There is no irony... Amazon did NOT censor the book. Had the book been censored, then parts of the book would have been removed and nobody would of ever known. OR censorship could of happened if the book was completely removed from ALL of the Amazon book list, but 1984 is readily purchased on Amazon.com website.
Yes, a publisher changed its mind, and I'm sure in the fine print of some click through licensing, Amazon has preserved the right to remove books that fall into this catagory and refund the purchased price. But it is not censorship. More akin to a peanut butter recall.
Censorship is when a document about the enviorment is published in the EPA and the person who wrote it is threatend to keep it quiet, and the existance of the document is hidden. That IS censorship and it happened just a few months ago in our own government.
So I restate my claim that NO IRONY EXISTS as it was stated because the censorship does not exist in this case!
"A statement that, when taken in context, may actually mean the opposite of what is written literally; the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention, notably as a form of humor; The quality or state of an event being both coincidental and contradictory in a humorous or..." - Wickonary.org
"but that doesn't mean charging outrageous fees is necessary for banks to stay in business."
I'm intriged by this idea of "outrageous fees."
I bank where I bank and have moved a few times because of disagreements. (had one that ran an electronic transaction for about $200 out of my account and couldn't provide ANY proof it was mine even when the names and account #'s didn't match up with mine! But, I digress...) Never once was it because of "outrageous fees." What makes a fee outrageous? Isn't it an unnessicary modifyer? (Sorta like George Carlin's Airline "Pre Bording" skit) Isn't any fee going to be considered outrageous if it hits you? Would not the smarter part of the plan be to avoid ALL fees. If that were the case, the banks should go belly up. If enough people don't like a fee or think it high, then they should "vote" with their money and remove it and move to another bank with lower fees. (Again assuming that they intend to pay a fee to bank?)
Eh, maybe it is just me... The more solvent I can keep my account the better I feel. Same for Credit Cards. Pay the balance off, avoid the interest and late fees, etc.
I looked for an F'n article to read, but couldn't find one. It looks more like one person putting together an opinion to post on Slashdot, not '"News" for nerds' in any sense.
Best I could tell from this headline: "Unsung, Unpaid Coders Behind Federal IT Dashboard", is that someone is pissed they didn't get part of the bailouts or federal stimulus. Guess what, whats how socialism works, they should get used to it, we'll see much more. It only really works on paper, eventually you have no motivation to work/create if you end up being "Unsung, Unpaid" and it will eventually collapse.
If someone truly want to contribute to "society" with their code, license it on a per-case basis. Someone you like, license for a few dollars to feed your belly lunch. Someone you don't really like (Microsoft assumed usually in this case), then increase the license fee to where both parties are comfortable with the trade.
(The trade = use of your code for cash. All of society is based on labor trades. Trade for food, clothing, shelter or something that can be later traded for those things, such as gold, guns, political power, etc. Society eventually breaks down when those that produce no labored product expect to be compensated on the same scale as those that do produce a labored product.)
Engineers will never sink to such "low tech" solutions... My wife is a Mechanical Engineer and is ALWAYS over thinking problems. This is probably another case of the same. I agree that a cutting tool of sometype would be easy to do, and quickly done would minimize damage. The glass is already scored, the stress fractures are already present, if they have any hope of getting it out, the damage is already done. After removal, they will try and find a way to use a scanning xray microscope to take pictures to try and figure out the total damage to the glass. That will also slow them down. The urge to scrap the shuttle because of the knob stuckage is because they want a shiney new toy. Out with the old, lets build a new one. After all, they are part of the US governemtent's FIRST transportation industry and they get lots of $$$ to build/maintain a few models a year. Wait untill a new "Government Motor" car comes out and you have to take it in for a service call... hehehehehee... there is a reason the term "Good enough for Government work" exists!
oops... Should be "bottom-up", I should of previewd that...
Point is, unless they are researching beer bio, then why are they not in a university or some funded research unless they don't know what they are doing, are crackpots, or just goofing around.
They've decided that Flint Michigan must SHRINK 40% to survive.... So the answer is to bulldoze parts of flint and let it return to nature. 49 other cities to be targeted. Is yours next?
If enough people buy them and get squished by the rest of the people who are smart enough to understand density/weight/safty retios, then it will reduce the population by that amount that bought the little "smart" cars... Thus reducing green house gas emissions by reducing the volume of homosapien flatulence.
This is typical environmental Dogma. Lets break it down...
1) "Light pollution" -- So you've already been conditioned that pollution is bad, therefore, what you are about to read is bad.
2) "has caused one-fifth of the world's population" -- OMG! 1/5... Yes, that means that four-fifths has NO problem seeing the milky way. That is in POPULATION numbers. Lets do math:) 6,706,993,152 (July 2008 est.) and 4/5 = 5,365,594,521.6 (That.6 must be me.) Ok, that works out to 80% of the worlds population CAN see the milkyway. So, Whats the problem again?
3)"mostly in Europe, Britain and the US" -- Oh... I see, boo-hoo.. I don't know about who "US" are because I can see it just fine from my house, so it must really be You. THEN MOVE.
4)"'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker" REALLY? I thought our planet's natural heritage was to vilently erupt spewing lava over insignificant surface dwellers. Maybe to freeze and build up encroaching ice over the surface? I think that if you look at the geological timeline, we have admired the milkyway for but a briefest of moments to the planet. So, where is the heritage? Oh yes, in our feeble minds.
5) The rest just reitterates the negative because "a lie told enough times will become the truth."
Why do you have to recreate an existing program? Look, How many times in basic class did we create the different sorts. The code was there, you typed it in, it ran... Eventually you were challenging to BUILD upon what you learned and maybe put some fancy inputs, output, etc.. was it the same program? No, and you still had the satisfaction of creating something yourself.
If your REALLY gonna challenge yourself to create new, then start with new API's, etc... Oh that's right, The whole point of WINE is to link into the API's that Microsoft developed... Ahhh... I see now, instead of inventing something you'll just steal their code set if you can figure out how to link into it and make it run something someone else already created. So your really creating... Nothing except a minor bridge between API and EXE.
What was your argument again? What were you CREATING?
Besides, If someone didn't ever want to one up CALC then we wouldn't have Excel. Or WordStar -> Word, DB -> Access. What do they all have in common? Excel, Word, Access are all common tests for WINE. When people forget we have OPENOFFICE with NATIVE LINUX APPS. Get out of the Stone Age, and start firing up your rocket!
(Ok, the last part sounds more dramatic than I wanted, but I think you'll get the point...;)
Western civilization is like a tsunami, spreading across the world and leaving slavery, poison and death in it's wake. You don't elect Mr Nice Guy to run things until the tsunami is passed, which is why all the communist nations have brutal, iron-fisted leaders. They live under constant threat from us, and while that's true, it's wise and good to submit to a strong leader so they can survive.
We are the evil ones. The world should fight tooth and nail against us until we change or die, because it's the right thing to do.
Bite me and go back to whatever cave you came from... If 'We are the evil ones', how is it that we don't kill our citizens for expressing views counter to the government. How is it that we don't mutilate woman's genitals so that they won't be able to experience pleasure to keep them "in their place". How is it that we don't starve our populace while at the same time living high on the hog and exploring nuclear innalihation of other countries for genocidal reasons. Our country may not be perfect sir/madam and it has evolved, hence slavery was destroyed etc.. but your view of it is totally fucked up. If you don't like it, LEAVE.
Now, From the ever quoted WIKI: Capitalism is an ECONOMIC system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned.[1][2] Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded for the purpose of generating profits, without force or fraud, by private INDIVIDUALS either singly or jointly,[3][4] and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy.[5] A distinguishing feature of capitalism is that each person owns his or her own labor and therefore is allowed to sell the use of it to employers.[3][6] In a "capitalist state", private rights and property relations are protected by the rule of law of a limited regulatory framework.[7][8] In the modern capitalist state, legislative action is confined to defining....
It looks like the above thread was about goverments, not economics. Capitalism is the Economy of the Demacracy. If I were a black market runner in Communist China guess what, I'm engaging in Capitalism... I'm selling a product at a profit. I guess, you could make the argument that communism is the economy of Socialism... Where everone is equal, some just more than others... But the government dictactes how the efforts of one's work will be doled out to you and controll of the major industries and banks.
Oh... I'm sorry, I think I'm describing Presidents Obama's plan... My mistake... I'm SURE he isn't pushing Socialism!
Here, I'll say it because I didn't see anyone else say it, so kinda like the emperor isn't wearing any clothes...
Is this REALLY an issue? For Real, if I want to run Windows apps, I launch a virtual box of the XP install.. Why bother with WINE. Besides, Wine IS NOT an Emulator, so why bother. I thought it would of been dead a while ago. If you can't find a license to run XP in a VBox, then DONT. Instead, Code the application you need for LINUX. I'm a nobody, but other people have got to be tired of hereing this "The Dark side is makeing me buy a license to run xxxx..." Then CODE "xxxx" for your own use! Or Pay someone! If it is REALLY good, turn it back into the community under the GPL and let everyone benifit.
Wine sucks, Vboxes are only slightly better, native code rules.
Nope, I don't code or contribute, but my code would be belonging to someone else, anyways. So only take these comments with whatever salt you may have.
But I keep it turned off or else I'd end up a quivering fool because of what I might hear... OR I could use it to get women by getting inside of their heads...
oops.. Forgot I was on Slashdot. Guess I don't have telepathy after all.
"The book touches upon, but does not really answer, nor go into enough details on why people allow such pervasive use of electronic surveillance technologies to seamlessly enter society. Be it CCTV cameras that film public parks or attempt to catch speeding drivers; many are deployed with little to no protestations.
Ahh.. Mabey because we don't get a choice in the matter during the initial planning and establishment stages... And when it is finally FORCED onto a ballot by petition, it is usually overwhelmingly AGAINST having them. Case in point was Stubinville, OH (USA):
"That's right, local officials were forced to put the issue up to a vote of the general population and the people said they didn't want them. By a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent, residents of Steubenville, Ohio, voted down the "automated traffic sensor program."" ( http://www.examiner.com/a-399687~Steve_Eldridge__Ohio_voters_reject_red_light_cameras.html )
They bring the cameras in saying it is safety, when really it is revenue generation. They seem to actually CAUSE safty issues as I've seen a red-light camera that resulted in a rear-end collision when someone suddenly stopped on YELLOW because they were afraid of the camera. What they REALLY need to do is legthen the RED light before the next goes green... That way all vehicles have exited the intersection if they actually were "in the yellow". Instead, we get shortened lights to catch cars and increase fines... (I'm missing my reference here, but google it, you'll find it... I know it was a big deal out there once..)
How many folks get cameras and have no say??? Anyone, Anyone? Bueller?
"Computer security is the same way. You *can* cracl WPA(1/2) encryption, but if you neighbour has his connection open (or is using WEP), you are not likely to become a target"
I'd have to disagree with this...
Your average burgelar has a finite number of chances to pick a house and break into it before arousing suspicion. That is what makes an Alarm system good, they see the sign and the indicators your alarm (or owner) is armed and will move on to the neighbors.
But a Cyber attacker has Infiniate opertunities to penitrate a number of systems at once... If your the average script kiddie and you've got a autohacker program that is just gonna go down the list of known vulnerabilities, chances are @ 85% you'll hit one of them that it opens. Then you walk in. Considering you can setup a bot net to attack from multiple points of presence, you don't have to worry about being detected right away. AND, if your on a network with a stardardized version of software, you just eliminated 85% of work getting into the NEXT computer because you'll log how you got into the last... Next time you'll be that much faster at it.
We are talking the Speed of light here folks... By the time I get a notification of an attack and take measures to tighten a loose firewall, etc.., it may be too late. The smart attacker will leave something behind so that when it is activiated it calls home.
My policy @ work if someone gets a trojan from surfing, etc... Wipe and reimage. (Scorched Earth) It is the only SAFE way I see to curb repeat infections, AND even that may not work with some of the ram resident attacks that survive a reboot. (hopefully not!)
"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are..." former Vice President Al Gore (now, chairman and co-founder of Generation Investment Management-- a London-based business that sells carbon credits) (in interview with Grist Magazine May 9, 2006, concerning his book, An Inconvenient Truth)
Translation is that Basically, "They sky is falling"
Make up facts? Actually, I fear that some of the proposed solutions will contribute to mass starvation. Such as converting a food product to a fuel source. Such is the U.S's conversion of corn to ethanol. Not only is the end result more costly than straight gas, but the mileage is worst so it costs more to use the E85 for the same distance. The end result is the destruction of food for an in efficient process. Food prices will spike as farmers switch to Corn for E85 production to meet the demands mandated by the past and current administration.
Honestly, I'm all for recycling, makes sense... Finding a better battery tech for E-cars, makes sense.... Better way to generate electricity with refined nuclear designs, make sense... But converting Food > Fuel? where is the sense in that?
Wind farms? only works till the wind slows down...
Solar? Only works during the day... nasty chemicals and long break even periods...
Actually, I'd say Nuclear and Batteries are the two biggest things that people should be looking into right now. (But, that is only MY opinion, so feel free to take it as such...:)
None of the above is because I feel we contribute to Global Warming.... It is only the next step to making a more efficient process of generating what our society and future societies need the most of: free electrons.
(Note, not as in beer.)
And yes... Yes.. I know that nuclear has bad spent fuel, but there are ways to get rid of that... Or at least I recall various ways that were being explored to refuel other reactor types to recover 90% of "spent" fuel, etc.. So the tech is underway to make Nuclear the better and greener solution.
What is your source for "given that since the industrial revolution the CO2 load in the atmosphere has increased by 50%"
CO2 in atmosphere has been increasing for 18,000 years... "Long before the smokestack" "Climate Scientist" seem to ignore that fact...
Anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.117% of total greenhouse effect, and man-made sources of other gases ( methane, nitrous oxide (NOX), other misc. gases) contributes another 0.163% . So total human contribution to greenhouse gasses is @.28% (less than 1/4 of 1% of TOTAL greenhouse gasses measured in atmosphere.) http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
"Often people here act like they're the first ones to ever think of factors like sun activity but those have been calculated and found insufficient to explain the change we're seeing."
Actually, it isn't the CO2 that is the main Greenhouse gas, it is H2O, and the lack of sun activity explanation is wrong, there is a link, but scientist with an agenda refuse to acknowledge it... Take a surface COVERED with Millions+ tons of ice back 18,000 years with the ice age... Eventually melting that ice results in increased water vapor in our atmosphere. Over 18,000 years, it will accelerate... more water vapor, faster "global warming". If you go to the website I gave, you'll find fact, not fiction.
Slashdot Mirror
There is no irony... Amazon did NOT censor the book. Had the book been censored, then parts of the book would have been removed and nobody would of ever known. OR censorship could of happened if the book was completely removed from ALL of the Amazon book list, but 1984 is readily purchased on Amazon.com website.
Yes, a publisher changed its mind, and I'm sure in the fine print of some click through licensing, Amazon has preserved the right to remove books that fall into this catagory and refund the purchased price. But it is not censorship. More akin to a peanut butter recall.
Censorship is when a document about the enviorment is published in the EPA and the person who wrote it is threatend to keep it quiet, and the existance of the document is hidden. That IS censorship and it happened just a few months ago in our own government.
So I restate my claim that NO IRONY EXISTS as it was stated because the censorship does not exist in this case!
Not really Irony...
"A statement that, when taken in context, may actually mean the opposite of what is written literally; the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention, notably as a form of humor; The quality or state of an event being both coincidental and contradictory in a humorous or ..." - Wickonary.org
Let the fighting begin... (Any Alanis Morrissett fans? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_(song) )
"but that doesn't mean charging outrageous fees is necessary for banks to stay in business."
I'm intriged by this idea of "outrageous fees."
I bank where I bank and have moved a few times because of disagreements. (had one that ran an electronic transaction for about $200 out of my account and couldn't provide ANY proof it was mine even when the names and account #'s didn't match up with mine! But, I digress...) Never once was it because of "outrageous fees." What makes a fee outrageous? Isn't it an unnessicary modifyer? (Sorta like George Carlin's Airline "Pre Bording" skit) Isn't any fee going to be considered outrageous if it hits you? Would not the smarter part of the plan be to avoid ALL fees. If that were the case, the banks should go belly up. If enough people don't like a fee or think it high, then they should "vote" with their money and remove it and move to another bank with lower fees. (Again assuming that they intend to pay a fee to bank?)
Eh, maybe it is just me... The more solvent I can keep my account the better I feel. Same for Credit Cards. Pay the balance off, avoid the interest and late fees, etc.
I looked for an F'n article to read, but couldn't find one. It looks more like one person putting together an opinion to post on Slashdot, not '"News" for nerds' in any sense.
Best I could tell from this headline: "Unsung, Unpaid Coders Behind Federal IT Dashboard", is that someone is pissed they didn't get part of the bailouts or federal stimulus. Guess what, whats how socialism works, they should get used to it, we'll see much more. It only really works on paper, eventually you have no motivation to work/create if you end up being "Unsung, Unpaid" and it will eventually collapse.
If someone truly want to contribute to "society" with their code, license it on a per-case basis. Someone you like, license for a few dollars to feed your belly lunch. Someone you don't really like (Microsoft assumed usually in this case), then increase the license fee to where both parties are comfortable with the trade.
(The trade = use of your code for cash. All of society is based on labor trades. Trade for food, clothing, shelter or something that can be later traded for those things, such as gold, guns, political power, etc. Society eventually breaks down when those that produce no labored product expect to be compensated on the same scale as those that do produce a labored product.)
Engineers will never sink to such "low tech" solutions... My wife is a Mechanical Engineer and is ALWAYS over thinking problems. This is probably another case of the same. I agree that a cutting tool of sometype would be easy to do, and quickly done would minimize damage. The glass is already scored, the stress fractures are already present, if they have any hope of getting it out, the damage is already done. After removal, they will try and find a way to use a scanning xray microscope to take pictures to try and figure out the total damage to the glass. That will also slow them down. The urge to scrap the shuttle because of the knob stuckage is because they want a shiney new toy. Out with the old, lets build a new one. After all, they are part of the US governemtent's FIRST transportation industry and they get lots of $$$ to build/maintain a few models a year. Wait untill a new "Government Motor" car comes out and you have to take it in for a service call... hehehehehee... there is a reason the term "Good enough for Government work" exists!
oops... Should be "bottom-up", I should of previewd that... Point is, unless they are researching beer bio, then why are they not in a university or some funded research unless they don't know what they are doing, are crackpots, or just goofing around.
Really, if they are THAT good at research, then why not at a university?
They've decided that Flint Michigan must SHRINK 40% to survive.... So the answer is to bulldoze parts of flint and let it return to nature. 49 other cities to be targeted. Is yours next?
http://www.wral.com/golo/blogpost/5358258/
It builds on the green philosophy...
If enough people buy them and get squished by the rest of the people who are smart enough to understand density/weight/safty retios, then it will reduce the population by that amount that bought the little "smart" cars... Thus reducing green house gas emissions by reducing the volume of homosapien flatulence.
This is typical environmental Dogma. Lets break it down...
1) "Light pollution" -- So you've already been conditioned that pollution is bad, therefore, what you are about to read is bad.
2) "has caused one-fifth of the world's population" -- OMG! 1/5... Yes, that means that four-fifths has NO problem seeing the milky way. That is in POPULATION numbers. Lets do math :) 6,706,993,152 (July 2008 est.) and 4/5 = 5,365,594,521.6 (That .6 must be me.) Ok, that works out to 80% of the worlds population CAN see the milkyway. So, Whats the problem again?
3)"mostly in Europe, Britain and the US" -- Oh... I see, boo-hoo.. I don't know about who "US" are because I can see it just fine from my house, so it must really be You. THEN MOVE.
4)"'The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage,' said Connie Walker" REALLY? I thought our planet's natural heritage was to vilently erupt spewing lava over insignificant surface dwellers. Maybe to freeze and build up encroaching ice over the surface? I think that if you look at the geological timeline, we have admired the milkyway for but a briefest of moments to the planet. So, where is the heritage? Oh yes, in our feeble minds.
5) The rest just reitterates the negative because "a lie told enough times will become the truth."
I'm sick of this cult. When will they go away?
SORRY, let me fix it for you. "cock." See, you used large case, we know you meant small...
Why do you have to recreate an existing program? Look, How many times in basic class did we create the different sorts. The code was there, you typed it in, it ran... Eventually you were challenging to BUILD upon what you learned and maybe put some fancy inputs, output, etc.. was it the same program? No, and you still had the satisfaction of creating something yourself.
If your REALLY gonna challenge yourself to create new, then start with new API's, etc... Oh that's right, The whole point of WINE is to link into the API's that Microsoft developed... Ahhh... I see now, instead of inventing something you'll just steal their code set if you can figure out how to link into it and make it run something someone else already created. So your really creating... Nothing except a minor bridge between API and EXE.
What was your argument again? What were you CREATING?
Besides, If someone didn't ever want to one up CALC then we wouldn't have Excel. Or WordStar -> Word, DB -> Access. What do they all have in common? Excel, Word, Access are all common tests for WINE. When people forget we have OPENOFFICE with NATIVE LINUX APPS. Get out of the Stone Age, and start firing up your rocket!
(Ok, the last part sounds more dramatic than I wanted, but I think you'll get the point... ;)
WHAT?!!
Western civilization is like a tsunami, spreading across the world and leaving slavery, poison and death in it's wake. You don't elect Mr Nice Guy to run things until the tsunami is passed, which is why all the communist nations have brutal, iron-fisted leaders. They live under constant threat from us, and while that's true, it's wise and good to submit to a strong leader so they can survive.
We are the evil ones. The world should fight tooth and nail against us until we change or die, because it's the right thing to do.
Bite me and go back to whatever cave you came from... If 'We are the evil ones', how is it that we don't kill our citizens for expressing views counter to the government. How is it that we don't mutilate woman's genitals so that they won't be able to experience pleasure to keep them "in their place". How is it that we don't starve our populace while at the same time living high on the hog and exploring nuclear innalihation of other countries for genocidal reasons. Our country may not be perfect sir/madam and it has evolved, hence slavery was destroyed etc.. but your view of it is totally fucked up. If you don't like it, LEAVE.
Now, From the ever quoted WIKI:
Capitalism is an ECONOMIC system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned.[1][2] Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded for the purpose of generating profits, without force or fraud, by private INDIVIDUALS either singly or jointly,[3][4] and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy.[5] A distinguishing feature of capitalism is that each person owns his or her own labor and therefore is allowed to sell the use of it to employers.[3][6] In a "capitalist state", private rights and property relations are protected by the rule of law of a limited regulatory framework.[7][8] In the modern capitalist state, legislative action is confined to defining....
You f^%king Tard'!
"cappies" ?
It looks like the above thread was about goverments, not economics. Capitalism is the Economy of the Demacracy. If I were a black market runner in Communist China guess what, I'm engaging in Capitalism... I'm selling a product at a profit. I guess, you could make the argument that communism is the economy of Socialism... Where everone is equal, some just more than others... But the government dictactes how the efforts of one's work will be doled out to you and controll of the major industries and banks.
Oh... I'm sorry, I think I'm describing Presidents Obama's plan... My mistake... I'm SURE he isn't pushing Socialism!
$%*(% Blind idiots!
Here, I'll say it because I didn't see anyone else say it, so kinda like the emperor isn't wearing any clothes...
Is this REALLY an issue? For Real, if I want to run Windows apps, I launch a virtual box of the XP install.. Why bother with WINE. Besides, Wine IS NOT an Emulator, so why bother. I thought it would of been dead a while ago. If you can't find a license to run XP in a VBox, then DONT. Instead, Code the application you need for LINUX. I'm a nobody, but other people have got to be tired of hereing this "The Dark side is makeing me buy a license to run xxxx..." Then CODE "xxxx" for your own use! Or Pay someone! If it is REALLY good, turn it back into the community under the GPL and let everyone benifit.
Wine sucks, Vboxes are only slightly better, native code rules.
Nope, I don't code or contribute, but my code would be belonging to someone else, anyways. So only take these comments with whatever salt you may have.
You can read minds?
Who needs CCTV cameras...
But I keep it turned off or else I'd end up a quivering fool because of what I might hear... OR I could use it to get women by getting inside of their heads...
oops.. Forgot I was on Slashdot. Guess I don't have telepathy after all.
"The book touches upon, but does not really answer, nor go into enough details on why people allow such pervasive use of electronic surveillance technologies to seamlessly enter society. Be it CCTV cameras that film public parks or attempt to catch speeding drivers; many are deployed with little to no protestations.
Ahh.. Mabey because we don't get a choice in the matter during the initial planning and establishment stages... And when it is finally FORCED onto a ballot by petition, it is usually overwhelmingly AGAINST having them. Case in point was Stubinville, OH (USA):
"That's right, local officials were forced to put the issue up to a vote of the general population and the people said they didn't want them. By a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent, residents of Steubenville, Ohio, voted down the "automated traffic sensor program."" ( http://www.examiner.com/a-399687~Steve_Eldridge__Ohio_voters_reject_red_light_cameras.html )
They bring the cameras in saying it is safety, when really it is revenue generation. They seem to actually CAUSE safty issues as I've seen a red-light camera that resulted in a rear-end collision when someone suddenly stopped on YELLOW because they were afraid of the camera. What they REALLY need to do is legthen the RED light before the next goes green... That way all vehicles have exited the intersection if they actually were "in the yellow". Instead, we get shortened lights to catch cars and increase fines... (I'm missing my reference here, but google it, you'll find it... I know it was a big deal out there once..)
How many folks get cameras and have no say??? Anyone, Anyone? Bueller?
"Computer security is the same way. You *can* cracl WPA(1/2) encryption, but if you neighbour has his connection open (or is using WEP), you are not likely to become a target"
I'd have to disagree with this...
Your average burgelar has a finite number of chances to pick a house and break into it before arousing suspicion. That is what makes an Alarm system good, they see the sign and the indicators your alarm (or owner) is armed and will move on to the neighbors.
But a Cyber attacker has Infiniate opertunities to penitrate a number of systems at once... If your the average script kiddie and you've got a autohacker program that is just gonna go down the list of known vulnerabilities, chances are @ 85% you'll hit one of them that it opens. Then you walk in. Considering you can setup a bot net to attack from multiple points of presence, you don't have to worry about being detected right away. AND, if your on a network with a stardardized version of software, you just eliminated 85% of work getting into the NEXT computer because you'll log how you got into the last... Next time you'll be that much faster at it.
We are talking the Speed of light here folks... By the time I get a notification of an attack and take measures to tighten a loose firewall, etc.., it may be too late. The smart attacker will leave something behind so that when it is activiated it calls home.
My policy @ work if someone gets a trojan from surfing, etc... Wipe and reimage. (Scorched Earth) It is the only SAFE way I see to curb repeat infections, AND even that may not work with some of the ram resident attacks that survive a reboot. (hopefully not!)
New Drinking Game!
Anytime you hear a major news media talk about swine flu, Take a drink an speak pig latin until the broadcast changes subject.
Yep, I'm a Karma whore....
Wouldn't it be more interesting to read about if they printed all the new news about swine flue in pig latin?
Happy thoughts... happy place... :)
"Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are..."
former Vice President Al Gore
(now, chairman and co-founder of Generation Investment Management--
a London-based business that sells carbon credits)
(in interview with Grist Magazine May 9, 2006, concerning his book, An Inconvenient Truth)
Translation is that Basically, "They sky is falling"
Make up facts? Actually, I fear that some of the proposed solutions will contribute to mass starvation. Such as converting a food product to a fuel source. Such is the U.S's conversion of corn to ethanol. Not only is the end result more costly than straight gas, but the mileage is worst so it costs more to use the E85 for the same distance. The end result is the destruction of food for an in efficient process. Food prices will spike as farmers switch to Corn for E85 production to meet the demands mandated by the past and current administration.
Honestly, I'm all for recycling, makes sense... Finding a better battery tech for E-cars, makes sense.... Better way to generate electricity with refined nuclear designs, make sense... But converting Food > Fuel? where is the sense in that?
Wind farms? only works till the wind slows down...
Solar? Only works during the day... nasty chemicals and long break even periods...
Actually, I'd say Nuclear and Batteries are the two biggest things that people should be looking into right now. :)
(But, that is only MY opinion, so feel free to take it as such...
None of the above is because I feel we contribute to Global Warming.... It is only the next step to making a more efficient process of generating what our society and future societies need the most of: free electrons.
(Note, not as in beer.)
And yes... Yes.. I know that nuclear has bad spent fuel, but there are ways to get rid of that... Or at least I recall various ways that were being explored to refuel other reactor types to recover 90% of "spent" fuel, etc.. So the tech is underway to make Nuclear the better and greener solution.
Your Source?
What is your source for "given that since the industrial revolution the CO2 load in the atmosphere has increased by 50%"
CO2 in atmosphere has been increasing for 18,000 years... "Long before the smokestack" "Climate Scientist" seem to ignore that fact...
Anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.117% of total greenhouse effect, and man-made sources of other gases ( methane, nitrous oxide (NOX), other misc. gases) contributes another 0.163% . So total human contribution to greenhouse gasses is @ .28% (less than 1/4 of 1% of TOTAL greenhouse gasses measured in atmosphere.) http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
By ruining my economy and saddling the backs of my children with huge bills to pay for something we cannot effect.
How is that a better place to live?
NO.
"Often people here act like they're the first ones to ever think of factors like sun activity but those have been calculated and found insufficient to explain the change we're seeing."
Actually, it isn't the CO2 that is the main Greenhouse gas, it is H2O, and the lack of sun activity explanation is wrong, there is a link, but scientist with an agenda refuse to acknowledge it... Take a surface COVERED with Millions+ tons of ice back 18,000 years with the ice age... Eventually melting that ice results in increased water vapor in our atmosphere. Over 18,000 years, it will accelerate... more water vapor, faster "global warming". If you go to the website I gave, you'll find fact, not fiction.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
The earth is over 700 Million Years old.. we are but a flash in the geological pan...