Suppose, just suppose, you discover that if you tap three times on the side of an old-fashioned one-armed bandit, at a specific place and a specific speed, it pays off!
So you do this ten thousand times, win ten thousand dollars. And the casino finds out.
What's the charge? Wire fraud?
Nooo.. they'll grit their teeth, buy you a drink, and yank every damned one of those machines offline until they get the bug fixed.
So what's different now with this software glitch? And why blame the clever guy who discovered it?
Let the casinos take their hits and learn their lessons. This is NOT criminal, IMHO.
Back in The Day the name McAfee was significant and even important: the first (maybe, haven't looked it up) and certainly the most effective anti-virus product (and free!) when those sorts of problems first began.
Since then, he's just another rich guy who now has managed to get into serious trouble. Not interested, got problems of my own. Which don't involve being suspected of shooting my neighbor or evading local police, thanka verra much.
Screw LinkedIn and the horse they rode in on. If I get one more unsolicited LinkedIn message from some total stranger, I swear to the godz I'm calling in that airstrike the Air Force still owes me.
I know it needs a much greater difference between "hot" and "cold" ends to generate electricity.. but it's VASTLY simpler (e.g., no moving parts at all)!
I remember (vaguely) reading about this, a prototype plant down on one of Cuba's coasts, built in the 30's (?) by an American professor. It was basically a bunch of scrap iron (old hot water radiators?), cold end hanging down in a nearby handy ocean trench, hot end in some pools of water bulldozed out on the coastline, was just a test but generated 10KW.. presumably forever! (Or until the iron rusted away.)
I think it was in an Analog Science Fact and Fiction article back in the 60's, but can't seem to find it. But it always struck me as a remarkably simple, foolproof way to generate electricity! You can find modules and devices available on the Internet, but with very small output, really only toys. And then these guys, http://tegpower.com/, at a somewhat larger (and expensive) scale.
Odd that you don't hear more about it though, except for the occasional plutonium-powered satellite power supply and that sort of thing.
Same language, same solutions. How clever: now one hack can crack ALL the voting machines. Why, it'll be just like elections back in The Day.. in Communist countries anyway.
This is NOT rocket science, folks. The first link in the phone call, the first agency actually providing a "phone link", checks the calling number. No number? Disconnect immediately (or forward to the FBI or FCC). Is the Caller ID (number, not name) the same as the calling number? No: disconnect immediately (or forward to the FBI or FCC).
Number identified and verified? Great, let them make the call. The recipient can then identify the caller (absolutely, positively) and can then report or prosecute as he so elects.
Oh, this offends someone's sense of privacy? Screw you and your privacy: if you're going to call ME, you're violating MY privacy. So give a little, take a little. I am ready and willing to hang up on ANY caller who doesn't provide me a valid phone number. The problem right now is that it can be spoofed so easily. I get calls from 1-800-000-0000 all the time.. and the phone providers know it too and are doing damn all about it.
So you (and a million criminals) stay anonymous. Hey, how about dealing with the bastards running the robo-dialers, eh? Fix the problem, don't avoid it.
"Oh, we don't go down that road: too many robbers."
Did you intend that the Apple I and II be used by programmers (experienced or novice) to do any serious software development? Or did you intend (or hope) that commercial software development firms would do all that?
I ask because I tried hard to do just that, and failed miserably. The tools and resources, user exchange of software and programming tips, that sort of thing, just never happened with Apple. Hell, I did more serious development on a Commodore 64 (networked systems teaching CW (Morse code) send and receive to Special Forces radiomen) than I ever could on an Apple.
I ended up going the CP/M / DOS / MS-DOS / Windows route (with diversions into Unix) for that very reason.
Howling Wilderness of Computerdom [tm], they passed a law against any such shenanigans. The godz forbid we should actually have a CHOICE in our broadband!
You don't understand how military retirement pay (don't call it a pension) works.
When a retired military person dies, so does his retirement pay. Right that second (although the service is usually kind enough to round the last retirement check out to the end of the month.. but no guarantees).
They came up with "Survivors Benefits", where you basically buy an insurance policy using part of the retirement pay that will pay the surviving spouse 50% of the retired service member's retirement pay.
At first it was a TERRIBLE scam, 50% of your retirement pay now for 50% back after you die. But they fixed that and these days it's not such a bad deal. Unless the spouse dies first of course, in which case Uncle Sam keeps it all.
And no, the President nor anyone else could've done squat. Congress could've passed an appropriation to give the families something, I suppose.
NASA employees have life insurance available, but I suspect it isn't extended to the astronauts. Here's an article from 2003 discussing it:
Some big names working on a replacement? They maybe have reduced or solved the problem of sonic booms; maybe they did something about fuel and maintenance requirements as well?
Bringing all the crap from outside inside isn't such a good idea either. The moon dust issues from all of the Lunar landings was a real eye-opener, and a serious problem they never did solve. That could easily have killed an entire crew.
What really made a difference was all the institutions, the colleges and universities and developmental labs out there, who (by hook or crook, usually through a casual contact) hooked into the budding ARPAnet. Remember all those minicomputers and old mainframes that appeared everywhere, all the Seven Dwarf names? All the file archives with unbelievable wonders, source code, yet another version of STARTREK or Colossal Cave?
There were actually damned few military organizations on the net in those days. I know my XVIII Airborne Corps and 82d Airborne at Fort Bragg were, for very limited functions. There was a contractor who managed the whole thing. As an S2 NCO I discovered this terminal connected to a big old DEC-20 mainframe out at Berkeley, with software running that supposedly managed our security access rosters.
That was all very nice. But then I discovered DEC BASIC and found I could write my own stuff! And the other geeks (although the word wasn't well known then) pointed me to the games and fun stuff. From then on there was no holding me back! Ah, what a wondrous place it was.. and all free! You had to know your way around, there were no maps, only friends and acquaintances. Software was free, source was everywhere. The BBS's were budding at the time, for the Apples and then later the CP/M and early IBM systems.. but nothing was as great as the ARPAnet! Anyone else remember SIMTEL20? The huge microcomputer software archive stored on an underused DEC-20 at White Sands Proving Grounds?
Good times, I'll tell you. We all knew ARPA had started it, that XEROX had made a lot of contributions. But it was all the grad students running all those Vaxen and old IBMs out there, hacking and coding and communicating, keeping the USENET distribution going... that's where the real credit lies. And the universities and colleges that funded them.
Slashdot Mirror
Suppose, just suppose, you discover that if you tap three times on the side of an old-fashioned one-armed bandit, at a specific place and a specific speed, it pays off!
So you do this ten thousand times, win ten thousand dollars. And the casino finds out.
What's the charge? Wire fraud?
Nooo .. they'll grit their teeth, buy you a drink, and yank every damned one of those machines offline until they get the bug fixed.
So what's different now with this software glitch? And why blame the clever guy who discovered it?
Let the casinos take their hits and learn their lessons. This is NOT criminal, IMHO.
Back in The Day the name McAfee was significant and even important: the first (maybe, haven't looked it up) and certainly the most effective anti-virus product (and free!) when those sorts of problems first began.
Since then, he's just another rich guy who now has managed to get into serious trouble. Not interested, got problems of my own. Which don't involve being suspected of shooting my neighbor or evading local police, thanka verra much.
Screw LinkedIn and the horse they rode in on. If I get one more unsolicited LinkedIn message from some total stranger, I swear to the godz I'm calling in that airstrike the Air Force still owes me.
I know it needs a much greater difference between "hot" and "cold" ends to generate electricity .. but it's VASTLY simpler (e.g., no moving parts at all)!
I remember (vaguely) reading about this, a prototype plant down on one of Cuba's coasts, built in the 30's (?) by an American professor. It was basically a bunch of scrap iron (old hot water radiators?), cold end hanging down in a nearby handy ocean trench, hot end in some pools of water bulldozed out on the coastline, was just a test but generated 10KW .. presumably forever! (Or until the iron rusted away.)
I think it was in an Analog Science Fact and Fiction article back in the 60's, but can't seem to find it. But it always struck me as a remarkably simple, foolproof way to generate electricity! You can find modules and devices available on the Internet, but with very small output, really only toys. And then these guys, http://tegpower.com/, at a somewhat larger (and expensive) scale.
Odd that you don't hear more about it though, except for the occasional plutonium-powered satellite power supply and that sort of thing.
A hawk? I'm not impressed. A 35-foot pterodon, now we're talking! Plus one that big could carry missiles, huah!
http://rocketdungeon.blogspot.com/2012/02/remember-smithsonians-flying.html
http://www.edgeascension.com/index_files/Page2570.htm
http://www.edgeascension.com/index_files/image2497.jpg
Surely we can't deprive future battlefields of these wondrous autonomous machines! Oh, the humanity! No, wait ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(tank)
http://www.whkeith.com/graphics/bolo-mark-xx.jpg
Someone _really_ needs to get a life!
Of course that precious bit of information will be just the thing to drop on any LOTR trivia freaks.
Toad
Same language, same solutions. How clever: now one hack can crack ALL the voting machines. Why, it'll be just like elections back in The Day .. in Communist countries anyway.
This is NOT rocket science, folks. The first link in the phone call, the first agency actually providing a "phone link", checks the calling number. No number? Disconnect immediately (or forward to the FBI or FCC). Is the Caller ID (number, not name) the same as the calling number? No: disconnect immediately (or forward to the FBI or FCC).
Number identified and verified? Great, let them make the call. The recipient can then identify the caller (absolutely, positively) and can then report or prosecute as he so elects.
Oh, this offends someone's sense of privacy? Screw you and your privacy: if you're going to call ME, you're violating MY privacy. So give a little, take a little. I am ready and willing to hang up on ANY caller who doesn't provide me a valid phone number. The problem right now is that it can be spoofed so easily. I get calls from 1-800-000-0000 all the time .. and the phone providers know it too and are doing damn all about it.
So you (and a million criminals) stay anonymous. Hey, how about dealing with the bastards running the robo-dialers, eh? Fix the problem, don't avoid it.
"Oh, we don't go down that road: too many robbers."
Riii-ight.
Did you intend that the Apple I and II be used by programmers (experienced or novice) to do any serious software development? Or did you intend (or hope) that commercial software development firms would do all that?
I ask because I tried hard to do just that, and failed miserably. The tools and resources, user exchange of software and programming tips, that sort of thing, just never happened with Apple. Hell, I did more serious development on a Commodore 64 (networked systems teaching CW (Morse code) send and receive to Special Forces radiomen) than I ever could on an Apple.
I ended up going the CP/M / DOS / MS-DOS / Windows route (with diversions into Unix) for that very reason.
Just wondering. Oh, and thanks for all the fish!
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
Howling Wilderness of Computerdom [tm], they passed a law against any such shenanigans. The godz forbid we should actually have a CHOICE in our broadband!
http://www.wired.com/business/2011/05/nc-gov-anti-muni-broadband/
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/cities-consumers-lose-municipal-broadband-fight/Content?oid=2440390
Of course they also passed laws forbidding any study of global rising seawater .. outside the limits they felt were politically correct, that is.
Gotta love 'em.
This would do.
http://www.aerospaceguide.net/rocketengines/ssme.gif
I'm sure they sell liquid hydrogen and oxygen around here somewhere!
You're listening?
I question how that lying piece of crap ever got space on CNet .. which just took THAT POS off my reading list.
You don't understand how military retirement pay (don't call it a pension) works.
When a retired military person dies, so does his retirement pay. Right that second (although the service is usually kind enough to round the last retirement check out to the end of the month .. but no guarantees).
They came up with "Survivors Benefits", where you basically buy an insurance policy using part of the retirement pay that will pay the surviving spouse 50% of the retired service member's retirement pay.
At first it was a TERRIBLE scam, 50% of your retirement pay now for 50% back after you die. But they fixed that and these days
it's not such a bad deal. Unless the spouse dies first of course, in which case Uncle Sam keeps it all.
And no, the President nor anyone else could've done squat. Congress could've passed an appropriation to give the families something, I suppose.
NASA employees have life insurance available, but I suspect it isn't extended to the astronauts. Here's an article from 2003 discussing it:
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/10/nation/na-insure10
Meanwhile, you can still get those covers:
http://moonpans.com/signed/apollo_11_signed_cover.htm
This should open up a huge market in some unhappy parts of the world. I wonder what the remote's range is?
Just sayin'
Toad
Agreed. Something is rotten. As you say, buy a couple of big hard drives and just wait the bastard out.
In any event, what's so difficult about the concept, "Gather enough evidence to convict the bastard, and then stop."
Doh.
Absolutely! Great job! Got the criminal, even recovered other stolen property.
SCREW the privacy advocates.
http://www.whkeith.com/bolo-art.html
http://www.whkeith.com/graphics/bolo-mark-xxiv.jpg
You know you do.
We get this:
http://www.johnny-five.com/layout/newlogo.jpg
But we want this:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/images/terminator_2_large.jpg
or even this!
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/5493/266530-battletech.jpg
Sigh ...
Damn, guys! If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
If it _is_ broke .. this is a hell of a time to find out about it. How about some more details, eh?
http://boingboing.net/2012/08/06/curiosity-landing-removed-from.html
Yeah, right. Time to beat those greedy careless bastards UP!
Like the above anonymous coward reply: let's give them some kind and loving attention, eh?
http://www.scripps.com/heritage/contact-us
Maybe because of this?
http://www.gizmag.com/son-of-concorde/23118/
Some big names working on a replacement? They maybe have reduced or solved the problem of sonic booms; maybe they did something about fuel and maintenance requirements as well?
Bringing all the crap from outside inside isn't such a good idea either. The moon dust issues from all of the Lunar landings was a real eye-opener, and a serious problem they never did solve. That could easily have killed an entire crew.
Toad
What really made a difference was all the institutions, the colleges and universities and developmental labs out there, who (by hook or crook, usually through a casual contact) hooked into the budding ARPAnet. Remember all those minicomputers and old mainframes that appeared everywhere, all the Seven Dwarf names? All the file archives with unbelievable wonders, source code, yet another version of STARTREK or Colossal Cave?
There were actually damned few military organizations on the net in those days. I know my XVIII Airborne Corps and 82d Airborne at Fort Bragg were, for very limited functions. There was a contractor who managed the whole thing. As an S2 NCO I discovered this terminal connected to a big old DEC-20 mainframe out at Berkeley, with software running that supposedly managed our security access rosters.
That was all very nice. But then I discovered DEC BASIC and found I could write my own stuff! And the other geeks (although the word wasn't well known then) pointed me to the games and fun stuff. From then on there was no holding me back! Ah, what a wondrous place it was .. and all free! You had to know your way around, there were no maps, only friends and acquaintances. Software was free, source was everywhere. The BBS's were budding at the time, for the Apples and then later the CP/M and early IBM systems .. but nothing was as great as the ARPAnet! Anyone else remember SIMTEL20? The huge microcomputer software archive stored on an underused DEC-20 at White Sands Proving Grounds?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simtel
http://old.cni.org/docs/farnet/story149.NM.html
Good times, I'll tell you. We all knew ARPA had started it, that XEROX had made a lot of contributions. But it was all the grad students running all those Vaxen and old IBMs out there, hacking and coding and communicating, keeping the USENET distribution going ... that's where the real credit lies. And the universities and colleges that funded them.
Toad
I want a piece of the bookmaking operations, betting on which of these "enhanced" athletes will die during competition.
This will be FAR better than professional rasslin'!