Liability. Yep, dealt with that in government before as a contractor for an Ontario ministry. At least I got to do some work, even if it probably wasn't done in the most effective way.
1) Let's hire a consultant to study this for six months and create a report that tells us what I already know I want to do. 2) Let's hire contractors to do any actual work instead of using staff.
Oh, and don't forget 1a... don't actually consult with the internal systems people or the users, since they might point out that the decision you hired a consultant to come to was the wrong choice.
You'd think a executive would be just as afraid of being blamed for hiring an incompetent consultant or contractor, but apparently any issues can be written off when the resources are external and temporary.
When I registered a domain for my small company, I used out-of-date address information and haven't updated it in a decade. The only accurate information is the (Hotmail) email address so I can change the DNS server addresses if necessary.
If anything ever comes of it, I can just say, "Oh, yeah, forgot to update that..."
There's no need for my contact information to be made mandatory by law. All countries have stupid laws on the books... this is one for the U.S.A.
To run a live CD of Linux... wouldn't the BIOS have to be set to boot from CD-ROM? The locked BIOS?
So, now you're cracking the case open, and disconnecting the (possibly soldered) battery and hoping the BIOS resets to factory defaults that haven't been set to include the lockouts.
Or, pull out the hard drive, plug it into another machine and do what you will - which might not do a lot of good if they've got the processor set to run signed code only.
I'd try pulling the hard drive and cloning it then playing with the copy until I found out the limits of what I could do.
It's not the lawyers - they are only enablers. It's people who HIRE lawyers, and the citizens who fail to demand a stop to the insanity be enacted by their legislators who cause the problem.
You're stating that if we tried right now, we'd fail because it's outright beyond our capabilities, that it would take decades and billions to gain the capability.
Yet, we've already dropped quite a few craft on Mars (some of which were mobile), we've tested the in situ propellant generation on Earth, and we know how to make a terrarium.
It is therefore painfully clear that we CAN drop things on Mars (within certain mass / density limits). We've built rovers, terrariums, and propellant generators.
In short, you're completely wrong as evidenced by what has already been accomplished.
I beg to differ. We know we don't have the equipment hanging around ready to go. We don't know we can't do it until we try, because it's not obviously impossible, merely very difficult.
I don't see why we don't shoot a couple of modules to Mars right now...
1 that makes propellant from Martian atmosphere 1 habitat module with some plants inside, some cameras, and an airlock.
If we get good at landing the modules closely enough together, we could send a robot tractor to try and drag the first two together, and if that works send a power plant that could use the fuel from the first one.
Not one person needs to be sent, and we could check if we're capable of putting down the basics of a Martian base for future use. We'd learn if we can really generate the fuel we think we could, if we can keep a habitat module in good shape for a few years at a time, etc. The power plant could just burn off the fuel just to show it works... or we could send some more power-hungry rovers and have them return to the power plant for refueling once in a while.
After learning what we can, you repeat with the next generation of modules, and eventually you have a ready-made camp waiting for the first human arrivals...
Facial recognition could allow me to recognize pretty much anyone I've ever met... sparing me the problem of how to discretely ask my wife who the hell I'm talking to at the latest function her company is having.
How she remembers them all, I don't know. I certainly can't remember everyone in my company's offices.
Forget a contact on my eye - replace the whole eyeball. Give me low light, infrared, light reduction, bloom compensation, microscope and telescope functions, facial recognition, recording, playback, computer display link, etc.
Pretty much everyone needs glasses by 40 anyway, why not just get new eyes when you're 18?
I know we're a long way off from being able to plug a camera directly into the optic nerve, but when that day comes I'm up for it.
DNS is recursive, right? Starting with the TLD servers, then downwards. Someone upstream of Bell is returning a 'domain not found' and Bell is intercepting that and modifying it.
I understand that you're using Bell's local DNS servers to start the search, but the effect is the same as them intercepting and modifying your communications.
ISPs doing this kind of crap should get sued under whatever law most closely applies.
Given that you'd need electronics on board and three thrusters, I doubt you could get a reentry-survivable slug of any appreciable mass up there under this program.
Still, its neat to think about wiping my enemies out with artificial meteorites.
I'd argue that point... you're ignorant or a fool if you run XP unsecured on a daily basis.
It is possible to configure the OS to be fairly secure. Unfortunately it takes a hell of a lot of effort to make it as secure as it should be out of the box.
"Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism, Type II (ODPDII) Those who have ODPDII often have further medical issues than the other types such as a squeaky voice, microdontia, widely spaced primary teeth, poor sleep patterns (in early years), delayed mental development, frequent sickness, breathing problems, eating problems, hyperactivity, farsightedness, and do not respond to hormone therapy because primordial dwarfism is not caused by a lack of any growth hormone. After reviewing x-rays it is also found that many have dislocated joints, scoliosis, and delayed bone age as well as microcephaly. They will not reach the size of an average newborn until they are between the ages of 3-5. "
Hmm... doesn't sound AT ALL like this girl, does it? I mean, the slow growth, microcephaly, breathing problems, eating problems, doesn't respond to hormone therapy. What the quoted Wikipedia item doesn't mention is another match - bones that appear much younger than they are.
In short, IT MATCHES. Thanks to the ignoramouses who flamed me and those who modded me down without, you know, doing some checking first.
The 'child' is a primordial dwarf. Her symptoms fit to the last detail.
This story has done time on Digg and Fark already, probably several other sites as well, and it seems everywhere large numbers of non-doctors can use Google to compare her symptoms to a RARE but known medical condition. The poor kid's doctors either don't know how to research or are otherwise incompetent.
At some point, as with Prohibition in the States, the law may cave to reality at some point and we'll give up on the concept of owning strings of 1s and 0s.
Some other mechanism for paying creators will have to emerge - I think it'll end up being patrons for most things and live performances for others (like band tours and book readings), with a smattering of physical merchandise related to the original content.
Some things may end up being free, done as labours of love. It's not like those of us in the First World don't have enough resources and time to burn on things we enjoy without necessarily requiring pay.
See, that's funny... because about once a year I try and install whatever most people are calling the most newb-friendly Linux install. And every year, some significant piece of hardware isn't supported by the install CD.
Oh, and the fix invariably ends up requiring me to muck about at the command line and understand how a dozen different commands work. The OS installers ARE getting better, but if even 5% of people have the issues I'm having, you can bet another 20% are having more trouble. I say that because I'm computer tech fairly familiar with the Windows environment. I can't imaging what happens when someone like my father tries out a Linux distro.
Oh, yeah. My brother spent hundreds of hours learning the environment and tricks and installed Ubuntu for him. And provides ongoing support. Oh, and in the end, a second Windows environment for the things that don't work.
I'm actually a big believer in Linux over Windows. I just don't believe it's there yet, or likely to get there in the near future.
I'm nominally a coder. I know the application I'm extending VERY well, but I have only the vaguest idea what the users require. This leads to me working on areas where the application is inefficient, but often working on an item that should be at the bottom of the priority list.
The solution is good communication with the users (I try) and explaining to management what I think needs to be done and why.
I can't imagine that people who are experts in business needs, work flow, and applications all at the same time are common, especially as you get into larger projects. There is a reason these jobs are seperate.
My kid is just a couple of months past the 3 year mark, and just this week he's started reacting emotionally to what's happening to characters in his favourite movies.
I therefore assume he can now imagine what other people are feeling.
Oh, and I've been telling my wife the kid can't imagine future consequences for quite some time. It's just obvious. What isn't obvious is how to teach him not to play with power outlets, hot stoves, or traffic (sprinting away from the parents in a parking lot). I've tried consistency - getting him to associate parking lots with holding my hand, but results are so-so if he sees something shiny.
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Liability. Yep, dealt with that in government before as a contractor for an Ontario ministry. At least I got to do some work, even if it probably wasn't done in the most effective way.
1) Let's hire a consultant to study this for six months and create a report that tells us what I already know I want to do.
2) Let's hire contractors to do any actual work instead of using staff.
Oh, and don't forget 1a... don't actually consult with the internal systems people or the users, since they might point out that the decision you hired a consultant to come to was the wrong choice.
You'd think a executive would be just as afraid of being blamed for hiring an incompetent consultant or contractor, but apparently any issues can be written off when the resources are external and temporary.
God, I hate government employment.
When I registered a domain for my small company, I used out-of-date address information and haven't updated it in a decade. The only accurate information is the (Hotmail) email address so I can change the DNS server addresses if necessary.
If anything ever comes of it, I can just say, "Oh, yeah, forgot to update that..."
There's no need for my contact information to be made mandatory by law. All countries have stupid laws on the books... this is one for the U.S.A.
To run a live CD of Linux... wouldn't the BIOS have to be set to boot from CD-ROM? The locked BIOS?
So, now you're cracking the case open, and disconnecting the (possibly soldered) battery and hoping the BIOS resets to factory defaults that haven't been set to include the lockouts.
Or, pull out the hard drive, plug it into another machine and do what you will - which might not do a lot of good if they've got the processor set to run signed code only.
I'd try pulling the hard drive and cloning it then playing with the copy until I found out the limits of what I could do.
It's not the lawyers - they are only enablers. It's people who HIRE lawyers, and the citizens who fail to demand a stop to the insanity be enacted by their legislators who cause the problem.
Functioning brains, get some.
You're stating that if we tried right now, we'd fail because it's outright beyond our capabilities, that it would take decades and billions to gain the capability.
Yet, we've already dropped quite a few craft on Mars (some of which were mobile), we've tested the in situ propellant generation on Earth, and we know how to make a terrarium.
It is therefore painfully clear that we CAN drop things on Mars (within certain mass / density limits). We've built rovers, terrariums, and propellant generators.
In short, you're completely wrong as evidenced by what has already been accomplished.
I beg to differ. We know we don't have the equipment hanging around ready to go. We don't know we can't do it until we try, because it's not obviously impossible, merely very difficult.
I don't see why we don't shoot a couple of modules to Mars right now...
1 that makes propellant from Martian atmosphere
1 habitat module with some plants inside, some cameras, and an airlock.
If we get good at landing the modules closely enough together, we could send a robot tractor to try and drag the first two together, and if that works send a power plant that could use the fuel from the first one.
Not one person needs to be sent, and we could check if we're capable of putting down the basics of a Martian base for future use. We'd learn if we can really generate the fuel we think we could, if we can keep a habitat module in good shape for a few years at a time, etc. The power plant could just burn off the fuel just to show it works... or we could send some more power-hungry rovers and have them return to the power plant for refueling once in a while.
After learning what we can, you repeat with the next generation of modules, and eventually you have a ready-made camp waiting for the first human arrivals...
Facial recognition could allow me to recognize pretty much anyone I've ever met... sparing me the problem of how to discretely ask my wife who the hell I'm talking to at the latest function her company is having.
How she remembers them all, I don't know. I certainly can't remember everyone in my company's offices.
Forget a contact on my eye - replace the whole eyeball. Give me low light, infrared, light reduction, bloom compensation, microscope and telescope functions, facial recognition, recording, playback, computer display link, etc.
Pretty much everyone needs glasses by 40 anyway, why not just get new eyes when you're 18?
I know we're a long way off from being able to plug a camera directly into the optic nerve, but when that day comes I'm up for it.
I'd love to see the robots given hunger, thirst, and a sex drive. Make 1/2 the robots girls with red LEDs and 1/2 the robots boys with blue LEDs.
Make the food and water 'power', and give them the ability to 'harm' each other by draining power.
The girls would have a higher resource requirement to reproduce.
It'd be interesting to see over many generations what relationship patterns form between the same and opposite sex.
DNS is recursive, right? Starting with the TLD servers, then downwards. Someone upstream of Bell is returning a 'domain not found' and Bell is intercepting that and modifying it.
I understand that you're using Bell's local DNS servers to start the search, but the effect is the same as them intercepting and modifying your communications.
ISPs doing this kind of crap should get sued under whatever law most closely applies.
Given that you'd need electronics on board and three thrusters, I doubt you could get a reentry-survivable slug of any appreciable mass up there under this program.
Still, its neat to think about wiping my enemies out with artificial meteorites.
You'll pay the small fee AND they'll put advertising all over it and datamine the hell out of you.
It's not an either/or situation.
You're talking religion, not science.
The brain is an electro-chemical machine 'designed' by random chance controlled by natural selection.
The algorithms are in there, and there is no reason to believe they can't be copied by man or even that we might figure them out ourselves.
If the algorithms were theoretically impossible then your brain wouldn't exist.
I can point to a common example of a machine that produces intelligence... the human brain.
So, given that nature did it once I'm confident it's not theoretically impossible.
I'd argue that point... you're ignorant or a fool if you run XP unsecured on a daily basis.
It is possible to configure the OS to be fairly secure. Unfortunately it takes a hell of a lot of effort to make it as secure as it should be out of the box.
"Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism, Type II (ODPDII)
Those who have ODPDII often have further medical issues than the other types such as a squeaky voice, microdontia, widely spaced primary teeth, poor sleep patterns (in early years), delayed mental development, frequent sickness, breathing problems, eating problems, hyperactivity, farsightedness, and do not respond to hormone therapy because primordial dwarfism is not caused by a lack of any growth hormone. After reviewing x-rays it is also found that many have dislocated joints, scoliosis, and delayed bone age as well as microcephaly. They will not reach the size of an average newborn until they are between the ages of 3-5. "
Hmm... doesn't sound AT ALL like this girl, does it? I mean, the slow growth, microcephaly, breathing problems, eating problems, doesn't respond to hormone therapy. What the quoted Wikipedia item doesn't mention is another match - bones that appear much younger than they are.
In short, IT MATCHES. Thanks to the ignoramouses who flamed me and those who modded me down without, you know, doing some checking first.
The 'child' is a primordial dwarf. Her symptoms fit to the last detail.
This story has done time on Digg and Fark already, probably several other sites as well, and it seems everywhere large numbers of non-doctors can use Google to compare her symptoms to a RARE but known medical condition. The poor kid's doctors either don't know how to research or are otherwise incompetent.
I'm not so certain...
At some point, as with Prohibition in the States, the law may cave to reality at some point and we'll give up on the concept of owning strings of 1s and 0s.
Some other mechanism for paying creators will have to emerge - I think it'll end up being patrons for most things and live performances for others (like band tours and book readings), with a smattering of physical merchandise related to the original content.
Some things may end up being free, done as labours of love. It's not like those of us in the First World don't have enough resources and time to burn on things we enjoy without necessarily requiring pay.
Why not set up a fake vanity web page with hundreds of tiny sub-pages or photos, then check the log files.
Nothing so suspicious as 0.htm x 5, 1.htm x 2... just what appears to be normal surfing of a web site.
See, that's funny... because about once a year I try and install whatever most people are calling the most newb-friendly Linux install. And every year, some significant piece of hardware isn't supported by the install CD.
Oh, and the fix invariably ends up requiring me to muck about at the command line and understand how a dozen different commands work. The OS installers ARE getting better, but if even 5% of people have the issues I'm having, you can bet another 20% are having more trouble. I say that because I'm computer tech fairly familiar with the Windows environment. I can't imaging what happens when someone like my father tries out a Linux distro.
Oh, yeah. My brother spent hundreds of hours learning the environment and tricks and installed Ubuntu for him. And provides ongoing support. Oh, and in the end, a second Windows environment for the things that don't work.
I'm actually a big believer in Linux over Windows. I just don't believe it's there yet, or likely to get there in the near future.
Seriously? That link leads to something that appears to be Solar astrology... the alignment of the planets controls the sun?
I'm nominally a coder. I know the application I'm extending VERY well, but I have only the vaguest idea what the users require. This leads to me working on areas where the application is inefficient, but often working on an item that should be at the bottom of the priority list.
The solution is good communication with the users (I try) and explaining to management what I think needs to be done and why.
I can't imagine that people who are experts in business needs, work flow, and applications all at the same time are common, especially as you get into larger projects. There is a reason these jobs are seperate.
UPS = battery outputting AC to a power supply reconverting to DC.
Google is using 12V DC to start. Much safer.
My kid is just a couple of months past the 3 year mark, and just this week he's started reacting emotionally to what's happening to characters in his favourite movies.
I therefore assume he can now imagine what other people are feeling.
Oh, and I've been telling my wife the kid can't imagine future consequences for quite some time. It's just obvious. What isn't obvious is how to teach him not to play with power outlets, hot stoves, or traffic (sprinting away from the parents in a parking lot). I've tried consistency - getting him to associate parking lots with holding my hand, but results are so-so if he sees something shiny.