One of the reasons I no longer join guilds: all the kids wanting to (1) be grown up; (2) looking for a Big Brother / Sister or parental substitute; (3) denying they're kids.
So shame on ya if you're a Cub Scout or Boy Scout leader, eh?
The concept is moronic. You think that net is invisible as it goes flying out there? "Oh, look, they shot something at us, looks like a net. Take five seconds to go around."
And golf balls? Give me a break.
The whole thing's a scam, trying to work around the valid reasons NOT to install real guns (e.g., 25mm cannon, or even 12.7mm/.50 cal HMG) with a bogus non-gun that isn't going to deter anyone under ANY conditions.
Given the original legal argument, the data channels that carry the Internet also should bear the responsibility for identifying and censoring all "inappropriate" traffic. Why just the ISP? Hey, how about all the phone companies? Somebody might be using a modem and a BBS! [gasp!]
I actually have no problems with deep-searching all packets for clearly identified, unmistakeable, absolutely unquestionable evidence of piracy of copyrighted material, and blocking those packets. However I submit there is no such technology, no way to do it, no way to make an absolute identification. It's like an autocannon that shoots escaped criminals by scanning all the pedestrians on a city sidewalk. Nice thought, but do YOU want that sucker tracking on you?
So... let the copyright owners provide the evidence and the technology, let THEM do the blocking... but force them to submit to a reviewing agency EVERY steenking package they intercept. And THEY get to pay a nice little penalty (let's say $10,000 per packet, just to make it interesting) for every wrongly identified packet. Said penalty being split between the sender and the receiver (since both are clearly identified in every packet). Oh, you're not identified in the packet? Tch, the money then comes to me (since this was my idea and all.)
We'll call the concept (and implementation, Left As An Exercise For The Student) "TOADPACK"... yeah, that's the ticket!
(Copyright 2009 Toad Hall, all rights reserved) [Patent Pending]
I too am a big Malwarebytes (MBAM) fan. At our computer shop it's one of the standards (often the first) that we run when checking and cleaning systems for viruses and malware.
However Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) has joined the suite since it came out, and it apparently is catching things (real things too) that MBAM (and everything else) is missing. And doing a good job of realtime protection as well as cleaning, traces and all.
Panda Antivirus Online continues to be a regular member of the test suite too. The free online test won't remove anything but the simplest infections. But it gives full details as to where it found all the other stuff so you can remove it manually. High Sign to PAV for a Most Excellent product. Of course now way would I use their resident AV software: way too big, too intrusive, slows down most systems horrifically. But Panda Online is a good too.
Norton (any product): worthless. Ditto with McAfee. AVG Free isn't bad, but MBAM and MSE are better. Kaspersky isn't bad, but no free version we'd want to install on customer systems. Avast isn't bad, but their "free" version nags like crazy, so we don't use it.
So MSE is installed on user systems, along with MBAM as a "second check" backup.
Because any yoyo frozen to a wheel, stomping on his brake (to the point of smoke) and NOT thinking to "Take the stupid g*dd*mned car out of gear, stupid!"... isn't safe on a highway at all, much less be considered for any high speed chase.
Now if this were a straight shift, and the clutch failed as well, I could see a problem. But it is NOT hard to just slip the shift into neutral. Let the damned engine rev until it explodes. Screw the engine.
But nooooo... freeze on the wheel, stomp on the brakes, brain off. Atta boy, dummy.
My registry looks nothing like what you describe (despite Firefox 3.5.3 and several extensions (none of which came from Microsoft, of course: one doesn't pick one's worst enemy to provide "improvements" to a browser).
There's a "Mozilla Plugins" key that lists the various plugins I use... but nothing like what you say.
Harry Harrison's "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" !!!
One cannot address a genre without looking hard at the satire.
And that was one of the best, just jam-packed (strange word, that) with stereotypes, stock situations, and the like. Like fitting the 747 for interplanetary flight: that was a Heinlein teen-SF schtick at its finest:-)
The "Steppen Fetchit" character Old John (the black school caretaker) might raise some hackles, at least until he reveals his true nature:-)
Phil didn't win anything for anybody, at least not for a long long time. The Info-ZIP Workgroup went through the same grief back in the 80's when we were trying to back-engineer Phil Katz' ZIP / UNZIP utilities, porting them to virtually every known operating system in the world.
We got unofficial rumbles from US Customs, NSA, etc. that they would crush our virtual fingers if we dared release source code (and everything in Info-ZIP was full open source) for the ZIP encryption. (PKWare had restrictions too against export, but they could and did pretty much ignore that.) But we were actively distributing source, and that was somehow... different. And far more heinous.
Amazingly, coincidentally, miraculously, some of the Workgroup boyos in France produced some wondrous code that (wooo!) gave us full PKZIP encrypt / decrypt capabilities. So since we were now _importing_ the encryption algorithms from France... we thumbed our noses at the Powers That Be and went about their business, distributing the whole source code package world-wide.
The rumbles just kind of went away, and that was the end of that.
Since I was the official "coordinator" for source code archiving, distribution, compatibility, coordination, etc., I know whereof I speak. And I'd already been through the "No Export of Encryption Technology To Those Godless Commies" grief with a commercial encryption package of my own (CryptoMax and CryptoComm).
Glad to see the Feds finally realized that Ivan, Ming, and all those other 'orrible folks were perfectly capable of inventing their own encryption if they had to, and quit all that silliness. And also glad to see that Zimmerman didn't go to jail. I sure was surprised to read all that PGP source code in Dr. Dobbs:-) (And weren't THEY the brave ones to publish it too? Usenet be damned; Dr. Dobbs should get the credit on that one!
I've found replacements for Adobe Reader and Real player (Foxit and Real Alternative), but couldn't find a replacement for the Flash player (alas).
This is better than nothing. I have Flash (and all other scripts) turned off by default in my Firefox browser, but am still forced to use it to see some things.
Yeah, I know the troglodytes won't understand the warning, but it might give them the slightest clue that something's wrong.
My kid brother, the machinist, made a scale replica of the 24 pounder long guns on the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). He didn't cast iron; he machined it from a solid piece of modern steel (so it was WAY stronger than the originals).
Then he made a scale carriage, machined (because it was so hard) from seasoned timbers from an old dock being disassembled.
It was 1/4 scale, as I recall. When fired using modern muzzle loader powder (and totally guessing at the charge), it shot a beercan filled with cement about a quarter mile:-)
He sold it eventually to a collector, but what a cannon that was!
22 miles further out? Hell, that's not a problem. Give it a while and the orbit will decay, right? Of course it might not be geostationary, which means it might not end up exactly where they want it. Or it might die of old age before the orbit decays enough.
No engines on the satellite to make orbital adjustments? Tch, cheapskateskis!
"Indeed practically nothing short of another tank can stop a tank. A perfectly positioned and deployed shape charge can, but I doubt many civilians in any country have the training necessary to use such a thing even if they were legal."
Actually there's any number of ways to stop a tank. 1 - Log between the roadwheels or up against the drive sprocket. 2 - Good old Molotov cocktail (preferably with thickened fuel: got any soap chips or blood, hmmm?). 3 - Spray paint or soap suds over the driver's and TC's periscopes, forcing them to poke their heads out, where any weapon can kill them. (Super soakers are good for this.) 4 - Soap on an asphalt road curve, preferably one next to a cliff. 5 - Poison their soup when they're NOT in the tank.
Civilians usually don't know this stuff, but that's what they have ME for. And history. You are studying history, right?
What? Someone let the physicists out of their labs?
This has been intuitively obvious for _my_ entire life; and they just get around to noticing?
Sand hell. Watch the films of some massive landslides (including boulders weighing hundreds of tons). They're just as fluidic as they can be... and damn-all static attraction too.
I just entered my own review at the Sotthink site. I don't think they'll be happy.
"You _have_ read the Slashdot entry about your plagiarism [cough theft cough], right? Do you plan to respond, to defend the accusations that you stole code? Or will we just conclude you're the thieving GPL violating SOBs you appear to be?"
I assume my identity (or at least my SSAN) has already been stolen. I was in the Army, after all, and they used SSAN's for years, replacing the old serial number. Big mistake IMHO, but that's neither here nor there.
But I'll be damned if I'll encourage anyone else to use that number. Screw 'em. I'd even fight the IRS about the issue if it weren't such a PITA dealing with the IRS about anything at all.
Well, yeah, goes without saying. Although I guess they had to wait until they opened the bay doors ("Open the doors, HAL") so the Pringle cantenna would work.
It just seems odd to me that the Space Shuttle, for cryin' out loud, doesn't have high speed Internet. Surely NetZero could do something?
And don't I remember reading about astronauts blogging while in orbit? Were they chucking out message capsules with tape recordings? Oh... yeah, I guess the cantenna link would be adequate for that too.
I'm FAR more antisocial and loner (with ALL my characters) in WoW than I am in the Real World. No guilds, solo everything, no instances, rarely do battlegrounds. Characters on three servers, all of which are PvE and not PvP. But the only role-playing I'll do is to have an accent. I used to give away low-level enchants and bags to lowbies, but don't even do that any more. Yep, antisocial as hell. Because that's not the part of the game that attracts me.
So I for one definitely don't play WoW (for years now, and a LOT of hours weekly) for the companionship or society of others. And I fit the first part of your description (professional playing in offtime for entertainment, relaxation, escape), rather than the second.
Parachute Landing Fall. Humans have been doing that regularly for the past 60 years or so.
So send the robot to Jump School at Fort Benning; I'm sure they'll be glad to oblige. Just so it can do pushups... thousands and thousands of pushups. That's a necessary prerequisite, you see.
Slashdot Mirror
FULLY agree. They don't like it, go get their grants elsewhere.
"What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance?"
Hey, who runs the copyright office, eh? They don't comply, cancel their copyright. Bidda boom, bidda bing.
Messrs. Charles Dent (R-PA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Peter T. King (R-NY):
Bite me.
Of course I mean that in the nicest possible way, you being our duly elected representatives and all.
Wait ... no, I don't. I mean that really meanly, viciously, pettily.
Bite me.
Yes, that's about it.
One of the reasons I no longer join guilds: all the kids wanting to (1) be grown up; (2) looking for a Big Brother / Sister or parental substitute; (3) denying they're kids.
So shame on ya if you're a Cub Scout or Boy Scout leader, eh?
What an abysmally stupid idea this law is.
The concept is moronic. You think that net is invisible as it goes flying out there? "Oh, look, they shot something at us, looks like a net. Take five seconds to go around."
And golf balls? Give me a break.
The whole thing's a scam, trying to work around the valid reasons NOT to install real guns (e.g., 25mm cannon, or even 12.7mm/.50 cal HMG) with a bogus non-gun that isn't going to deter anyone under ANY conditions.
Given the original legal argument, the data channels that carry the Internet also should bear the responsibility for identifying and censoring all "inappropriate" traffic. Why just the ISP? Hey, how about all the phone companies? Somebody might be using a modem and a BBS! [gasp!]
I actually have no problems with deep-searching all packets for clearly identified, unmistakeable, absolutely unquestionable evidence of piracy of copyrighted material, and blocking those packets. However I submit there is no such technology, no way to do it, no way to make an absolute identification. It's like an autocannon that shoots escaped criminals by scanning all the pedestrians on a city sidewalk. Nice thought, but do YOU want that sucker tracking on you?
So ... let the copyright owners provide the evidence and the technology, let THEM do the blocking ... but force them to submit to a reviewing agency EVERY steenking package they intercept. And THEY get to pay a nice little penalty (let's say $10,000 per packet, just to make it interesting) for every wrongly identified packet. Said penalty being split between the sender and the receiver (since both are clearly identified in every packet). Oh, you're not identified in the packet? Tch, the money then comes to me (since this was my idea and all.)
We'll call the concept (and implementation, Left As An Exercise For The Student) "TOADPACK" ... yeah, that's the ticket!
(Copyright 2009 Toad Hall, all rights reserved) [Patent Pending]
Toad
^^
I too am a big Malwarebytes (MBAM) fan. At our computer shop it's one of the standards (often the first) that we run when checking and cleaning systems for viruses and malware.
However Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) has joined the suite since it came out, and it apparently is catching things (real things too) that MBAM (and everything else) is missing. And doing a good job of realtime protection as well as cleaning, traces and all.
Panda Antivirus Online continues to be a regular member of the test suite too. The free online test won't remove anything but the simplest infections. But it gives full details as to where it found all the other stuff so you can remove it manually. High Sign to PAV for a Most Excellent product. Of course now way would I use their resident AV software: way too big, too intrusive, slows down most systems horrifically. But Panda Online is a good too.
Norton (any product): worthless. Ditto with McAfee. AVG Free isn't bad, but MBAM and MSE are better. Kaspersky isn't bad, but no free version we'd want to install on customer systems. Avast isn't bad, but their "free" version nags like crazy, so we don't use it.
So MSE is installed on user systems, along with MBAM as a "second check" backup.
That trooper needs to get a different day job.
Because any yoyo frozen to a wheel, stomping on his brake (to the point of smoke) and NOT thinking to "Take the stupid g*dd*mned car out of gear, stupid!" ... isn't safe on a highway at all, much less be considered for any high speed chase.
Now if this were a straight shift, and the clutch failed as well, I could see a problem. But it is NOT hard to just slip the shift into neutral. Let the damned engine rev until it explodes. Screw the engine.
But nooooo ... freeze on the wheel, stomp on the brakes, brain off. Atta boy, dummy.
My registry looks nothing like what you describe (despite Firefox 3.5.3 and several extensions (none of which came from Microsoft, of course: one doesn't pick one's worst enemy to provide "improvements" to a browser).
There's a "Mozilla Plugins" key that lists the various plugins I use ... but nothing like what you say.
one of the REAL classics:
Harry Harrison's "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" !!!
One cannot address a genre without looking hard at the satire.
And that was one of the best, just jam-packed (strange word, that) with stereotypes, stock situations, and the like. Like fitting the 747 for interplanetary flight: that was a Heinlein teen-SF schtick at its finest :-)
The "Steppen Fetchit" character Old John (the black school caretaker) might raise some hackles, at least until he reveals his true nature :-)
Phil didn't win anything for anybody, at least not for a long long time. The Info-ZIP Workgroup went through the same grief back in the 80's when we were trying to back-engineer Phil Katz' ZIP / UNZIP utilities, porting them to virtually every known operating system in the world.
We got unofficial rumbles from US Customs, NSA, etc. that they would crush our virtual fingers if we dared release source code (and everything in Info-ZIP was full open source) for the ZIP encryption. (PKWare had restrictions too against export, but they could and did pretty much ignore that.) But we were actively distributing source, and that was somehow ... different. And far more heinous.
Amazingly, coincidentally, miraculously, some of the Workgroup boyos in France produced some wondrous code that (wooo!) gave us full PKZIP encrypt / decrypt capabilities. So since we were now _importing_ the encryption algorithms from France ... we thumbed our noses at the Powers That Be and went about their business, distributing the whole source code package world-wide.
The rumbles just kind of went away, and that was the end of that.
Since I was the official "coordinator" for source code archiving, distribution, compatibility, coordination, etc., I know whereof I speak. And I'd already been through the "No Export of Encryption Technology To Those Godless Commies" grief with a commercial encryption package of my own (CryptoMax and CryptoComm).
Glad to see the Feds finally realized that Ivan, Ming, and all those other 'orrible folks were perfectly capable of inventing their own encryption if they had to, and quit all that silliness. And also glad to see that Zimmerman didn't go to jail. I sure was surprised to read all that PGP source code in Dr. Dobbs :-) (And weren't THEY the brave ones to publish it too? Usenet be damned; Dr. Dobbs should get the credit on that one!
I've found replacements for Adobe Reader and Real player (Foxit and Real Alternative), but couldn't find a replacement for the Flash player (alas).
This is better than nothing. I have Flash (and all other scripts) turned off by default in my Firefox browser, but am still forced to use it to see some things.
Yeah, I know the troglodytes won't understand the warning, but it might give them the slightest clue that something's wrong.
My kid brother, the machinist, made a scale replica of the 24 pounder long guns on the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides). He didn't cast iron; he machined it from a solid piece of modern steel (so it was WAY stronger than the originals).
Then he made a scale carriage, machined (because it was so hard) from seasoned timbers from an old dock being disassembled.
It was 1/4 scale, as I recall. When fired using modern muzzle loader powder (and totally guessing at the charge), it shot a beercan filled with cement about a quarter mile :-)
He sold it eventually to a collector, but what a cannon that was!
"That game is pure evil -- it makes boys think dating a high level elf huntress is better than having a real girlfriend."
Your point being ... ?
22 miles further out? Hell, that's not a problem. Give it a while and the orbit will decay, right? Of course it might not be geostationary, which means it might not end up exactly where they want it. Or it might die of old age before the orbit decays enough.
No engines on the satellite to make orbital adjustments? Tch, cheapskateskis!
Now if it were 22 miles LOW ... I'd worry.
Toad
I know, not an original idea. And probably not a perfect solution.
But it'll do, pig, it'll do.
"Indeed practically nothing short of another tank can stop a tank. A perfectly positioned and deployed shape charge can, but I doubt many civilians in any country have the training necessary to use such a thing even if they were legal."
Actually there's any number of ways to stop a tank. 1 - Log between the roadwheels or up against the drive sprocket. 2 - Good old Molotov cocktail (preferably with thickened fuel: got any soap chips or blood, hmmm?). 3 - Spray paint or soap suds over the driver's and TC's periscopes, forcing them to poke their heads out, where any weapon can kill them. (Super soakers are good for this.) 4 - Soap on an asphalt road curve, preferably one next to a cliff. 5 - Poison their soup when they're NOT in the tank.
Civilians usually don't know this stuff, but that's what they have ME for. And history. You are studying history, right?
What? Someone let the physicists out of their labs?
This has been intuitively obvious for _my_ entire life; and they just get around to noticing?
Sand hell. Watch the films of some massive landslides (including boulders weighing hundreds of tons). They're just as fluidic as they can be ... and damn-all static attraction too.
I just entered my own review at the Sotthink site. I don't think they'll be happy.
"You _have_ read the Slashdot entry about your plagiarism [cough theft cough], right? Do you plan to respond, to defend the accusations that you stole code? Or will we just conclude you're the thieving GPL violating SOBs you appear to be?"
I suppose they might even sue me.
[shrug]
I assume my identity (or at least my SSAN) has already been stolen. I was in the Army, after all, and they used SSAN's for years, replacing the old serial number. Big mistake IMHO, but that's neither here nor there.
But I'll be damned if I'll encourage anyone else to use that number. Screw 'em. I'd even fight the IRS about the issue if it weren't such a PITA dealing with the IRS about anything at all.
Well, yeah, goes without saying. Although I guess they had to wait until they opened the bay doors ("Open the doors, HAL") so the Pringle cantenna would work.
It just seems odd to me that the Space Shuttle, for cryin' out loud, doesn't have high speed Internet. Surely NetZero could do something?
And don't I remember reading about astronauts blogging while in orbit? Were they chucking out message capsules with tape recordings? Oh ... yeah, I guess the cantenna link would be adequate for that too.
I don't think so.
I'm FAR more antisocial and loner (with ALL my characters) in WoW than I am in the Real World. No guilds, solo everything, no instances, rarely do battlegrounds. Characters on three servers, all of which are PvE and not PvP. But the only role-playing I'll do is to have an accent. I used to give away low-level enchants and bags to lowbies, but don't even do that any more. Yep, antisocial as hell. Because that's not the part of the game that attracts me.
So I for one definitely don't play WoW (for years now, and a LOT of hours weekly) for the companionship or society of others. And I fit the first part of your description (professional playing in offtime for entertainment, relaxation, escape), rather than the second.
Parachute Landing Fall. Humans have been doing that regularly for the past 60 years or so.
So send the robot to Jump School at Fort Benning; I'm sure they'll be glad to oblige. Just so it can do pushups ... thousands and thousands of pushups. That's a necessary prerequisite, you see.
Toad, Airborne Toad
Shame on you! Get a free reader that isn't so vulnerable.
You got THAT right!
[As he again hits the godz-cursed Elephant tape backup drive with the sledgehammer, but harder this time]