Hacker may not have meant bad guy when coined, but that is actually irrelevant.
Like I said in another post, the word "quiz" was originally used to describe an odd or unusual person. Then it began to be used for unusual toys, and only after a long while did it get applied to a form of test.
Things just happen faster today, so a word goes from being coined to bastardized in, like, days.
How many heteros these days, when happy, describe their mood as "gay".;-)
There's the occasional old fart who still uses it in its previous form, but that's another word that's been pretty much changed to mean something else, and far more so that "hacker". I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. It just is.
If the word has been adopted to the point where it has a dictionary definition, then it's a valid word. The most ineffective and hopeless endeavor is language policing.
Do you look down your nose at anyone who uses the word "quiz" for a test because it started out as a word for an odd or unusual person?
"Hacker" has evolved into what it is. You will never "enlighten" the general public. You might as well try to hold back the tide.
Re:So if 99% of people say 'supposably'...
on
Hackers Hall of Fame
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· Score: 2, Interesting
instead of 'supposedly', then that should be okay, too? I hope not.
Yes. Languages evolve. If that word evolves that way, then so be it.
My favorite theoretical case is in Larry Niven novels where "bleep" and "censored" become actual swear words that will get you shocked looks in certain company.
And no one really thought the Earth was flat. They even had a rough estimate of its diameter.
But isn't language defined by usage?
on
Hackers Hall of Fame
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· Score: 5, Insightful
If 99% of the world uses "hacker" in a negative context, I think the real hackers had better find a new term, because language is driven by those that use it. I feel your pain, but I think it's a losing battle. There's many cases of word meaning evolving from one thing to another.
And one minor admonishment: just because home improvement isn't something that interests you does not mean it isn't learning. I got into home inprovement projects a couple years ago, and have learned a lot from those shows. Built my own deck and redid a bathroom all by my lonesome, and the results are beautiful. Even just home decorating is a pretty dense topic, with centuries of data and styles to consider.
The last one I saw was a clip from CES or something in January. It was some completely Queer Eye robot bopping to some sort of technowhatsis computer music. Yeesh. And no more robot pets.
Dark matter IS considered distinct from ordinary baryonic matter, which is what your asteroids and dead stars are composed of. They are supposedly undiscovered particles, although neutrinos have been put forth as a candidate.
It is practically impossible now for anyone except a very small group of very specialized people to understand the recent theories in physics. We seem to discover new things every day but noone understands them except a few chosen.
What are you complaining about? This is just how the universe is. As you go to ever smaller or ever larger details, things become weird. That's just the way it is.
There are many books out there where science journalists have done the research and distilled the ideas into something the armchair cosmologist can understand.
We are not getting further and further from understanding. It's just that the measured data is leading us in unpredicted directions. This is a GOOD thing. The very recent discovery that the expansion of the universe was totally unexpected, but the scientific community is dealing with the data and incorporating it into the new theories.
It's the theory of dark matter and energy which is the recent one, and is supplanting previous theories, so the analogy is backward.
The measurement of the cosmic microwave background to the detail required to determine that the universe is, in fact, flat, only just happened in the past year or two. Things like M-Theory and the accelerating expansion ARE the new ideas that are causing the hubbub. It's actually a very exciting time to bear witness to humanity's growing understanding of the universe.
This is a good overview of how cosmologists arrived at the current theories involving dark matter and dark energy. Also, do a Google on the WMAP probe.
You know what I meant by the Bush comment. Don't act stupid. There's enough of that going around.
I have been to the Dean site. I have read On The Issues. It's all "I will implement a plan..." with no real details. When there is some hint, it's something that flies in the face of 5000 years of civilized experience.
This is commonly followed by a laundry list of problems that are implied to be all Bush's fault instead of the millions of assholes in this country who possess life skills below those of a retarded squirrel.
I tried to find out about the guy, but all he said or put on his site was basically "Bush is evil. Let's all hate Bush."
I still have little to no idea exactly what he (or any other Dem) wants to *do*. And I don't mean "create jobs" or "give power back to the people" or some other vapid propaganda. What PRECISELY do they think will lead to those results?
F*ck the whole lot of them, on both sides. If you think any of them give a crap about you, you are seriously deluded.
I'm in SoCal. I contact all that stuff out to illegal aliens. Harder to trace, but I still have to set up the hits, translate them into Spanish, etc. Thank goodness for AltaVista Translate.
Mate a los bastardos!
Ultimate job: House husband...
on
Dream Jobs of 2004
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· Score: 5, Funny
...to a rich and sexy and loving wife.
Rich, loving, sexy wife: Honey, I'm home. I made another million dollars today. And I stopped at Fredrick's Of Hollywood today, but that's a suprise.
Lucky husband: Great. Oh, the 25" mirror for my new telescope arrived today along with the racks of G5 XServes. I'll mount the mirror out in the Large Array tomorrow morning.
After the golden ratio was initially described, there was subsequent *deliberate* use of it by various artists of the time. It was also incorporated into some architecture.
Other ancient number systems
on
The Golden Ratio
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· Score: 3, Informative
10 is not a given. Other number systems used in ages past include base 5 and base 20. The Babylonians used base 60. I believe that's where we get our time system from (60 seconds per minute, 60 second per hour).
Two other interesting books: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.
Trigonometric Delights by Eli Maor.
Both books cover the a lot of historical ground in mathematics.
OK, you seem to be focusing mainly of the credit card issue, but as I implied, it's just an engineering problem to be solved, and not a threat to life and limb and freedom. OK, so maybe pay as you leave won't come about, or the credit card (or fob or some other form factor) will have a little manual switch. There's solutions. Endlessly hand wringing over the worst case scenario is not productive. It's s starting point, but you move on from there.
I'm still not convinced of any of these threats as realistic. Is this theoretical pocket scanner going to handle the multiplexing, amplification, digital signal processing, etc? All on a couple AA batteries? The RFID is passive, so the EM needs to make the trip twice.
The mistake most people make is assuming that we live in an ideal world, where everyone is good and corret.
Oh, that's not me. I'm a complete misanthrope, and hate most of humanity.
1. As I've said, not only the supermarket can read your credit card data through 5 layers of clothes. Anyone can, and anyone can impersonate it....
OK. This is a possibly legitmate concern, but it's a managable one. Shielded wallets. Refusing to use cards with RFID tags. Requiring some other confirmation. This is not an insurmountable problem, and nowhere near the magnitude of some of the real paranoiacs.
2. Don't assume that only the police can (or wants to) track you via RFID. I'd bet that it'll more likely be a stalker's or mugger's dream come true.
The low power (they are actually passive without a scanner) and limited range of RFID tags means the stalker can actually *see* me by the time he can get a response from any tags on my clothes or shoes.
3....And they can follow you by the signal all day long, until oportunity presents itself.
Again, the limited range and power cause problems with this scenario. The moment you are in your car, it's all over. Also, will high ticket singular items (like diamond rings or small expensive items) even use the tags? It seems their main intended use is for commodity items like clothing and groceries. If you buy an expensive TV or other piece of electronic equipment, they bad guy can just read the side of the big box you are taking out to your car. No, I think this one is really stretching, and is just a sophistication of an existing crime problem that I doubt will ever come about.
4. Or if someone wants to rob your house? Heck, now they can know everything that's inside even before entering through the door. _And_ if _you_ are inside at the time.
How does the scanner differentiate betwqeen all the tag responses, assuming the signal would effectively reach into the house and activate them? Remember, the tags are passive chips of silicon without the scanner. I've heard talk of using these things in bulk in distribution centers, but no data on how the RFIDs are properly multitaksed en masse. if they even can be.
5. Since anyone can get that data, even if they don't actually go on to rob you, he/she already has access to a _ton_ of information about you. From how much money do you have in your account, to the exact brand of underwear you're wearing, to god knows what else. Without even you knowing who or when gets that data.
I really want to see an actual demonstration of someone determining the contents of a wallet from a distance great enough that the wallet's owner doen't notice anything suspicious, like a wand being waved over his butt. If someone can demonstrate that effectively, I'll consider it a risk.
And what the **** do I care if someone can tell what underwear I'm wearing? I wear Staffords or BVDs. There. Now it's old news. As for the rest of my clothes, they can use those scary high tech devices called "eyes" to determine those.
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Like I said in another post, the word "quiz" was originally used to describe an odd or unusual person. Then it began to be used for unusual toys, and only after a long while did it get applied to a form of test.
Things just happen faster today, so a word goes from being coined to bastardized in, like, days.
There's the occasional old fart who still uses it in its previous form, but that's another word that's been pretty much changed to mean something else, and far more so that "hacker". I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing. It just is.
Do you look down your nose at anyone who uses the word "quiz" for a test because it started out as a word for an odd or unusual person?
"Hacker" has evolved into what it is. You will never "enlighten" the general public. You might as well try to hold back the tide.
Yes. Languages evolve. If that word evolves that way, then so be it.
My favorite theoretical case is in Larry Niven novels where "bleep" and "censored" become actual swear words that will get you shocked looks in certain company.
And no one really thought the Earth was flat. They even had a rough estimate of its diameter.
And one minor admonishment: just because home improvement isn't something that interests you does not mean it isn't learning. I got into home inprovement projects a couple years ago, and have learned a lot from those shows. Built my own deck and redid a bathroom all by my lonesome, and the results are beautiful. Even just home decorating is a pretty dense topic, with centuries of data and styles to consider.
Well, LOTR dates back to before Star Wars, and, even by a stretch the size of Star Jones, is not sci-fi.
Someone needs to invent a new SF franchise.
The last one I saw was a clip from CES or something in January. It was some completely Queer Eye robot bopping to some sort of technowhatsis computer music. Yeesh. And no more robot pets.
Just get the hunter/killers online already.
Dark matter IS considered distinct from ordinary baryonic matter, which is what your asteroids and dead stars are composed of. They are supposedly undiscovered particles, although neutrinos have been put forth as a candidate.
What are you complaining about? This is just how the universe is. As you go to ever smaller or ever larger details, things become weird. That's just the way it is.
There are many books out there where science journalists have done the research and distilled the ideas into something the armchair cosmologist can understand.
We are not getting further and further from understanding. It's just that the measured data is leading us in unpredicted directions. This is a GOOD thing. The very recent discovery that the expansion of the universe was totally unexpected, but the scientific community is dealing with the data and incorporating it into the new theories.
The measurement of the cosmic microwave background to the detail required to determine that the universe is, in fact, flat, only just happened in the past year or two. Things like M-Theory and the accelerating expansion ARE the new ideas that are causing the hubbub. It's actually a very exciting time to bear witness to humanity's growing understanding of the universe.
This is a good overview of how cosmologists arrived at the current theories involving dark matter and dark energy. Also, do a Google on the WMAP probe.
I have been to the Dean site. I have read On The Issues. It's all "I will implement a plan..." with no real details. When there is some hint, it's something that flies in the face of 5000 years of civilized experience.
This is commonly followed by a laundry list of problems that are implied to be all Bush's fault instead of the millions of assholes in this country who possess life skills below those of a retarded squirrel.
I still have little to no idea exactly what he (or any other Dem) wants to *do*. And I don't mean "create jobs" or "give power back to the people" or some other vapid propaganda. What PRECISELY do they think will lead to those results?
F*ck the whole lot of them, on both sides. If you think any of them give a crap about you, you are seriously deluded.
I bet they adapt to low gravity more quickly than any human.
Mate a los bastardos!
Rich, loving, sexy wife: Honey, I'm home. I made another million dollars today. And I stopped at Fredrick's Of Hollywood today, but that's a suprise.
Lucky husband: Great. Oh, the 25" mirror for my new telescope arrived today along with the racks of G5 XServes. I'll mount the mirror out in the Large Array tomorrow morning.
Now I must kill everyone on the list. As if I didn't have enough damn chores to do this weekend.
After the golden ratio was initially described, there was subsequent *deliberate* use of it by various artists of the time. It was also incorporated into some architecture.
Two other interesting books: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.
Trigonometric Delights by Eli Maor.
Both books cover the a lot of historical ground in mathematics.
Now they say they'll be replacing the red phosphorus with red kryptonite. Just who's behind this, anyway?
I'm still not convinced of any of these threats as realistic. Is this theoretical pocket scanner going to handle the multiplexing, amplification, digital signal processing, etc? All on a couple AA batteries? The RFID is passive, so the EM needs to make the trip twice.
Here's a link if you are interested: RFID Journal
Oh, that's not me. I'm a complete misanthrope, and hate most of humanity.
1. As I've said, not only the supermarket can read your credit card data through 5 layers of clothes. Anyone can, and anyone can impersonate it. ...
OK. This is a possibly legitmate concern, but it's a managable one. Shielded wallets. Refusing to use cards with RFID tags. Requiring some other confirmation. This is not an insurmountable problem, and nowhere near the magnitude of some of the real paranoiacs.
2. Don't assume that only the police can (or wants to) track you via RFID. I'd bet that it'll more likely be a stalker's or mugger's dream come true.
The low power (they are actually passive without a scanner) and limited range of RFID tags means the stalker can actually *see* me by the time he can get a response from any tags on my clothes or shoes.
3. ...And they can follow you by the signal all day long, until oportunity presents itself.
Again, the limited range and power cause problems with this scenario. The moment you are in your car, it's all over. Also, will high ticket singular items (like diamond rings or small expensive items) even use the tags? It seems their main intended use is for commodity items like clothing and groceries. If you buy an expensive TV or other piece of electronic equipment, they bad guy can just read the side of the big box you are taking out to your car. No, I think this one is really stretching, and is just a sophistication of an existing crime problem that I doubt will ever come about.
4. Or if someone wants to rob your house? Heck, now they can know everything that's inside even before entering through the door. _And_ if _you_ are inside at the time.
How does the scanner differentiate betwqeen all the tag responses, assuming the signal would effectively reach into the house and activate them? Remember, the tags are passive chips of silicon without the scanner. I've heard talk of using these things in bulk in distribution centers, but no data on how the RFIDs are properly multitaksed en masse. if they even can be.
5. Since anyone can get that data, even if they don't actually go on to rob you, he/she already has access to a _ton_ of information about you. From how much money do you have in your account, to the exact brand of underwear you're wearing, to god knows what else. Without even you knowing who or when gets that data.
I really want to see an actual demonstration of someone determining the contents of a wallet from a distance great enough that the wallet's owner doen't notice anything suspicious, like a wand being waved over his butt. If someone can demonstrate that effectively, I'll consider it a risk.
And what the **** do I care if someone can tell what underwear I'm wearing? I wear Staffords or BVDs. There. Now it's old news. As for the rest of my clothes, they can use those scary high tech devices called "eyes" to determine those.