After hearing about the security issues with the Diebold machines, I had some doubts. I'm no technophobe, but placing the future of our democracy so completely into the hands of a company which has been less than responsive to public critique is something I find rather frightening.
Turns out they didn't check for ID either. I hope I feel safer in November.
okay, IANAL,but just for amusement here's an idea.
Get some sci-fi writers involved, to sue the patent holders for copyright infringement, as most of these "blocking patents" are stolen directly from the science fiction films and books of the past decades. There's prior art for you.
Somewhere in all the scientific discussion on this, I wonder how it was overlooked that enhanced intelligence & strength don't make us kinder, more civil, or more accepting.
This isn't a flat statement against genetic engineering, rather I think that the urge to grow and better ourselves is defining characteristics of humanity. But when our knowledge so often exceeds our ability to use it responsibly, I can understand the paranoid reactions.
With no financial imperative to motivate the spiritual & philosophical growth of the human race beyond the mindset of bludgeoning those whom we deem "evil" until they surrender or are exterminated, it's hard to believe this will change soon. Maybe a smarter human race would be beneficial. But maybe we need to focus equally on learning how to interact in less destructive manners with other nations & cultures.
On one hand, suing spammers; on the other, forcing providers to disclose customer activity. It's dancing with the devil
I wonder what the impact would be, in the cases where AOL cannot track down the spammer without violating individual rights, if they were to simply contact, or if needed, publicly identify the ISP that knowingly hosted the spammer, and then let the flood of complaints begin. If somebody told me that stack of spam was coming from *ISP-name-here*, and that *ISP-name-here* had been informed, but wasn't doing anything about it, I'd certainly be rerouting all my "male enhancement offers" in their direction..
And of course, if that occurs to them, I wonder what the chances are they'll abuse that idea to make other ISPs look bad...
I work for a company that services printers, so I am not really free to name manufacturers, but I can say that I have heard many times over about the diminishing quality of printers, from desktop units to large shop printers designed to run 24/7. The most important thing in the industry is getting your product purchased by as many customers as possible, which means you need to bring them in with a low startup price. Which of course means cheaper materials. So metal tractors which used to outlive their printers are replaced with plastic ones that break every year or two, but the cost drops a few more dollars. And once a company has purchased a thousand units and customized hardware-specific software, there is very little chance they will switch to a different print equipment manufacturer. Same goes for the consumer printer market, which is why we pay more for cartridges than we do the printer. Minimize entry costs, the most certain way to attract a large customer base in a tight economy.
Why don't we have this in my office? Being locked out of text doccuments that I share with a half dozen other network users for the better part of a day has cost me a lot of productivity.. dreaming of a mac-equipped office.....
Best Actor
Will win: Jack Nicholson
Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Thoughts: Everybody loves Nicholson. But watching Day-Lewis perform is like having ring-side seats for a hurricane.
Speaking of ringside seats, The Boxer still stands as one of my favourite all time movies. If you're a DDL fan and you haven't seen it, check it out. Nothing against Nicholson, but noone can pretend he lacks recognition. Really.
You're right, it must be an mistake. It's well known that most web designers will post browser specific versions of major sites without ever testing/debugging them on the browser for which they're built. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Now, what's the W3C compliant way to get my [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags to display properly?
I still have my CoCo tucked away back at my parents house. I spent more hours basking in that green glow coding games than I did under the sun when I was growning up. Now that's nostalgia. Trying to work with an 8-colour palette, 4 if you wanted to work actual graphics. It was an art form all its own, trying to build an aesthetic sense into a game within those limitations. I wonder what modern software would look like if programmers had to do these kind of excercises on a regular basis.
mmmmm... been a while since i've written an inkey$.:o)
There are probably a lot of people here who, like me, do most of their browsing at work (during lunch hour only, of course.) And if the layout of a site is too loud or obtrusive, I'll skip right on to another site. I use Google instead of MSN because the advertising on MSN is obnoxious. And I'm a hundred thousand times more likely to click on an ad that intrigues my intellect or sense of aesthetics than a bright yellow banner screaming buzzwords.
Making a sentient, multicellular organism is so far in our future compared to this experiment, it's incredible. It's like saying that Marie Curie was trying to build a cold fusion reactor.
Marie Curie presented her ideas on radioactivity in 1898. By 1945 we were dropping atomic bombs. You may be underestimating the speed at which technology advances. Science can make a very quick jump from theory to application. If it's too early to contemplate the moral implications of applied genetic research now, then when is the time right? And when then is it too late? Of course we need to learn & to grow. But I do stop to wonder if we're mature enough as a species to use what we learn as a tool before we use it as a weapon.
The problem is with plausible deniability. If the spammer can claim that he "believed" the list of addresses he purchased & spammed were legitimately gathered, and if he's selling a real product (be it herbal viagra, porn, or bad real estate tips), then there isn't much accountability.
It's sort of like romantic comedies. They should be banned, but there just isn't the legal grounds.
Mom and Pop shops will be hurt by this. Notice this targets small busniess who probably run free software to reduce costs. Large companies can handle this, even find ways around it.
How many mom & pop shops do you know of that keep databases of social security & credit card numbers? This law is seems aimed at corporations & organizations that archive confidential information.
because even the most aggresive polluter will acknowledge that oil supplies won't last forever.
I'd like to believe this. We all would. But fuel efficiency for the US is actually dropping, due to the popularity of SUVs. From the automotive manufacturers down to the consumer, few people seem to consider anything but immediate luxury and profit. Fuel taxes would be a great start, but with GW behind the wheel, this country is unlikely to see any major push for energy conservation. It has to start at the consumer level, by building an awarness of the impact our actions have.
"SUVs waste fuel and weaken America." (bumpersticker seen outside of DC)
Sounds like a classic case of SJS (Shitty Job Syndrome) to me
If SJS really is just the first stage of PWS (Postal Workers Syndrome), my office will be getting a lot more interesting in the coming year...
Thinking of investing in Kevlar....
Honestly, periodically rearranging your desk can really help with one's sanity. A little cubicle Feng Shui. Though not going home and sitting in front of my computer for another 5 hours after work would probably help too... *sigh*
As a fictional confrontation, the conflict would have to be addressed within the "physics" of fiction. There are some basic laws that apply to almost all comic books, such as the victory of "good" over "evil", as defined by the expected audience. A recurring theme in Batman is an exploration of moral ambiguities, the hero forced to ask "Have I made these madmen & criminals into what they are? Have I become one of them?", while the lines between good and evil have often been much more clear for Superman. A World War era comic actually shows Superman humiliating a draft dodger in front of his girlfriend(check it out at the Library of Congress). Superman knows right from wrong and rarely stops to debate. One of his strongest appeals is that a noble and simple spirit is invincible in the face of evil.
Adding that to what sql*kitten said, look for the dramatic appeal. Where is the compelling story in a good Superman using inhuman powers to defeat a mere human, who was always a troubled soul to begin with. I would look for the opposite, to see a tragic human who relies on his own intuition, intellect and training, rise up and save the world from a near god who fell from the light. I'd pay my seven dollars to see that.
And of course, I would be cheering for Batman anyway. I just like his style better. It's a question of aesthetics, not who has more power.
Slashdot Mirror
After hearing about the security issues with the Diebold machines, I had some doubts. I'm no technophobe, but placing the future of our democracy so completely into the hands of a company which has been less than responsive to public critique is something I find rather frightening.
Turns out they didn't check for ID either. I hope I feel safer in November.
okay, IANAL,but just for amusement here's an idea.
Get some sci-fi writers involved, to sue the patent holders for copyright infringement, as most of these "blocking patents" are stolen directly from the science fiction films and books of the past decades. There's prior art for you.
The door resists!
Even cooler because ever since childhood I've had a softspot for trilobites.
Though if they come out with a cennobite model, well, that would just be creepy.
Isn't frustration with MS one of the reasons most people move to Mac/Linux?
I just can't see all those Mac users saying "mmm... finally, secure computing!"
Somewhere in all the scientific discussion on this, I wonder how it was overlooked that enhanced intelligence & strength don't make us kinder, more civil, or more accepting.
This isn't a flat statement against genetic engineering, rather I think that the urge to grow and better ourselves is defining characteristics of humanity. But when our knowledge so often exceeds our ability to use it responsibly, I can understand the paranoid reactions.
With no financial imperative to motivate the spiritual & philosophical growth of the human race beyond the mindset of bludgeoning those whom we deem "evil" until they surrender or are exterminated, it's hard to believe this will change soon. Maybe a smarter human race would be beneficial. But maybe we need to focus equally on learning how to interact in less destructive manners with other nations & cultures.
On one hand, suing spammers; on the other, forcing providers to disclose customer activity. It's dancing with the devil
I wonder what the impact would be, in the cases where AOL cannot track down the spammer without violating individual rights, if they were to simply contact, or if needed, publicly identify the ISP that knowingly hosted the spammer, and then let the flood of complaints begin.
If somebody told me that stack of spam was coming from *ISP-name-here*, and that *ISP-name-here* had been informed, but wasn't doing anything about it, I'd certainly be rerouting all my "male enhancement offers" in their direction..
And of course, if that occurs to them, I wonder what the chances are they'll abuse that idea to make other ISPs look bad...
I work for a company that services printers, so I am not really free to name manufacturers, but I can say that I have heard many times over about the diminishing quality of printers, from desktop units to large shop printers designed to run 24/7. The most important thing in the industry is getting your product purchased by as many customers as possible, which means you need to bring them in with a low startup price. Which of course means cheaper materials. So metal tractors which used to outlive their printers are replaced with plastic ones that break every year or two, but the cost drops a few more dollars. And once a company has purchased a thousand units and customized hardware-specific software, there is very little chance they will switch to a different print equipment manufacturer.
Same goes for the consumer printer market, which is why we pay more for cartridges than we do the printer. Minimize entry costs, the most certain way to attract a large customer base in a tight economy.
Why don't we have this in my office? Being locked out of text doccuments that I share with a half dozen other network users for the better part of a day has cost me a lot of productivity..
dreaming of a mac-equipped office.....
Best Actor
Will win: Jack Nicholson
Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis
Thoughts: Everybody loves Nicholson. But watching Day-Lewis perform is like having ring-side seats for a hurricane.
Speaking of ringside seats, The Boxer still stands as one of my favourite all time movies. If you're a DDL fan and you haven't seen it, check it out. Nothing against Nicholson, but noone can pretend he lacks recognition. Really.
You're right, it must be an mistake. It's well known that most web designers will post browser specific versions of major sites without ever testing/debugging them on the browser for which they're built. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Now, what's the W3C compliant way to get my [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags to display properly?
I still have my CoCo tucked away back at my parents house. I spent more hours basking in that green glow coding games than I did under the sun when I was growning up. Now that's nostalgia. Trying to work with an 8-colour palette, 4 if you wanted to work actual graphics. It was an art form all its own, trying to build an aesthetic sense into a game within those limitations.
:o)
I wonder what modern software would look like if programmers had to do these kind of excercises on a regular basis.
mmmmm... been a while since i've written an inkey$.
I couldn't agree more.
There are probably a lot of people here who, like me, do most of their browsing at work (during lunch hour only, of course.) And if the layout of a site is too loud or obtrusive, I'll skip right on to another site. I use Google instead of MSN because the advertising on MSN is obnoxious. And I'm a hundred thousand times more likely to click on an ad that intrigues my intellect or sense of aesthetics than a bright yellow banner screaming buzzwords.
Making a sentient, multicellular organism is so far in our future compared to this experiment, it's incredible. It's like saying that Marie Curie was trying to build a cold fusion reactor.
Marie Curie presented her ideas on radioactivity in 1898. By 1945 we were dropping atomic bombs. You may be underestimating the speed at which technology advances. Science can make a very quick jump from theory to application.
If it's too early to contemplate the moral implications of applied genetic research now, then when is the time right?
And when then is it too late?
Of course we need to learn & to grow. But I do stop to wonder if we're mature enough as a species to use what we learn as a tool before we use it as a weapon.
The problem is with plausible deniability. If the spammer can claim that he "believed" the list of addresses he purchased & spammed were legitimately gathered, and if he's selling a real product (be it herbal viagra, porn, or bad real estate tips), then there isn't much accountability.
It's sort of like romantic comedies. They should be banned, but there just isn't the legal grounds.
Mom and Pop shops will be hurt by this. Notice this targets small busniess who probably run free software to reduce costs. Large companies can handle this, even find ways around it. How many mom & pop shops do you know of that keep databases of social security & credit card numbers? This law is seems aimed at corporations & organizations that archive confidential information.
because even the most aggresive polluter will acknowledge that oil supplies won't last forever.
I'd like to believe this. We all would. But fuel efficiency for the US is actually dropping, due to the popularity of SUVs. From the automotive manufacturers down to the consumer, few people seem to consider anything but immediate luxury and profit.
Fuel taxes would be a great start, but with GW behind the wheel, this country is unlikely to see any major push for energy conservation. It has to start at the consumer level, by building an awarness of the impact our actions have.
"SUVs waste fuel and weaken America."
(bumpersticker seen outside of DC)
Sounds like a classic case of SJS (Shitty Job Syndrome) to me
If SJS really is just the first stage of PWS (Postal Workers Syndrome), my office will be getting a lot more interesting in the coming year...
Thinking of investing in Kevlar....
Honestly, periodically rearranging your desk can really help with one's sanity. A little cubicle Feng Shui. Though not going home and sitting in front of my computer for another 5 hours after work would probably help too... *sigh*
As a fictional confrontation, the conflict would have to be addressed within the "physics" of fiction. There are some basic laws that apply to almost all comic books, such as the victory of "good" over "evil", as defined by the expected audience. A recurring theme in Batman is an exploration of moral ambiguities, the hero forced to ask "Have I made these madmen & criminals into what they are? Have I become one of them?", while the lines between good and evil have often been much more clear for Superman. A World War era comic actually shows Superman humiliating a draft dodger in front of his girlfriend(check it out at the Library of Congress). Superman knows right from wrong and rarely stops to debate. One of his strongest appeals is that a noble and simple spirit is invincible in the face of evil. Adding that to what sql*kitten said, look for the dramatic appeal. Where is the compelling story in a good Superman using inhuman powers to defeat a mere human, who was always a troubled soul to begin with. I would look for the opposite, to see a tragic human who relies on his own intuition, intellect and training, rise up and save the world from a near god who fell from the light. I'd pay my seven dollars to see that. And of course, I would be cheering for Batman anyway. I just like his style better. It's a question of aesthetics, not who has more power.