Re:Obligatory "they started with..." quote
on
RFID Hell
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
This is not a good argument against taking the first step... it is a good argument for watching very closely to make sure the last four steps are never taken.
After all, we've already decided to lock up murderers... and by this logic I'll be eventually be locked up as well.
"We don't have the technology to solve it easily right now, and the likelihood of the problem occuring in the near future is low, so let's ignore it and hope that when we notice the odds are suddenly 100% we have the technology."
It's not just the probability of impact you need to concern yourself with... it's the severity of the impact. Odds of 1:1x10^6 are pretty low, but if rolling a 1 on that million-sided die means global extinction, I'd rather be prepared ASAP instead of on day 999,999*.
*On that day the odds would still be 1:1x10^6, as odds have no memory, but that would make my argument much less pretty, wouldn't it?
It is even easier than I thought to bypass this 'patch'... instead of VeriSign returning an A record, they could return an NS record pointing to an NS they own and that returns whatever they want.
Man, reading Matthew 5.38-42 makes me really glad I don't live my life according to the bible.
If I get smote on the right cheek, I'm not gonna offer up the other - I'm gonna smote right back, plus enough extra to make sure I never get smited by that guy again. If a guy sues me and wins a judgement, I'm definitely NOT going to offer to double it. I'm not sure what "go with him twain" means, but I'd surely resent anyone trying to compel me to go anywhere. And if I gave to him that asketh, the beggars in Toronto would clean out my bank account before I got to my office!
Actually, I believe he said we'd likely *detect* one in 50 years, not that it would *impact* in 50 years.
I'm pretty sure that if there's a rock on course to hit us in the next hundred millenia, we'll have a rough idea before another half-century has passed.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that any current 3D game can use this technology fairly easily... lots of current games support 3D if you have LCD shutter glasses, or a dual-image HMD.
The game instructs the graphics card to render a 3D environment from a particular location on a map, from a particular height, looking in a particular direction. Lets see - x,y,z + pitch, roll, & yaw, right? Anyway, the card just has to alternately bump the 'y' coordinate back and forth a bit to generate two images, one for each eye.
I've played Half-Life like that, and it's kinda cool... the monitor I had to get to support 60Hz/eye was kind of expensive at the time, though.
No, I haven't. The justification of pre-emptive self defense only applies against the first credible threat. First strike against an enemy that could care less about you unless you are a threat is NOT self defense, it's proving that you really were a threat.
I'd counter your first problem with the fact that something being used as a justification to do bad things does not invalidate it as a reason to do good things.
I'd counter your second problem with something a little more complex - The problem ISN'T the nutcase militants, believe it or not. The US has its own brand of them, and manages to keep them mostly under control. The problem is when a significant population encourages the development and exportation of such nutcases - witness the Middle East, where the Arab nations aren't even particularly subtle in funding and inciting the fundies. You have to reshape the society that creates the problem, and the only tool known to man at the moment is a military invasion... it's crude and often a complete waste of time and money, but when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, right?
In the last little while, I've seen the USA invade Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm sure that causes every country with a vaguely western style democracy and a moderate-to-decent human rights record to tremble in fear.
Had I been born a few decades earlier than I was, I would like to think I'd have seen American actions in certain countries as fairly evil... after all, they were.
These days, however, American foriegn policy is more along the lines of "destroy any dangerous enemy" than "hey, we have political differences with those guys, let's replace their government with a puppet dictator".
Personally, I've nothing against the idea of pre-emptive self defense...
Actually, RTFS (Read The Summary)... the article does not tell you the false positive stats, just the false negatives. In other words, 39% of the time, the terrorist would get on the plane unnoticed, so no valuable interviewer's time would be taken up at all!
Summary:Kazaa C&Ds Google, because it's easier than tracking down all the offending sites and C&Ding them individually. The justification for the C&D - Kazaa Lite is illegal, Google is providing easy access to Kazaa Lite.
What if Google turned around and said, "Kazaa is using Google to facillitate tracking down sites infringing on its intellectual property. Please pay Google the following outrageous fee for legal research assistance."
In my opinion, C&Ding a search engine is like trying to have a municipality remove street addresses from buildings containing businesses you don't like. It's just stupid.
Hey, I love the idea of Linux as much as the next guy...
However, you have to see the whole idea of needing a step-by-step upgrade guide with screen shots, etc is exactly why Bill still owns huge percentages of the market. Windows upgrades: Insert CD.
What size range would the holes in a screen need to be to block RFID frequencies? I think it might be nice to embed such a mesh in the lining of a purse or jacket...
Slashdot Mirror
This is not a good argument against taking the first step... it is a good argument for watching very closely to make sure the last four steps are never taken.
After all, we've already decided to lock up murderers... and by this logic I'll be eventually be locked up as well.
That kind of reasoning, in general, bothers me.
"We don't have the technology to solve it easily right now, and the likelihood of the problem occuring in the near future is low, so let's ignore it and hope that when we notice the odds are suddenly 100% we have the technology."
It's not just the probability of impact you need to concern yourself with... it's the severity of the impact. Odds of 1:1x10^6 are pretty low, but if rolling a 1 on that million-sided die means global extinction, I'd rather be prepared ASAP instead of on day 999,999*.*On that day the odds would still be 1:1x10^6, as odds have no memory, but that would make my argument much less pretty, wouldn't it?
Sadly, I didn't want to see II, but my wife insisted... and she still hasn't learned and insists we will be going to Episode III as well.
It is even easier than I thought to bypass this 'patch'... instead of VeriSign returning an A record, they could return an NS record pointing to an NS they own and that returns whatever they want.
Until a certain Hollywood director sends a couple of subs down to make a movie about it...
Because it must be MY problem if I want to respond to an attack on my person, and ensure I'm not subject to another from the same person, right? Twit.
Man, reading Matthew 5.38-42 makes me really glad I don't live my life according to the bible.
If I get smote on the right cheek, I'm not gonna offer up the other - I'm gonna smote right back, plus enough extra to make sure I never get smited by that guy again. If a guy sues me and wins a judgement, I'm definitely NOT going to offer to double it. I'm not sure what "go with him twain" means, but I'd surely resent anyone trying to compel me to go anywhere. And if I gave to him that asketh, the beggars in Toronto would clean out my bank account before I got to my office!
Forget Buggers... I'm more worried that the new moonbase might eventually have a sentient computer lobbing rocks at us to aid in freeing Luna.
*analized* Heh-heh. That is probably an appropriate way to describe it, but it brought disturbing visions of boardroom orgies to mind...
Actually, I believe he said we'd likely *detect* one in 50 years, not that it would *impact* in 50 years.
I'm pretty sure that if there's a rock on course to hit us in the next hundred millenia, we'll have a rough idea before another half-century has passed.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that any current 3D game can use this technology fairly easily... lots of current games support 3D if you have LCD shutter glasses, or a dual-image HMD.
The game instructs the graphics card to render a 3D environment from a particular location on a map, from a particular height, looking in a particular direction. Lets see - x,y,z + pitch, roll, & yaw, right? Anyway, the card just has to alternately bump the 'y' coordinate back and forth a bit to generate two images, one for each eye.
I've played Half-Life like that, and it's kinda cool... the monitor I had to get to support 60Hz/eye was kind of expensive at the time, though.
No, I haven't. The justification of pre-emptive self defense only applies against the first credible threat. First strike against an enemy that could care less about you unless you are a threat is NOT self defense, it's proving that you really were a threat.
I'd counter your first problem with the fact that something being used as a justification to do bad things does not invalidate it as a reason to do good things.
I'd counter your second problem with something a little more complex - The problem ISN'T the nutcase militants, believe it or not. The US has its own brand of them, and manages to keep them mostly under control. The problem is when a significant population encourages the development and exportation of such nutcases - witness the Middle East, where the Arab nations aren't even particularly subtle in funding and inciting the fundies. You have to reshape the society that creates the problem, and the only tool known to man at the moment is a military invasion... it's crude and often a complete waste of time and money, but when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, right?
In the last little while, I've seen the USA invade Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm sure that causes every country with a vaguely western style democracy and a moderate-to-decent human rights record to tremble in fear.
Had I been born a few decades earlier than I was, I would like to think I'd have seen American actions in certain countries as fairly evil... after all, they were.
These days, however, American foriegn policy is more along the lines of "destroy any dangerous enemy" than "hey, we have political differences with those guys, let's replace their government with a puppet dictator".
Personally, I've nothing against the idea of pre-emptive self defense...
Actually, RTFS (Read The Summary)... the article does not tell you the false positive stats, just the false negatives. In other words, 39% of the time, the terrorist would get on the plane unnoticed, so no valuable interviewer's time would be taken up at all!
A certain idiot who shall remain nameless left this out of his post...
Ornithopter.Net
I think these are the same UofT guys who built the smaller model mentioned in the article.
but I could find no updates since 1999 to see if it had actually flown. It was supposedly quite close, though.
Not a hope, sorry.
Summary:Kazaa C&Ds Google, because it's easier than tracking down all the offending sites and C&Ding them individually. The justification for the C&D - Kazaa Lite is illegal, Google is providing easy access to Kazaa Lite.
What if Google turned around and said, "Kazaa is using Google to facillitate tracking down sites infringing on its intellectual property. Please pay Google the following outrageous fee for legal research assistance."
In my opinion, C&Ding a search engine is like trying to have a municipality remove street addresses from buildings containing businesses you don't like. It's just stupid.
Right. So I'll shut up now. :)
That'll teach a Windows techie to post about Linux!
Oh, of course there's also the "Give up obscene amounts of cash" and "Tolerate large numbers of security holes"
Hey, I love the idea of Linux as much as the next guy...
However, you have to see the whole idea of needing a step-by-step upgrade guide with screen shots, etc is exactly why Bill still owns huge percentages of the market. Windows upgrades: Insert CD.
What size range would the holes in a screen need to be to block RFID frequencies? I think it might be nice to embed such a mesh in the lining of a purse or jacket...
this is just another example of mickey-mouse engineering.