a mid-level car. Its harder to get the cheap affordable car so their approach to appeal to the top and work down is a WISE MOVE and helps dispel the myths of electric that have been around for so long. The sports car did a great job showing all that PR was lies- the problem is range but they don't have to be weak ugly little cars like the stereotype. This is just a step towards an electric we can all afford (pending battery tech which isn't really their thing.)
The average American need more than just a smart electric car like the Aptera - sure they don't ACTUALLY need more most of the time but the problem is that they don't believe that.
I won't go into how real scientists are not necessarily "Skeptics" which is a over simplified characterization of the philosophy of science. Disbelief as well as belief run counter to good science- ideally that is the case; however, intellectually honest believers/disbelievers can accomplish a lot of good science - the science ideals themselves are not the greatest motivators of humans... Irrational behavior is the NORM for humans not the other way around and this goes for practitioners of science as well.
The masses and their mass media warp things extremely and the influence of scientists and the mass media is bidirectional. Time travel and parallel universes for example are really taken way off to the point where scientists are playing with the tripe - its a far bigger leap but more acceptable to people right now.
1) writing grants involves targeting people on the outside; motivation/inspiration and marketing while trying not to discredit oneself too much with the potential rewards claimed. I think of it as being similar to media whoring.
2) Describing to the public in a similar but more sensationalized entertainment form is bound to have a "Hollywood" warp but it can motivate people to get started on something that they wouldn't have otherwise. I find this is usually quite harmless and far far cheaper than a stupid manned mission to mars to "inspire the next generation of scientists."
Some believer who's gone a bit too far may practice bad science but still could be an extremely valuable contributor - He may find signs of primitive cultures and lose interest in ape-men while looking for his mass-media inspired utopia - but others can build upon it; at least by disproving his theories.
Global Dimming scientists were not treated well - and they were not being sensationalists; however, if they had been bashed down long enough with tattered reputations I'd not be surprised if some didn't start getting grants from the coal/oil industries - what more would they have to lose? Anyhow, in the end they came out fine as continual work on their side as well as the majority opposition (disbelievers and skeptics) eventually found out Global Dimming fits and actually strengthens Global warming science. The process wasn't the Utopian view of science purported by pop culture.
I like to ponder what we'd think of Egypt if they weren't into making stone records... How did humans get on Hawaii? The 'technology' to do that had to be extremely advanced for the time period; it could have become legendary - but did not... or well, if it was we've not found records - they weren't into stone monuments. Atlantis may or may not have a kernel of truth behind it won't likely ever know without a time machine...;-p (I wouldn't be surprised if the name turned out to be a variation for other reasons...like the story sounded better if it was a distant island instead of beneath the local volcano.)
Most people are job seekers and college is just a hoop to jump through in that pursuit - I've run into plenty of people without passion for their subject of study; they are there for the job they want (influenced by the pay, stability, and misconceptions of what that job will be to them.)
Industry only ever cares about the bottom line; human resources are just another form of resource with some PR risks attached to it-- but otherwise quite removed from humanity. They pressure universities along with their drones to train workers... even complaining about graduates as not knowing enough of the buzzwords they are looking for (which is not the purpose of universities.)
3 Aspects are going on from what I see:
1) Trade school lacks prestige (pay) over college so the 'market' demand is for a university level prestige in a trade school.
2) Business philosophy(religion?) permeating all aspects of the culture. If you run a school with a business mindset you are going to rip it from its foundation. My university is in a culture war not inside the institution but inside the minds of its staff. Words like I.P. gain acceptance and warp perspectives. "Producing students", employers as the "indirect customer", and students as a "customer" are changing perspective as well as shunning those who stick to the traditional perspective that brought the world forward up to now.
3) Society bias for college. not having a degree is becoming as bad as being functionally illiterate. My former employer had no degrees in the building except mine yet even hiring a RECEPTIONIST they'd chuck out the applicants without a degree (in this economy they get a lot of applicants.) Nobody working there could be hired for their own position these days.
I create waves with staff when I argue the college model is not even good for programmers or even software engineering. IT as well. Those jobs are more like carpentry or plumbing and should have a better suited model. This is largely misunderstood and hopeless but i keep making the point hoping they at least get what i'm saying. I have a carpenter and a plumber uncle- there is a ton of experience involved but no PhD program for them-- they are masters of their field which is every bit as much (in some cases more so) as most PhD degrees. In their career, a degree wouldn't mean much because you can't book learn it all classrooms over a few years. It uses other kinds of learning and thinking. Our schools too often focus on 1 approach as if there is only 1 way to think about EVERYTHING; research shows there are different ways of thinking, different kinds of intelligence, and different learning styles. I've seen plenty of good students who are "smart" because they can navigate a system that happens to be suited to them but who can not function outside; they often go into academia -- not because they suck, they are great - but because it best suits their talents... this however results in a cycle of like minded people concentrated in an institution which is part of their own identity and therefore must retain the characteristics which were so beneficial to themselves (for the self-centered ones; not all are like this - others merely fail to see...sheltered and have a culture-shock reaction to alternatives.)
I had a great uncle who had a college degree in math. He didn't know any calculus and was annoyed when they started expecting him to do it for his engineering work. He managed to do the job and solve similar problems without it - and correctly I might add.
Calculus is overrated; some really clever people managed without it; more than 1 way to solve many problems - so I think we brush over the subject and over simplify "higher level" as a buzzword: calculus.
Linear Algebra has no calc and the problems are impossibly difficult (that is, finding solutions doesn't scale.) Linear Algebra is probably far more useful for CS. Proofs and the various number theory areas are big math aspects of CS. I don't think any Calc is required for CS yet it often is associated with it (again, due to simplification.) Now physics... calc and physics shouldn't ever be separated. Like how discrete math and CS shouldn't.
Radiation is not an easy thing to attribute damage to and there is plenty of incentive to downplay the results. Results are expensive and difficult to find as well as easily diffused by skeptics since its not clear cut (which often is easy to mischaracterize even when its obvious.)
Russia has had a lot of medical problems go up in huge amounts over a long period of time which are reasonably attributed to the disaster. I saw a report long ago about this defect where children are born with holes in their hearts which was almost non existent before the disaster. They may live but the connection isn't reported upon-- if they die young it also likely isn't counted.
Others could try to attribute other things but unfortunately the impact is so small a margin of error is too high-- which doesn't mean it isn't a factor but we don't have the quality of data or big enough of an impact to attribute it; not a whole lot of motivation to resolve such things either...
Some think the global cancer rates are higher because of all those years of open nuclear bomb testing sending tiny particles around the world which would remain active for a long time. (Although we have other factors too - but say this is a 90% factor - its still a situation such that proof is impossible and nobody will admit it; just imagine the lawsuits... 1 molecule of high radiation in my body for a short period of time isn't something that is going to be detected. Plus you have all the people who don't get cancer or whose bodies defend against it which also make it an extremely difficult question to resolve.)
Apparently, some people don't notice the warning and timed delay involved when installing add-ons to firefox. I've often wondered about solutions to user complacency in such matters...
As far as a user application having full access to your data - this is pretty much the norm for everybody. The problem is that we only think in terms of user-level security and hardly any thought / design is given to security within the user's account. Sandboxes are a hack and not a real solution.
Firefox running under my account should be restricted to a subset of MY account - not another sandbox user with hacked in bridging so I can actually use it.
Couple ways I can think of right now that would fix this but they require significant changes to the OS... except OpenBSD which has the hooks to pull off many ideas (probably this is where the solutions will come from.)
I shouldn't need a 3rd party 'reverse' firewall to control what apps do online... I shouldn't have to create complex to impossible sandbox hacks to limit apps to their domain within my account. The fact that we have to do such things indicates a need for more design.
Terrorists can't take a joke; hired gunman either. Just because their weapon isn't a gun does not mean they are not "hired guns" and just because they don't blow themselves up for a religion doesn't mean they are not terrorists.
We already have various barcode formats for comerical postage. So the OCR is now being leveraged to let you write the code on the letter without the special software and printer.
Any issues involved would also be involved today with existing systems - a scanner could copy such codes and a printer could place them on your post... but we've not heard about that being a problem... is it rare or did they address such issues already over a decade ago?
The point is that educated "smart" jobs are increasingly becoming at risk of downsizing due to smart automation. It may seem like a dull assembly line type job but it is not, he cited lawyers because of the high degree of education and difficulty those "dull" jobs required; he wasn't thinking about how popular lawyers are or how inept the reader would be in understanding the difference between a pre-industrial textile worker and a law researcher.
This isn't low-level manual labor, this is educated career people who are being cut out and it will continue - you never know who will be next...as a college student you can't predict your niche will be around; so... we blab about continual education - at what point do we start to question the "system"?? How bad does it have to get for the stupid majority to catch on and then get upset enough to act?
Will we all be working 40+ hrs a week WHILE going to school part time for our whole lives? (that is, unless you are in management...)
Does Safari on the iPhone have the parental controls that the desktop version does? In which case, allowing a browser without those controls would be a backdoor for clever kids around their parent's wishes... Could this be a matter of keeping the parents able to excise their rights over their children (who have less rights.)
I am pretty big on privacy but aspects of a national ID I fully support.
I'm just trolling here because this topic brings out irrational emotional rants but I'll post something because I'm board at the moment.
Government can provide an ID system without taking over your life-- that is a SEPARATE issue. Its your collective fault if they take over your life and they don't need an ID system to do this. (the IRS has done quite well already.)
Social Security numbers are given to everybody and I am totally for them but I think we need to ENFORCE the law and prohibit their use as a unique identifier-- its already illegal to use the SS# for stuff-- no identity troubles could happen outside of SS check fraud if we just enforced the law.
ANYBODY who drives a car should be required to pass a test-- a federally defined test that is at least 2x as difficult as it stands today. They let anybody get one who can barely turn the wheel and is illiterate (our exam had diagrams, audio, and writing and was a total joke! Sorry but I don't think people with a 70 IQ should drive- at least make me retake the exam when I'm really old...) Driving permits should remain PERMITS and not a valid ID.
We've been hacking old systems for a poorly designed authentication system WHICH IS NEEDED but the paranoid prevent a proper solution.
Slashdot should be discussing viable authentication systems not how we don't need to know who anybody is...ever...
Government has all your data already. the lower orders don't and maybe thats a good thing; however, its only a matter of time until it gets more connected. Private corps have even more data on you and you won't even know the stuff they are messing with in your life-- like when you don't get employment because facebook data tied to a 3rd party consultant ranks you poorly to all their clients. Credit reports on people were abused and still are abused to a degree; that is just an old system we know about! Its going to be much worse and outside government and largely unseen.
We need a physical ID with a digital fingerprint for REAL AUTHENTICATION NEEDS. The government is pretty much the only good source for issuing these things and it must be federally regulated since some states are run by morons (too many if you ask me.) NEXT you pass laws prohibiting places from forcing you to use this new digital national ID. Facebook shouldn't be able to force me to use it to sign up, for example (I won't sign up anyway.) But when I open a BANK ACCOUNT I should be required to present an ID and when I withdraw money... I also should be able to control how my money can be withdrawn; do my digital ID could be prohibited from withdrawals.
My driver's PERMIT must be with me in my car. But I don't give a rip if the cop isn't sure who I am; all the cop needs to know is all my data related to the car. An ID can come into the picture if things get serious... but I shouldn't need to carry an official ID just to drive my CAR! there, take that you paranoids! you don't want any ID but you are just fine with an ID to drive a car... I'm not.
If fact, we should have a digital ID to prove AGE and qualifications and possibly cards too. I shouldn't have to show you my ID (authenticate) just to buy alcohol... yeah, young people would 'borrow' but like any of that crap really stops them... it never did and never will; unless you are stupid, then you shouldn't get the stuff anyway. ONLINE we need a digital ID without identity for things we want to shelter children from.... I'm sure slashdot people would love a solution to this problem over the eventual censorship/ratings system that WILL happen eventually "to protect the children." Or somebody will find a way to take that driver's ID you all love and put in that number online to do stuff.... of course your credit card history already profiles you and is fairly easy for gov to get...
or how about a GUN? you could get a background check card and save all the trouble... I wonder how good the nuts would be at bypassing that one.
Firefox add-ons have the full weight of the browser behind them they can do anything firefox itself can do-- and if you didn't realize this before-- firefox runs under your account and needs to be able to write out files (save web pages) as well as read files (upload files.) Browser plugs for all the browsers also get a lot of access; although, now they run in separate processes they can do A LOT of things even though they can't mess directly with the browser anymore.
Its not like Mozilla doesn't WARN YOU when you have unverified plug-ins... and make you wait while they show that warning.
Perhaps... we should run some applications under a lower user level, in a jail (its freebsd based - apple should bring over the freebsd jails-- which are really cool, not the old lame suid hack!) So then SOME apps would have to be jailed -- which would upset users whenever they needed out of the jail to upload a file and it ASKED permission. So then some people would disable the jail...
Personally, if I don't trust an app I'll run it under another user account; if its even more risky, I'll use a VM or just not use it at all. I wish it would be easy to run the browser in a jail because I'd prefer it was more isolated than it is now. I don't think more than save/open dialogs to bypass the jail would be required. Might be a little tricky to have a jail with multiple allowed paths...but that is what we need (don't get me started on symlink work arounds for this.)
One can't make an idiot proof computer. If YOU install the malware there is nothing one can do to protect your data. Nope- backups are not safe because clever malware will mess with your backup data when it comes online. 2 backups? well, you better detect the problem before you get to updating your 2nd backup (unless you do the cloning of the disk on another system... but if you didn't notice it trashed your backup and then you clone that... again, you've lost.)
The problem with trying to argue anything on a spectrum is that fools will jump to extremes and then strawman you lowering the conversation down to their level. (There is a nice Ben Franklin quote to this affect.)
As far as I know the iPod wheel was actually new. The touch screen stuff apple and microsoft have been doing is almost completely a rip off of previous works i personally have witnessed and read about in research papers a good ten years ago! They literally added NOTHING with their touch screen interfaces. And gesture work is over 10 years old; just because you put it on a mouse or screen with a finger doesn't make the same action new merely by changing the place where you do it--- including any new tech you do actually invent to detect that gesture (which is not relevant; just another place to make the same gesture.)
FYI: apple bought xerox's stuff.
Its all a matter of degree and the parent apparently is emotionally upset I stepped on his feelings for some corporation. Religion is bad enough when it gets into economics do we need to start spreading it into corporate brands?
I for one am sick of industry claiming reality and claiming the academic world is out of touch! Different perspectives of the same elephant but they think they can see the whole beast.... managers often seem to have this misconception on a wide range of... actually I'd say this false reasoning and possible arrogance is a defining characteristic for management (I've yet to meet somebody who proves otherwise; other people seem to repeat similar complaints...)
There is so much specialization which changes FASTER than most every other field - it probably is the fastest moving industry. Picky details are all over the place as well as inconsistencies as new areas are made up by whomever defines the stuff through 1st to big market share - it can involve a new language, new techniques, new software, and its own terminology. If you WASTED the last few years of your 4 year college degree learning specifics for the current market some of that information will be of use for some students but depending on the jobs found you may find that gaining experience with.NET does you ZERO good when you go work on standards based web apps running on linux servers.
I think part of this bitching is their lack of understanding of just what the employer needs to be doing; they externalize everything so much its like they don't have an idea of what business is supposed to do and how the guys at the top are supposed to EARN those higher incomes. We are moving towards the extremes and more people are waking up to the trend as it gets closer to their self-absorbed lives.
Colleges are NOT business they don't produce "products" and this form of thinking is harming college and secondary level education long term. They are expecting colleges to compete for their specific needs like they are buying from a Chinese supplier -- they bitch because there are accreditation standards. I'm also sure too many of them DO NOT VALUE a "liberal" degree program and want to remove the approx 2 years of general college from the 4 degree and replace it with their specific demands-- because they have no interest in better well rounded citizens they want a PART, a COG, a specific brand of human resource to plug into their corporate machine. I've seen and read about how high school students have lower critical thinking skills entering college than in the past (10+% worse) and I think it reflects this school = business mentality altering the process. (standardized testing is like MSCE certifications - it means little in the "real world" and doesn't reflect actual understanding or skill.)
I've probably lost half of you so I'll stop; someday you'll get it I hope; or you'll be happy as a serf.
I can go on about how computer people are engineers and we should reclaim computer engineering from those electronics people and make that the college IT degree. Or how an apprenticeship program is best suited for most computer jobs and how it needs unionization like plumbers and carpenters (who use that to help maintain the well suited and traditional learning style; its not perfect but what is... its better than a 4yr college degree plumber.)
"The Economy sucks, stupid!" This is the same old bitching about their profits going down while completely ignoring the bigger economic impacts.
We could have a massive Depression and the Music Execs would be hiring cheap labor to go beat up on indie artists who weren't part of the "community."
I'm not afraid to use the D word and say we just won't admit to being in a Depression unless its bigger than the great depression-- and even then we'd have to be in it for years...
The academic world worries about citations and plagiarism in their works but the commercial world never bothers or usually takes credit for others work as their own; the marketing departments go even further.
We (the community) should be pointing out and calling BS to this heavily marketing driven society that has created a world in which smart people and educational institutions lack their due respect as the true innovators and instead we are told to worship the mighty corporations; its no wonder so many Americans are anti-intellectual and pro-corporation -- they see new technologies like this Microsoft PR and think Microsoft "innovated" all that stuff when I didn't see anything there that they innovated other than perhaps the bubble thing which they didn't show much of (and I likely just missed some paper somebody did on the concept 10+ years ago.)
Private ratings systems are not that reliable and fail to address a great many issues; the movie ratings are an example of how bad the game ratings will become.
We forced food makers to print nutrition information with a huge battle opposing it by the industry with the usual propaganda that today gets significantly more traction with large segments of the population. Its as stupid now as it was then, there are just more suckers today.
Rather than a poor completely arbitrary ratings system setup by private parties; we should have a LIST of controversial elements similar to ingredient labels on food. These are legally specified down to the formatting which is why food labels are so similar. Again, the industry hated this-- even today corn syrup people want to lie and rename themselves corn sugar which is a different ingredient that already exists! THAT is why you must have a regulated definition list, otherwise the lawyers and marketers will have free reign.
We NEED a government system for movies, tv, and video games but not for a similar RATINGS system (which is just an appointed board of people either way) but an INGREDIENT list with definitions/rules that anybody would have to apply.
It may sound like a joke, but it makes perfect sense.... think about it:
violence: dismemberment, shooting, stabbing, etc... could probably get this list from the police definitions crimes: prostitution, rape, assassination, child abuse language: words listed
SURE, this could characterize movies differently but its NOT a review, just a factual listing-- Junk food information is really bad but that doesn't stop it from being popular and that information ignored.... except by parents and dieters...
One excuse for prohibition to adults is the influential nature-- which is honestly undeniable (fyi: advertising works) but if you had these listings your nanny state could ban bad "ingredients" or require an ID or whatever like they do already-- that is a separate issue; but a better system makes encroachments on liberty less broad! Such as this ban on games above a rating, if they had to be more specific, the Australian version of the game could disable dismemberment or whatever specifics are required. Well, Australia loves to give power to oversight committees...they won't list specifics because they like the power a black box review/ratings system affords.)
I like the green + and the zoom button before it - done right in the beginning back in the 80s. I almost NEVER need to maximize an app there are only a few apps worth doing this for and the rest are consumer toy apps / games (games always were able to go fulls screen.)
Apple guidelines and API pushed leaving zoom to act just 1 way all the time. A simple revision in the guidelines and maybe 1 option in the API could let SOME apps "smart resize" to full screen because the smart size sometimes is full screen. Option click to force full screen or force typical smart zoom depending on which way the app wants it... But to move towards windows just for the converts habits... pushes me to going more in linux.
I admit to not using the green + zoom button that much but then I usually choose to resize the window myself. As for grabbing the corner-- I don't mind that, it works just fine when I do use it- I LOVE not having borders on the windows to grab more than I would being able to resize from the sides; window borders are just that useful unless you have OCD.
Slashdot Mirror
If I were to seriously think about Speed and Distance Tracking - which I'm against - I'd say that you require cell phones to report this information by law. Its already spying on you and if people let you do that you may as well leverage the smart phones do to it.
Sure... people would turn off the phone. or not own a phone... or not take it in the car... This would be great for smart people who'd know how to turn off their phone... and costly for the morons who use their phone WHILE DRIVING.
A lot of these silly laws start out as political ploys and veiled schemes which are not honest attempts to do what is written. Also, dumb segments of a bill can serve to distract or harm supporters of that bill-- obviously, it is used as a poison pill to kill bills as well. Unless a wingnut is behind it - its probably not seriously there for its stated purpose.
If you look at the actual cost to build roads (as i have) you'll find that the biggest factors are SPEED and weight with possible surprise costs after site inspection. Lower road speeds and you get the biggest cost reduction of all. But we never ever could dare to limit the speed - your time is sooo important!! (so important you work too many hours with little vacation time and then zone out on the crap on tv... do the math for a change... 5mph faster probably wouldn't even gain you a minute of time but it ups the bad statistics. Hell your crash regulations for your car are not likely above 35mph!)
Its really basic physics and the velocity of these heavy machines on the roads is the biggest factor in road wear; car weight is less of a factor because of the numbers (there are more cars than big trucks and high speed limits makes them all go faster not just the heavy ones.) I skipped the obvious winner - not driving on the road at all.
If Americans were responsible, we wouldn't be in this mess - nothing is free and skimping on the roads only costs you more later.
Logistically, it makes most sense to tax by weight. Automated tolls for tax heavy congestion or even highway use (high speed = high cost) can more fairly apply the cost burden upon those who use it. Speed tracking involves "big brother" as does distance tracking.
So where is the debate above GPLv2 vs GPLv3?
I wasn't so keen on GPLv2. Its bad enough already but to create revisions when most people hardly understand v1 (most are not slashdot readers.)
I think it should just be GPL+ where the author slaps on additional restrictions instead of pushing more stuff into GPL v# so we end up with a bunch of different things under the same heading.
I like sometimes fixing something in GPL code - for the contribution factor, not because somebody might be locking down an installation of the software. The lock-in part I don't mind and in many situations volunteers wouldn't mind but a few big contributors or some non-profit then decides to shift it to something else -- that kind of bugs me. GPL v4 should state that all future modifications must stick to the GPL it started with and not be allowed to migrate to something else. Sure its still GPL at its core-- until microsoft embraces GPL and their lawyers get GPLv5 in 10 years... (Apple wouldn't they'd do APLv2 or something and claim it was a compatible thing to transition the GPL code to..)
Don't think the law actually works on its own forever; the lawyers seem to have less respect for it than .... May I suggest a documentary which illustrates my point: "The Art of the Steal" which shows just how strong a good legal document actually is.
I read long ago that Chinese was easier for the computer to recognize because of its sound
ID was shot down in court - not that reason, logic, or law make any difference to people who dispel science yet utilize it in their life.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html
They are working on the car, this is a side thing that will bring in things from the outside. You can't work on the car but you could add cool things to it and contribute to it in that way. It also means they may have some great new ideas that SELL the car to people who are less interested in going green. If they get a community going around this aspect they can free up resources.... like if the linux people take over the system and save MS taxes so later the smaller car can be cheaper.
Its not just about batteries - which they don't do - its about getting an affordable CAR that people can buy and actually drive. It has to be expensive, so they went with the high end sports car and now they've worked down to the expensive car next they can work down to a mid-level car. Its harder to get the cheap affordable car so their approach to appeal to the top and work down is a WISE MOVE and helps dispel the myths of electric that have been around for so long. The sports car did a great job showing all that PR was lies- the problem is range but they don't have to be weak ugly little cars like the stereotype. This is just a step towards an electric we can all afford (pending battery tech which isn't really their thing.)
The average American need more than just a smart electric car like the Aptera - sure they don't ACTUALLY need more most of the time but the problem is that they don't believe that.
I won't go into how real scientists are not necessarily "Skeptics" which is a over simplified characterization of the philosophy of science. Disbelief as well as belief run counter to good science- ideally that is the case; however, intellectually honest believers/disbelievers can accomplish a lot of good science - the science ideals themselves are not the greatest motivators of humans... Irrational behavior is the NORM for humans not the other way around and this goes for practitioners of science as well.
The masses and their mass media warp things extremely and the influence of scientists and the mass media is bidirectional. Time travel and parallel universes for example are really taken way off to the point where scientists are playing with the tripe - its a far bigger leap but more acceptable to people right now.
1) writing grants involves targeting people on the outside; motivation/inspiration and marketing while trying not to discredit oneself too much with the potential rewards claimed. I think of it as being similar to media whoring.
2) Describing to the public in a similar but more sensationalized entertainment form is bound to have a "Hollywood" warp but it can motivate people to get started on something that they wouldn't have otherwise. I find this is usually quite harmless and far far cheaper than a stupid manned mission to mars to "inspire the next generation of scientists."
Some believer who's gone a bit too far may practice bad science but still could be an extremely valuable contributor - He may find signs of primitive cultures and lose interest in ape-men while looking for his mass-media inspired utopia - but others can build upon it; at least by disproving his theories.
Global Dimming scientists were not treated well - and they were not being sensationalists; however, if they had been bashed down long enough with tattered reputations I'd not be surprised if some didn't start getting grants from the coal/oil industries - what more would they have to lose? Anyhow, in the end they came out fine as continual work on their side as well as the majority opposition (disbelievers and skeptics) eventually found out Global Dimming fits and actually strengthens Global warming science. The process wasn't the Utopian view of science purported by pop culture.
I like to ponder what we'd think of Egypt if they weren't into making stone records... How did humans get on Hawaii? The 'technology' to do that had to be extremely advanced for the time period; it could have become legendary - but did not... or well, if it was we've not found records - they weren't into stone monuments. Atlantis may or may not have a kernel of truth behind it won't likely ever know without a time machine... ;-p (I wouldn't be surprised if the name turned out to be a variation for other reasons...like the story sounded better if it was a distant island instead of beneath the local volcano.)
So how does ICE have any authority to do this? Next thing they'll have the EPA taking websites for polluting the internet.
Most people are job seekers and college is just a hoop to jump through in that pursuit - I've run into plenty of people without passion for their subject of study; they are there for the job they want (influenced by the pay, stability, and misconceptions of what that job will be to them.)
Industry only ever cares about the bottom line; human resources are just another form of resource with some PR risks attached to it-- but otherwise quite removed from humanity. They pressure universities along with their drones to train workers... even complaining about graduates as not knowing enough of the buzzwords they are looking for (which is not the purpose of universities.)
3 Aspects are going on from what I see:
1) Trade school lacks prestige (pay) over college so the 'market' demand is for a university level prestige in a trade school.
2) Business philosophy(religion?) permeating all aspects of the culture. If you run a school with a business mindset you are going to rip it from its foundation. My university is in a culture war not inside the institution but inside the minds of its staff. Words like I.P. gain acceptance and warp perspectives. "Producing students", employers as the "indirect customer", and students as a "customer" are changing perspective as well as shunning those who stick to the traditional perspective that brought the world forward up to now.
3) Society bias for college. not having a degree is becoming as bad as being functionally illiterate. My former employer had no degrees in the building except mine yet even hiring a RECEPTIONIST they'd chuck out the applicants without a degree (in this economy they get a lot of applicants.) Nobody working there could be hired for their own position these days.
I create waves with staff when I argue the college model is not even good for programmers or even software engineering. IT as well. Those jobs are more like carpentry or plumbing and should have a better suited model. This is largely misunderstood and hopeless but i keep making the point hoping they at least get what i'm saying. I have a carpenter and a plumber uncle- there is a ton of experience involved but no PhD program for them-- they are masters of their field which is every bit as much (in some cases more so) as most PhD degrees. In their career, a degree wouldn't mean much because you can't book learn it all classrooms over a few years. It uses other kinds of learning and thinking. Our schools too often focus on 1 approach as if there is only 1 way to think about EVERYTHING; research shows there are different ways of thinking, different kinds of intelligence, and different learning styles. I've seen plenty of good students who are "smart" because they can navigate a system that happens to be suited to them but who can not function outside; they often go into academia -- not because they suck, they are great - but because it best suits their talents... this however results in a cycle of like minded people concentrated in an institution which is part of their own identity and therefore must retain the characteristics which were so beneficial to themselves (for the self-centered ones; not all are like this - others merely fail to see...sheltered and have a culture-shock reaction to alternatives.)
I had a great uncle who had a college degree in math. He didn't know any calculus and was annoyed when they started expecting him to do it for his engineering work. He managed to do the job and solve similar problems without it - and correctly I might add.
Calculus is overrated; some really clever people managed without it; more than 1 way to solve many problems - so I think we brush over the subject and over simplify "higher level" as a buzzword: calculus.
Linear Algebra has no calc and the problems are impossibly difficult (that is, finding solutions doesn't scale.) Linear Algebra is probably far more useful for CS. Proofs and the various number theory areas are big math aspects of CS. I don't think any Calc is required for CS yet it often is associated with it (again, due to simplification.) Now physics... calc and physics shouldn't ever be separated. Like how discrete math and CS shouldn't.
Radiation is not an easy thing to attribute damage to and there is plenty of incentive to downplay the results. Results are expensive and difficult to find as well as easily diffused by skeptics since its not clear cut (which often is easy to mischaracterize even when its obvious.)
Russia has had a lot of medical problems go up in huge amounts over a long period of time which are reasonably attributed to the disaster. I saw a report long ago about this defect where children are born with holes in their hearts which was almost non existent before the disaster. They may live but the connection isn't reported upon-- if they die young it also likely isn't counted.
Others could try to attribute other things but unfortunately the impact is so small a margin of error is too high-- which doesn't mean it isn't a factor but we don't have the quality of data or big enough of an impact to attribute it; not a whole lot of motivation to resolve such things either...
Some think the global cancer rates are higher because of all those years of open nuclear bomb testing sending tiny particles around the world which would remain active for a long time. (Although we have other factors too - but say this is a 90% factor - its still a situation such that proof is impossible and nobody will admit it; just imagine the lawsuits... 1 molecule of high radiation in my body for a short period of time isn't something that is going to be detected. Plus you have all the people who don't get cancer or whose bodies defend against it which also make it an extremely difficult question to resolve.)
Apparently, some people don't notice the warning and timed delay involved when installing add-ons to firefox. I've often wondered about solutions to user complacency in such matters...
As far as a user application having full access to your data - this is pretty much the norm for everybody. The problem is that we only think in terms of user-level security and hardly any thought / design is given to security within the user's account. Sandboxes are a hack and not a real solution.
Firefox running under my account should be restricted to a subset of MY account - not another sandbox user with hacked in bridging so I can actually use it.
Couple ways I can think of right now that would fix this but they require significant changes to the OS... except OpenBSD which has the hooks to pull off many ideas (probably this is where the solutions will come from.)
I shouldn't need a 3rd party 'reverse' firewall to control what apps do online... I shouldn't have to create complex to impossible sandbox hacks to limit apps to their domain within my account. The fact that we have to do such things indicates a need for more design.
Terrorists can't take a joke; hired gunman either. Just because their weapon isn't a gun does not mean they are not "hired guns" and just because they don't blow themselves up for a religion doesn't mean they are not terrorists.
We already have various barcode formats for comerical postage. So the OCR is now being leveraged to let you write the code on the letter without the special software and printer.
Any issues involved would also be involved today with existing systems - a scanner could copy such codes and a printer could place them on your post... but we've not heard about that being a problem... is it rare or did they address such issues already over a decade ago?
The point is that educated "smart" jobs are increasingly becoming at risk of downsizing due to smart automation. It may seem like a dull assembly line type job but it is not, he cited lawyers because of the high degree of education and difficulty those "dull" jobs required; he wasn't thinking about how popular lawyers are or how inept the reader would be in understanding the difference between a pre-industrial textile worker and a law researcher.
This isn't low-level manual labor, this is educated career people who are being cut out and it will continue - you never know who will be next...as a college student you can't predict your niche will be around; so... we blab about continual education - at what point do we start to question the "system"?? How bad does it have to get for the stupid majority to catch on and then get upset enough to act?
Will we all be working 40+ hrs a week WHILE going to school part time for our whole lives? (that is, unless you are in management...)
Does Safari on the iPhone have the parental controls that the desktop version does? In which case, allowing a browser without those controls would be a backdoor for clever kids around their parent's wishes... Could this be a matter of keeping the parents able to excise their rights over their children (who have less rights.)
I am pretty big on privacy but aspects of a national ID I fully support.
I'm just trolling here because this topic brings out irrational emotional rants but I'll post something because I'm board at the moment.
Government can provide an ID system without taking over your life-- that is a SEPARATE issue. Its your collective fault if they take over your life and they don't need an ID system to do this. (the IRS has done quite well already.)
Social Security numbers are given to everybody and I am totally for them but I think we need to ENFORCE the law and prohibit their use as a unique identifier-- its already illegal to use the SS# for stuff-- no identity troubles could happen outside of SS check fraud if we just enforced the law.
ANYBODY who drives a car should be required to pass a test-- a federally defined test that is at least 2x as difficult as it stands today. They let anybody get one who can barely turn the wheel and is illiterate (our exam had diagrams, audio, and writing and was a total joke! Sorry but I don't think people with a 70 IQ should drive- at least make me retake the exam when I'm really old...)
Driving permits should remain PERMITS and not a valid ID.
We've been hacking old systems for a poorly designed authentication system WHICH IS NEEDED but the paranoid prevent a proper solution.
Slashdot should be discussing viable authentication systems not how we don't need to know who anybody is...ever...
Government has all your data already. the lower orders don't and maybe thats a good thing; however, its only a matter of time until it gets more connected. Private corps have even more data on you and you won't even know the stuff they are messing with in your life-- like when you don't get employment because facebook data tied to a 3rd party consultant ranks you poorly to all their clients. Credit reports on people were abused and still are abused to a degree; that is just an old system we know about! Its going to be much worse and outside government and largely unseen.
We need a physical ID with a digital fingerprint for REAL AUTHENTICATION NEEDS. The government is pretty much the only good source for issuing these things and it must be federally regulated since some states are run by morons (too many if you ask me.) NEXT you pass laws prohibiting places from forcing you to use this new digital national ID. Facebook shouldn't be able to force me to use it to sign up, for example (I won't sign up anyway.) But when I open a BANK ACCOUNT I should be required to present an ID and when I withdraw money... I also should be able to control how my money can be withdrawn; do my digital ID could be prohibited from withdrawals.
My driver's PERMIT must be with me in my car. But I don't give a rip if the cop isn't sure who I am; all the cop needs to know is all my data related to the car. An ID can come into the picture if things get serious... but I shouldn't need to carry an official ID just to drive my CAR! there, take that you paranoids! you don't want any ID but you are just fine with an ID to drive a car... I'm not.
If fact, we should have a digital ID to prove AGE and qualifications and possibly cards too. I shouldn't have to show you my ID (authenticate) just to buy alcohol... yeah, young people would 'borrow' but like any of that crap really stops them... it never did and never will; unless you are stupid, then you shouldn't get the stuff anyway. ONLINE we need a digital ID without identity for things we want to shelter children from.... I'm sure slashdot people would love a solution to this problem over the eventual censorship/ratings system that WILL happen eventually "to protect the children." Or somebody will find a way to take that driver's ID you all love and put in that number online to do stuff.... of course your credit card history already profiles you and is fairly easy for gov to get...
or how about a GUN? you could get a background check card and save all the trouble... I wonder how good the nuts would be at bypassing that one.
Firefox add-ons have the full weight of the browser behind them they can do anything firefox itself can do-- and if you didn't realize this before-- firefox runs under your account and needs to be able to write out files (save web pages) as well as read files (upload files.) Browser plugs for all the browsers also get a lot of access; although, now they run in separate processes they can do A LOT of things even though they can't mess directly with the browser anymore.
Its not like Mozilla doesn't WARN YOU when you have unverified plug-ins... and make you wait while they show that warning.
Perhaps... we should run some applications under a lower user level, in a jail (its freebsd based - apple should bring over the freebsd jails-- which are really cool, not the old lame suid hack!) So then SOME apps would have to be jailed -- which would upset users whenever they needed out of the jail to upload a file and it ASKED permission. So then some people would disable the jail...
Personally, if I don't trust an app I'll run it under another user account; if its even more risky, I'll use a VM or just not use it at all. I wish it would be easy to run the browser in a jail because I'd prefer it was more isolated than it is now. I don't think more than save/open dialogs to bypass the jail would be required. Might be a little tricky to have a jail with multiple allowed paths...but that is what we need (don't get me started on symlink work arounds for this.)
One can't make an idiot proof computer. If YOU install the malware there is nothing one can do to protect your data. Nope- backups are not safe because clever malware will mess with your backup data when it comes online. 2 backups? well, you better detect the problem before you get to updating your 2nd backup (unless you do the cloning of the disk on another system... but if you didn't notice it trashed your backup and then you clone that... again, you've lost.)
The problem with trying to argue anything on a spectrum is that fools will jump to extremes and then strawman you lowering the conversation down to their level. (There is a nice Ben Franklin quote to this affect.)
As far as I know the iPod wheel was actually new. The touch screen stuff apple and microsoft have been doing is almost completely a rip off of previous works i personally have witnessed and read about in research papers a good ten years ago! They literally added NOTHING with their touch screen interfaces. And gesture work is over 10 years old; just because you put it on a mouse or screen with a finger doesn't make the same action new merely by changing the place where you do it--- including any new tech you do actually invent to detect that gesture (which is not relevant; just another place to make the same gesture.)
FYI: apple bought xerox's stuff.
Its all a matter of degree and the parent apparently is emotionally upset I stepped on his feelings for some corporation. Religion is bad enough when it gets into economics do we need to start spreading it into corporate brands?
I for one am sick of industry claiming reality and claiming the academic world is out of touch! Different perspectives of the same elephant but they think they can see the whole beast.... managers often seem to have this misconception on a wide range of ... actually I'd say this false reasoning and possible arrogance is a defining characteristic for management (I've yet to meet somebody who proves otherwise; other people seem to repeat similar complaints...)
There is so much specialization which changes FASTER than most every other field - it probably is the fastest moving industry. Picky details are all over the place as well as inconsistencies as new areas are made up by whomever defines the stuff through 1st to big market share - it can involve a new language, new techniques, new software, and its own terminology. If you WASTED the last few years of your 4 year college degree learning specifics for the current market some of that information will be of use for some students but depending on the jobs found you may find that gaining experience with .NET does you ZERO good when you go work on standards based web apps running on linux servers.
I think part of this bitching is their lack of understanding of just what the employer needs to be doing; they externalize everything so much its like they don't have an idea of what business is supposed to do and how the guys at the top are supposed to EARN those higher incomes. We are moving towards the extremes and more people are waking up to the trend as it gets closer to their self-absorbed lives.
Colleges are NOT business they don't produce "products" and this form of thinking is harming college and secondary level education long term. They are expecting colleges to compete for their specific needs like they are buying from a Chinese supplier -- they bitch because there are accreditation standards. I'm also sure too many of them DO NOT VALUE a "liberal" degree program and want to remove the approx 2 years of general college from the 4 degree and replace it with their specific demands-- because they have no interest in better well rounded citizens they want a PART, a COG, a specific brand of human resource to plug into their corporate machine. I've seen and read about how high school students have lower critical thinking skills entering college than in the past (10+% worse) and I think it reflects this school = business mentality altering the process. (standardized testing is like MSCE certifications - it means little in the "real world" and doesn't reflect actual understanding or skill.)
I've probably lost half of you so I'll stop; someday you'll get it I hope; or you'll be happy as a serf.
I can go on about how computer people are engineers and we should reclaim computer engineering from those electronics people and make that the college IT degree. Or how an apprenticeship program is best suited for most computer jobs and how it needs unionization like plumbers and carpenters (who use that to help maintain the well suited and traditional learning style; its not perfect but what is... its better than a 4yr college degree plumber.)
mod parent up
"The Economy sucks, stupid!"
This is the same old bitching about their profits going down while completely ignoring the bigger economic impacts.
We could have a massive Depression and the Music Execs would be hiring cheap labor to go beat up on indie artists who weren't part of the "community."
I'm not afraid to use the D word and say we just won't admit to being in a Depression unless its bigger than the great depression-- and even then we'd have to be in it for years...
The academic world worries about citations and plagiarism in their works but the commercial world never bothers or usually takes credit for others work as their own; the marketing departments go even further.
We (the community) should be pointing out and calling BS to this heavily marketing driven society that has created a world in which smart people and educational institutions lack their due respect as the true innovators and instead we are told to worship the mighty corporations; its no wonder so many Americans are anti-intellectual and pro-corporation -- they see new technologies like this Microsoft PR and think Microsoft "innovated" all that stuff when I didn't see anything there that they innovated other than perhaps the bubble thing which they didn't show much of (and I likely just missed some paper somebody did on the concept 10+ years ago.)
Private ratings systems are not that reliable and fail to address a great many issues; the movie ratings are an example of how bad the game ratings will become.
We forced food makers to print nutrition information with a huge battle opposing it by the industry with the usual propaganda that today gets significantly more traction with large segments of the population. Its as stupid now as it was then, there are just more suckers today.
Rather than a poor completely arbitrary ratings system setup by private parties; we should have a LIST of controversial elements similar to ingredient labels on food. These are legally specified down to the formatting which is why food labels are so similar. Again, the industry hated this-- even today corn syrup people want to lie and rename themselves corn sugar which is a different ingredient that already exists! THAT is why you must have a regulated definition list, otherwise the lawyers and marketers will have free reign.
We NEED a government system for movies, tv, and video games but not for a similar RATINGS system (which is just an appointed board of people either way) but an INGREDIENT list with definitions/rules that anybody would have to apply.
It may sound like a joke, but it makes perfect sense.... think about it:
Implied sex acts ..... 5min ........... 1min ............1,654
visible deaths
auditory deaths......... 10 sec
foul language
violence: dismemberment, shooting, stabbing, etc... could probably get this list from the police definitions
crimes: prostitution, rape, assassination, child abuse
language: words listed
SURE, this could characterize movies differently but its NOT a review, just a factual listing-- Junk food information is really bad but that doesn't stop it from being popular and that information ignored.... except by parents and dieters...
One excuse for prohibition to adults is the influential nature-- which is honestly undeniable (fyi: advertising works) but if you had these listings your nanny state could ban bad "ingredients" or require an ID or whatever like they do already-- that is a separate issue; but a better system makes encroachments on liberty less broad! Such as this ban on games above a rating, if they had to be more specific, the Australian version of the game could disable dismemberment or whatever specifics are required. Well, Australia loves to give power to oversight committees...they won't list specifics because they like the power a black box review/ratings system affords.)
I like the green + and the zoom button before it - done right in the beginning back in the 80s. I almost NEVER need to maximize an app there are only a few apps worth doing this for and the rest are consumer toy apps / games (games always were able to go fulls screen.)
Apple guidelines and API pushed leaving zoom to act just 1 way all the time. A simple revision in the guidelines and maybe 1 option in the API could let SOME apps "smart resize" to full screen because the smart size sometimes is full screen. Option click to force full screen or force typical smart zoom depending on which way the app wants it... But to move towards windows just for the converts habits... pushes me to going more in linux.
I admit to not using the green + zoom button that much but then I usually choose to resize the window myself. As for grabbing the corner-- I don't mind that, it works just fine when I do use it- I LOVE not having borders on the windows to grab more than I would being able to resize from the sides; window borders are just that useful unless you have OCD.