I don't think that would fly. If a person's bank account gets hacked, the bank usually (always?) picks up the tab. It's in their interests to get people to bank online - it is significantly cheaper than hiring tellers. If I were on the hook for security flaws at the bank, I'd never bank online.
CERN is in Europe, but almost any high-energy physicist worth a damn has rotated through there or one of the previous colliders. High energy physics is necessarily international, due to the costs and politics involved.
How fast is 80km/h? Residential road, large road, highway, or what?
Wouldn't matter - all the signage in the US is in MPH. If you really needed the conversion, you'd look down at your speedometer since both units are printed there. This happens when you cross over to the Canadian side in your car and everything is in KPH.
"Max. capacity 1200kg" -- how many people?
It depends on what state you are in, but our elevators universally have the capacity in pounds. Some states require a kg label as well, and some require a maximum capacity defined in number of persons. If the ignorant American were traveling, then it probably wouldn't be an issue because chances are a capacity elevator in Europe would contain at least one non-American familiar with the metric system. That is, if the elevator didn't just beep at you until someone steps out.
"50C when operating" -- safe to touch?
I might be too optimistic, but I think most Americans know that 100C is boiling and 0C is freezing. It might take them a while to figure out 50C is very warm but not scalding hot, but I'd hope the label would have a big HOT label if it was a real hazard. Anyway, unless you were dealing with a weird specialty piece of equipment, the label would probably have F printed on it as well. The machines I work on use C, but they definitely qualify as "weird specialty equipment":)
do you know conversions for all these?
No, not offhand. But they are all on my smartphone, and I'm not in an industry that uses those units so it quite literally never effects me. If I hauled freight for a living, I'd sure as hell know what the different kinds of tons were. If I were a farmer, I'd probably be familiar with bushels. A bushel of wheat is typically too much for my family:)
Besides, how many European countries can say that their construction workers are adept at fractions?:)
We use both. I'm an engineer, so I'm biased, but there is plenty of metric going on in the US - a certain software program involved with the Mars exploration program notwithstanding:)
We mostly use imperial units for stuff that doesn't matter, like milk or the speed of cars down highways. It makes sense - why should I toss all of my grandmother's cookbooks, or even go through the effort of converting them? Even then, we have both metric and imperial units printed on all of the products, and even our speedometers... which is pretty handy when driving in Canada.
No, it's too late for this election. I was hoping that something would come of the Americans Elect effort, but they self-destructed.
The Greens might get themselves on a majority of state ballots. The candidates pull stunts like getting thrown in jail, but they might be somewhat inclined to listen to IP reform... it's already on their agenda in the form of patented genes. I wouldn't get my hopes up, though. But if you can stomach Krazy Kucinich, the Green Party platform might not sound too kooky to you. Both have a knack for embracing science when it supports their cause and switching to emotion when convenient.
Maybe I'm an old guy around here, but I still remember Dolly in 2008. Sure, it wasn't the calamity that Katrina was, but it flooded a couple of hundred homes there.
Very slight ones
Historically it has had some estimated over 7. That's not slight when the infrastructure isn't built for it.
Speaking of infrastructure, you need that, too. You need telecommunications and power infrastructure, at the least. Those are going to be closest to population centers. And those, historically, are near places where disasters happen. Older cities are almost universally ports and newer cities usually railroad stops - and railroads were generally carved through the easiest passes (valleys and lowlands).
And of course there is latency... when people are measuring latency in single-digit milliseconds, you want to not only be geographically close to those you are serving, but actually on the same network. If you are talking about a location for a backup facility or something, latency might not matter as much, but if you are a big content provider you'll probably want to be co-located with the bigger ISPs.
It's not property, it's a creative work that gets the name "intellectual property" via legislation. You change the law that defines "intellectual property" and the 5th Amendment has no bearing. Without IP law, there would be no IP - there would be nothing for the 5th Amendment to protect in that regard.
Agreed - it's hard to quantify. Moving an old Pentium 4 to an Atom is probably a no brainer, if only for your power bill. But that old Core 2 Duo is probably holding it's own (I have one in my basement...)
It might be... or it might not be. Older hardware is generally less power-efficient. So it depends on where your power comes from and it depends on the environmental impact of the new product manufacturing and how the old product is disposed of.
Radioshack... I was just in there today. Right across the mall is one of those $5 and under stores. You want a cell phone charger? $5 from the huge rack of cell phone accessories in the $5 store or $30 from Radioshack.
It's possible that this had to do with the end of a sharing agreement they had with Voicestream (now T-Mobile). I know my T-Mobile service suffered when the AT&T roaming was reduced.
Your post is awesome - can I use it when I want to sound insane?
Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product
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It wouldn't do any good - shills would just create a few new accounts each day, sit on them until they pass the probation period, and then resume shilling.
I agree with you - I am not comfortable with the idea of an all-seeing, comprehensive automated system following me around at all times with the express purpose of looking for violations.
On the other hand, such a system that feeds back to my car and drives it for me is appealing...
Anyway, I see these as policy decisions and not as constitutional issues. I don't see anything in the Bill of Rights that addresses database searches. And why would I? Database searches were crude, manual affairs in 1789 - not on anyone's radar. It's up to us to craft modern policy. I think what we call "privacy" issues today are mostly related to the ease of storing and searching data, and it is good to have a discussion about what is and isn't allowed. I don't think referring to the Bill of Rights is particularly helpful.
Things I like: - Camera at entrance to highway that reads license plates and bills for usage. It can also check for insurance and registration status. - "Smart" highway that allows automated cars. - Cameras/sensors periodically placed on highway to monitor traffic conditions, weather, or hazards - Analysis of data collected above to aid in highway planning - Analysis of data collected above to aid in planning police activity - Use of data collected above in response to subpoenas
Things I don't like: - Use of above data to issue driving citations automatically - Use of above data to automatically dispatch an officer to write driving citation without having actually witnessed it - Use of above data to track individuals without probable cause and without a court order
I also think that, as much as is possible, the data should be open.
My timeline might be slightly off - Carter, Reagan... point is - late 70s, early 80s.
The treatment options available to the destitute vary from state to state. But in general I agree with your assessment that we need to do more. Part of the difficulty, however, is in getting people to stay on their meds... which brings us back to the topic at hand: I think that a cheap way for a doctor to monitor the medication history of a patient could significantly improve treatment in general and relieve some of the stress on our public health system.
Or perhaps you're disputing the idea that surveillance is effectively a search?
I think that would be a reasonable thing to dispute, especially if a specific person was not being observed - just every car that passes a camera.
Now when the system becomes so complete and integrated that you can "virtually" follow a person around, we should apply the same rules that apply now to physically following someone around. But AFAIK, a cop can follow you around if they want.
But no one is coming into your house, searching you person, or even rifling through your personal effects. A camera is taking a picture of your license plate, which is there specifically to let your car be identified to law enforcement.
Or does tracking my movements, waiting for me to slip up, then using said movements against me somehow not constitute self-incrimination?
If a cop is tailing you on the highway and you "slip up", is that self-incriminating? Can you explain to me how a camera is different than a cop's eyes in a way that is meaningful in this discussion?
Defendant: Your honor, I would like to bring the database containing my license plate tracking information to the stand, so that it may be cross-examined.
This is settled law. Do you ask for the murder weapon to take the stand so that it can be cross-examined? The cop who found the bloody knife and found your DNA on it is the accuser - not the knife or the DNA test itself. The database is the evidence, not the accuser.
Tracking systems such as this not only violate our Constitutional right to travel freely without fear of government harassment, they run afoul of the ages-honored tradition of 'innocent until proven guilty.'
Is it OK for a cop to walk down a line of parked cars and check them all for valid registrations? Why isn't he just presuming that they are all valid? Is it OK for a cop to be posted outside of a large event, just in case? Why is he there? Isn't everyone at the event presumed innocent?
Presumption of innocence is a concept limited to the treatment of a defendant in a court of law - trying to extrapolate it to broader society leads to some pretty odd places.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think that would fly. If a person's bank account gets hacked, the bank usually (always?) picks up the tab. It's in their interests to get people to bank online - it is significantly cheaper than hiring tellers. If I were on the hook for security flaws at the bank, I'd never bank online.
But the lazy will make questions like "What is 2+2?" or other such nonsense.
He won an Ig-Nobel prize, but not a Nobel AFAIK. It mentions neither in TFA.
CERN is in Europe, but almost any high-energy physicist worth a damn has rotated through there or one of the previous colliders. High energy physics is necessarily international, due to the costs and politics involved.
How fast is 80km/h? Residential road, large road, highway, or what?
Wouldn't matter - all the signage in the US is in MPH. If you really needed the conversion, you'd look down at your speedometer since both units are printed there. This happens when you cross over to the Canadian side in your car and everything is in KPH.
"Max. capacity 1200kg" -- how many people?
It depends on what state you are in, but our elevators universally have the capacity in pounds. Some states require a kg label as well, and some require a maximum capacity defined in number of persons. If the ignorant American were traveling, then it probably wouldn't be an issue because chances are a capacity elevator in Europe would contain at least one non-American familiar with the metric system. That is, if the elevator didn't just beep at you until someone steps out.
"50C when operating" -- safe to touch?
I might be too optimistic, but I think most Americans know that 100C is boiling and 0C is freezing. It might take them a while to figure out 50C is very warm but not scalding hot, but I'd hope the label would have a big HOT label if it was a real hazard. Anyway, unless you were dealing with a weird specialty piece of equipment, the label would probably have F printed on it as well. The machines I work on use C, but they definitely qualify as "weird specialty equipment" :)
do you know conversions for all these?
No, not offhand. But they are all on my smartphone, and I'm not in an industry that uses those units so it quite literally never effects me. If I hauled freight for a living, I'd sure as hell know what the different kinds of tons were. If I were a farmer, I'd probably be familiar with bushels. A bushel of wheat is typically too much for my family :)
Besides, how many European countries can say that their construction workers are adept at fractions? :)
We use both. I'm an engineer, so I'm biased, but there is plenty of metric going on in the US - a certain software program involved with the Mars exploration program notwithstanding :)
We mostly use imperial units for stuff that doesn't matter, like milk or the speed of cars down highways. It makes sense - why should I toss all of my grandmother's cookbooks, or even go through the effort of converting them? Even then, we have both metric and imperial units printed on all of the products, and even our speedometers... which is pretty handy when driving in Canada.
No, it's too late for this election. I was hoping that something would come of the Americans Elect effort, but they self-destructed.
The Greens might get themselves on a majority of state ballots. The candidates pull stunts like getting thrown in jail, but they might be somewhat inclined to listen to IP reform... it's already on their agenda in the form of patented genes. I wouldn't get my hopes up, though. But if you can stomach Krazy Kucinich, the Green Party platform might not sound too kooky to you. Both have a knack for embracing science when it supports their cause and switching to emotion when convenient.
Always been a Rankine man myself...
It's just that I don't recognize the US annexation of sovereign Mexican territory...
?????? Citation REALLY needed.
Maybe I'm an old guy around here, but I still remember Dolly in 2008. Sure, it wasn't the calamity that Katrina was, but it flooded a couple of hundred homes there.
Very slight ones
Historically it has had some estimated over 7. That's not slight when the infrastructure isn't built for it.
Speaking of infrastructure, you need that, too. You need telecommunications and power infrastructure, at the least. Those are going to be closest to population centers. And those, historically, are near places where disasters happen. Older cities are almost universally ports and newer cities usually railroad stops - and railroads were generally carved through the easiest passes (valleys and lowlands).
And of course there is latency... when people are measuring latency in single-digit milliseconds, you want to not only be geographically close to those you are serving, but actually on the same network. If you are talking about a location for a backup facility or something, latency might not matter as much, but if you are a big content provider you'll probably want to be co-located with the bigger ISPs.
Yes, but...
There is a lot of wiggle room. For instance, copyright only is required by TRIPS to be 50 years, but it is much longer in the US.
And of course, one could exit or renegotiate the treaties, with all that entails. The US is the primary driver of them anyway.
It's not property, it's a creative work that gets the name "intellectual property" via legislation. You change the law that defines "intellectual property" and the 5th Amendment has no bearing. Without IP law, there would be no IP - there would be nothing for the 5th Amendment to protect in that regard.
Arizona, Colorado, and Utah have wildfires.
Utah has tornadoes (even in Salt Lake City).
New Mexico has terrible flooding when hit by a Hurricane.
Arizona has had earthquakes.
The nice thing about IP law is that it is just that... a law. You can change it to say anything you want.
If we decide to put in a penalty for not making stuff available, we can do that.
Agreed - it's hard to quantify. Moving an old Pentium 4 to an Atom is probably a no brainer, if only for your power bill. But that old Core 2 Duo is probably holding it's own (I have one in my basement...)
It might be... or it might not be. Older hardware is generally less power-efficient. So it depends on where your power comes from and it depends on the environmental impact of the new product manufacturing and how the old product is disposed of.
Radioshack... I was just in there today. Right across the mall is one of those $5 and under stores. You want a cell phone charger? $5 from the huge rack of cell phone accessories in the $5 store or $30 from Radioshack.
How the hell do they stay in business?
It's possible that this had to do with the end of a sharing agreement they had with Voicestream (now T-Mobile). I know my T-Mobile service suffered when the AT&T roaming was reduced.
Your post is awesome - can I use it when I want to sound insane?
It wouldn't do any good - shills would just create a few new accounts each day, sit on them until they pass the probation period, and then resume shilling.
Windows, Mac, and the various unix-like desktops are all moving targets.
I agree with you - I am not comfortable with the idea of an all-seeing, comprehensive automated system following me around at all times with the express purpose of looking for violations.
On the other hand, such a system that feeds back to my car and drives it for me is appealing...
Anyway, I see these as policy decisions and not as constitutional issues. I don't see anything in the Bill of Rights that addresses database searches. And why would I? Database searches were crude, manual affairs in 1789 - not on anyone's radar. It's up to us to craft modern policy. I think what we call "privacy" issues today are mostly related to the ease of storing and searching data, and it is good to have a discussion about what is and isn't allowed. I don't think referring to the Bill of Rights is particularly helpful.
Things I like:
- Camera at entrance to highway that reads license plates and bills for usage. It can also check for insurance and registration status.
- "Smart" highway that allows automated cars.
- Cameras/sensors periodically placed on highway to monitor traffic conditions, weather, or hazards
- Analysis of data collected above to aid in highway planning
- Analysis of data collected above to aid in planning police activity
- Use of data collected above in response to subpoenas
Things I don't like:
- Use of above data to issue driving citations automatically
- Use of above data to automatically dispatch an officer to write driving citation without having actually witnessed it
- Use of above data to track individuals without probable cause and without a court order
I also think that, as much as is possible, the data should be open.
My timeline might be slightly off - Carter, Reagan... point is - late 70s, early 80s.
The treatment options available to the destitute vary from state to state. But in general I agree with your assessment that we need to do more. Part of the difficulty, however, is in getting people to stay on their meds... which brings us back to the topic at hand: I think that a cheap way for a doctor to monitor the medication history of a patient could significantly improve treatment in general and relieve some of the stress on our public health system.
Even if you think that the drug market should opened up, insurance fraud is a problem that drives all of our costs up.
Or perhaps you're disputing the idea that surveillance is effectively a search?
I think that would be a reasonable thing to dispute, especially if a specific person was not being observed - just every car that passes a camera.
Now when the system becomes so complete and integrated that you can "virtually" follow a person around, we should apply the same rules that apply now to physically following someone around. But AFAIK, a cop can follow you around if they want.
But no one is coming into your house, searching you person, or even rifling through your personal effects. A camera is taking a picture of your license plate, which is there specifically to let your car be identified to law enforcement.
Or does tracking my movements, waiting for me to slip up, then using said movements against me somehow not constitute self-incrimination?
If a cop is tailing you on the highway and you "slip up", is that self-incriminating? Can you explain to me how a camera is different than a cop's eyes in a way that is meaningful in this discussion?
Defendant: Your honor, I would like to bring the database containing my license plate tracking information to the stand, so that it may be cross-examined.
This is settled law. Do you ask for the murder weapon to take the stand so that it can be cross-examined? The cop who found the bloody knife and found your DNA on it is the accuser - not the knife or the DNA test itself. The database is the evidence, not the accuser.
Tracking systems such as this not only violate our Constitutional right to travel freely without fear of government harassment, they run afoul of the ages-honored tradition of 'innocent until proven guilty.'
Is it OK for a cop to walk down a line of parked cars and check them all for valid registrations? Why isn't he just presuming that they are all valid? Is it OK for a cop to be posted outside of a large event, just in case? Why is he there? Isn't everyone at the event presumed innocent?
Presumption of innocence is a concept limited to the treatment of a defendant in a court of law - trying to extrapolate it to broader society leads to some pretty odd places.