Telecoms: It interferes... (with our business model). And coincidentally we think we've found some scientist we can pay to say that it interferes with the handsets too. FCC: OK, well, we're just going to check that result, you might want to give some more money to your favourite congressmen/senators.
However, if the gait biometric isn't proven good, then it could prove very troublesome. Especially when given the historical failures in government software, combined with the new heavy handedness and culture of suspicion being enough.
There are lots of reports of them getting this stuff totally wrong though. Also the people gathering the data have apparently been pretty much banned in France/Germany, hence trying their luck in the UK.
I don't think this'll last long, but on the other hand it could ruin some lives in the mean time.
Well, let me put that a little more realistically. The defendant didn't even bother to turn up so they got a default judgement in a few cases. And they crowed about a record £16000 award for their dumb pinball game a little while ago. Thing is, the lady they won that judgement against had not only not showed up in court, and not replied to any of their letters, but had actually moved house between the alleged infringement and the date the letters were sent. She was never even informed there was action against her. So the ruling isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Their damage calculations are laughable too. We don't really have punitive damaged in the UK. You might be able to get them laughed out of court by saying "yes, I downloaded over a torrent network. They sell for £5, I downloaded one copy and (as a good torrent citizen) uploaded 110%, meaning their damages are exactly £10.50."
I don't know exactly what would happen then, but usually that sort of thing should be in the small claims court, not the grown-up court, and legal expenses wouldn't be covered in the judgement there.
False dichotomy, thanks for playing, see you next week folks!
I support copyright reforms. I support harsher laws against spamming. I also support firm evidence being used to obtain a court order, and these pigfuckers don't have any.
"The data doesn't have to be perfect. Any additional information is helpful to the overall picture"
No, really no. That's where false positives come in, the wrong people get followed/shot/exploded and the state becomes as evil as what it's trying to protect from.
My own was using lamberts cosine law to gather angular information on leg position by the light patterns reflected off the thigh of someone walking directly towards the camera.
The problem with gait recognition is, AFIAK, it's not really been proven to be a decent biometric - i.e. I'm not sure it's really all that unique, not without measuring things at a very high resolution, which probably isn't going to be possible either from space or with the current install-base of cctv cams.
Whilst I agree that non-official flash is a bad thing, non-official pdf software is (IMHO) far superior to the adobe offerings.
Foxit (which won't be on MIPS) is a great, lightweight reader. And whatever came with my linux distros (debian, ubuntu and redhat) works just as well.
I don't think Joe average is that bothered about pdf either, personally, not bothered enough that it has to be adobe.
MIPS is cool. My router runs on MIPS, as does my PSP. I have three linux on ARM devices, a linux on PPC and a couple of x86 machines. The x86 monopoly could be broken without too much hassle (imho). At the low end of the market anyway, nothing else has the price/performance right now 'cos of the billions poured in by AMD and Intel.
Re:Well, you are wrong in so many ways.
on
Should IT Unionize?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
No, that's exactly the situation that unions balance out.
"I suspect that the "techie" solution to this is to pass around a hat and hire a lawyer when it comes time to renegotiate a contract"
Why should I contribute to your hat when it's not my contract up? or when you get fired for farting in the wrong direction?
That's what unions are good for.
I've noticed that this discussion is dominated by folks with the *very* american dislike for the word union. Are they perfect? No, but some sort of collective organisation for employees is a very very effective way of restoring some of the balance of power.
"Are the graphics on the Wii "realistic" hell no, they are basically cartoons but the games play well and I don't care about the graphics."
Which games are these?
I have yet to find anything on the Wii I enjoy, other than the initial "Sports" game. The fact the graphics are primitive is a minor incovenience compared to how bad the game library seems to be.
Look at the figures in the rest of the world. PS3 is outselling the Xbox now, and catching up on install base.
It's only really the US that's in love with the 360. Probably because in much of the rest of the world saying the name "Microsoft" leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth.
yes, MGS4 doubled PS3 sales for a short while. But even when they fell back they're higher than the 360 sales.
"Check the sales figures. MGS4 was able to nearly double PS3 sales for a couple of weeks. Then they fell right back to their normal pathetic levels."
Which are higher than the Xbox360 level.
Sorry, but it's the truth.
Now sure, the 360 has a larger install base, but that's being eroded. And have you even tried playing PS3 games online? They work seamlessly, just like they do on the 360. This is not an area you can jump on any more. Plus it's free:)
"The PS3 is losing to the PSP of all things"
So is everything else non-nintendo. The PSP is doing pretty well at the moment.
"the PS3 is doomed."
None of the platforms is doomed, they've all sold a fuckload of units and will continue to attract investment and development. Take your idiocy somewhere else.
(disclaimer - I have all the current-gen consoles and don't feel loyalty to any particular one. Wii SUX)
"On the other hand there is plenty of evidence that Global Warming does not exist"
No there isn't. All the evidence points towards global warming. It's not 100% reliable at present, but there's really no evidence that GW doesn't exist or is some sort of fallacy.
"and it is being pushed by Liberals with an agenda."
That is an unfortunate truth, that it's been jumped on by lovers of hyperbole, by luddites and socialists and all sorts of others with an agenda or something to sell.
I've had three jobs now, in software engineering, and each one has come with BUPA or similar cover, to get private health care should anything beyond a GP visit/prescription medication be required.
I haven't had to use it, but I'm sure it's pretty common these days. I know my Dad (insurance industry) always had it too.
I'm sorry, but however evil a portion of the muslim society might be, they are no threat to the UK and its way of life, not compared to our own government.
In the UK most people earning a professional wage have some sort of top-up healthcare. This is often provided by their employer or it can be bought by individuals. Usually it covers spouses and children. This provides guarantees of care within a very short time period and can provide things the NHS won't, like private rooms and more time with consultants. Companies like it because it means people get back to work faster and people like it because it gives them stuff like private rooms.
I would suspect most MPs have this for themselves and their families, much like many (most?) of the supposedly left-wing Labour Party send their kids to private schools.
Well, in British parlance they send them to public schools (private institutions), not state schools (publicly funded).
Private medicine is not illegal in the UK, it's a well established system.
Slashdot Mirror
The republicans can't possibly win this one anyway. /carries on with his wishful thinking and faith in humanity...
It's always cute when people have such faith in their government/military/intelligence institutions.
In the real world, they do take a bit more care than most, but somebody will screw up sooner or later.
By which I mean, where's the DRM?
And I'm guessing this won't work on Linux?
My Summary...
Telecoms: It interferes... (with our business model). And coincidentally we think we've found some scientist we can pay to say that it interferes with the handsets too.
FCC: OK, well, we're just going to check that result, you might want to give some more money to your favourite congressmen/senators.
Business as usual.
I agree with in theory.
However, if the gait biometric isn't proven good, then it could prove very troublesome. Especially when given the historical failures in government software, combined with the new heavy handedness and culture of suspicion being enough.
Meh.
If you look at the article over at the register and the court order they link to you'll see that the information handover took place at the end of June (or July for BT).
There are lots of reports of them getting this stuff totally wrong though. Also the people gathering the data have apparently been pretty much banned in France/Germany, hence trying their luck in the UK.
I don't think this'll last long, but on the other hand it could ruin some lives in the mean time.
They've won a few cases.
Well, let me put that a little more realistically. The defendant didn't even bother to turn up so they got a default judgement in a few cases.
And they crowed about a record £16000 award for their dumb pinball game a little while ago. Thing is, the lady they won that judgement against had not only not showed up in court, and not replied to any of their letters, but had actually moved house between the alleged infringement and the date the letters were sent. She was never even informed there was action against her. So the ruling isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Their damage calculations are laughable too. We don't really have punitive damaged in the UK. You might be able to get them laughed out of court by saying "yes, I downloaded over a torrent network. They sell for £5, I downloaded one copy and (as a good torrent citizen) uploaded 110%, meaning their damages are exactly £10.50."
I don't know exactly what would happen then, but usually that sort of thing should be in the small claims court, not the grown-up court, and legal expenses wouldn't be covered in the judgement there.
At that amount it's a waste of the court's time.
"Either you support true privacy or you don't."
False dichotomy, thanks for playing, see you next week folks!
I support copyright reforms. I support harsher laws against spamming. I also support firm evidence being used to obtain a court order, and these pigfuckers don't have any.
"The data doesn't have to be perfect. Any additional information is helpful to the overall picture"
No, really no. That's where false positives come in, the wrong people get followed/shot/exploded and the state becomes as evil as what it's trying to protect from.
Aromatic crispy peking terrorist?
My own was using lamberts cosine law to gather angular information on leg position by the light patterns reflected off the thigh of someone walking directly towards the camera.
The problem with gait recognition is, AFIAK, it's not really been proven to be a decent biometric - i.e. I'm not sure it's really all that unique, not without measuring things at a very high resolution, which probably isn't going to be possible either from space or with the current install-base of cctv cams.
Anyway, scary stuff if it does work.
But why do they have to make them so damn ugly?
Whilst I agree that non-official flash is a bad thing, non-official pdf software is (IMHO) far superior to the adobe offerings.
Foxit (which won't be on MIPS) is a great, lightweight reader. And whatever came with my linux distros (debian, ubuntu and redhat) works just as well.
I don't think Joe average is that bothered about pdf either, personally, not bothered enough that it has to be adobe.
MIPS is cool. My router runs on MIPS, as does my PSP. I have three linux on ARM devices, a linux on PPC and a couple of x86 machines. The x86 monopoly could be broken without too much hassle (imho). At the low end of the market anyway, nothing else has the price/performance right now 'cos of the billions poured in by AMD and Intel.
No, that's exactly the situation that unions balance out.
"I suspect that the "techie" solution to this is to pass around a hat and hire a lawyer when it comes time to renegotiate a contract"
Why should I contribute to your hat when it's not my contract up? or when you get fired for farting in the wrong direction?
That's what unions are good for.
I've noticed that this discussion is dominated by folks with the *very* american dislike for the word union. Are they perfect? No, but some sort of collective organisation for employees is a very very effective way of restoring some of the balance of power.
Nah, no real complaint, it's just unusual to see all caps links in a legitimate comment these days.
but hey, google have money...
"Are the graphics on the Wii "realistic" hell no, they are basically cartoons but the games play well and I don't care about the graphics."
Which games are these?
I have yet to find anything on the Wii I enjoy, other than the initial "Sports" game. The fact the graphics are primitive is a minor incovenience compared to how bad the game library seems to be.
Look at the figures in the rest of the world. PS3 is outselling the Xbox now, and catching up on install base.
It's only really the US that's in love with the 360. Probably because in much of the rest of the world saying the name "Microsoft" leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth.
yes, MGS4 doubled PS3 sales for a short while. But even when they fell back they're higher than the 360 sales.
"Check the sales figures. MGS4 was able to nearly double PS3 sales for a couple of weeks. Then they fell right back to their normal pathetic levels."
Which are higher than the Xbox360 level.
Sorry, but it's the truth.
Now sure, the 360 has a larger install base, but that's being eroded. And have you even tried playing PS3 games online? They work seamlessly, just like they do on the 360. This is not an area you can jump on any more. Plus it's free :)
"The PS3 is losing to the PSP of all things"
So is everything else non-nintendo. The PSP is doing pretty well at the moment.
"the PS3 is doomed."
None of the platforms is doomed, they've all sold a fuckload of units and will continue to attract investment and development. Take your idiocy somewhere else.
(disclaimer - I have all the current-gen consoles and don't feel loyalty to any particular one. Wii SUX)
These days links in all caps just scream of spam.
I was supposed to be heading to Thailand for the first week of october.
Looks pretty unlikely now though.
Guess I'll have to be stisfied with *just* singapore and australia.
"On the other hand there is plenty of evidence that Global Warming does not exist"
No there isn't. All the evidence points towards global warming. It's not 100% reliable at present, but there's really no evidence that GW doesn't exist or is some sort of fallacy.
"and it is being pushed by Liberals with an agenda."
That is an unfortunate truth, that it's been jumped on by lovers of hyperbole, by luddites and socialists and all sorts of others with an agenda or something to sell.
These two things are seperate.
Really?
I've had three jobs now, in software engineering, and each one has come with BUPA or similar cover, to get private health care should anything beyond a GP visit/prescription medication be required.
I haven't had to use it, but I'm sure it's pretty common these days. I know my Dad (insurance industry) always had it too.
I'm sorry, but however evil a portion of the muslim society might be, they are no threat to the UK and its way of life, not compared to our own government.
In the UK most people earning a professional wage have some sort of top-up healthcare. This is often provided by their employer or it can be bought by individuals. Usually it covers spouses and children. This provides guarantees of care within a very short time period and can provide things the NHS won't, like private rooms and more time with consultants. Companies like it because it means people get back to work faster and people like it because it gives them stuff like private rooms.
I would suspect most MPs have this for themselves and their families, much like many (most?) of the supposedly left-wing Labour Party send their kids to private schools.
Well, in British parlance they send them to public schools (private institutions), not state schools (publicly funded).
Private medicine is not illegal in the UK, it's a well established system.