I read Ender's Game before I found out about Card's negative attitudes towards gays as is evidenced in his own writitngs, such as
The Hypocrites of Homosexuality
Now, I despise Card. He may be a great writer of Science Fiction, but his bigoted attitudes makes it impossible for this SF lover to read his works anymore.
Simply put, Netflix has a MUCH broader selection than Blockbuster can ever hope to have. Most of what I like watching -- foreign films, for instance -- Blockbuster can't hope to approach.
Blockbuster may have plebian appeal, but my money is on Netflix.
Besides, Blockbuster sent someone to jail once for failing to return a *single* rental (the woman simply lost the movie and forgot about it). After hearing that, I promptly canceled my Blockbuster account. No worries with Netflix on that! I can keep the rentals out as long as I want!!!!!!!
So, rent from Blockbuster at your own risk. If the threat of being Busted for failure to return a rental doesn't bother you, if their limited Block of titles doesn't faze you, and if you don't mind their "no late fee" late fee deceptions, then rent from BlockBuster by all means!!!!
Sure they are, if generated correctly. They just have to be longer.
For instance, take this random number:
47105259
Substitute syllables for the digits, and you have:
ra(4)fit(7)on(1)ze(0)pa(5)ki(2)pa(5)ma(9)
rafitonzepakipama
This is an over-simplification of how to do this, but one can easily see that the pronouncable password can be every bit as secure as the random string.
Once again we see that security in software design often is an afterthought. I can understand a small software company not having the time or resources to address these issues -- and even then that's questionable. But what are the "big boys'" excuses?
I think it is quite silly and worrisome that PC users have to be so concerned about virii and spyware and have to invest time and effort in dealing with these hassles. Now we've got to have these same annoyances for our cell phones and PDAs? Excuse me?
No one wants to think about security until it's too damned late. Better to deal the issue up front than take a hit later. But will they listen to little ole' me? Nope!
So I sit by the side lines and watch with glee the idiots making the same lame-brain mistakes over and over again, and then have to suffer for it -- or their customers have to suffer for it. Talk about divine comedy. Now that's entertainment!
Thought crimes? Impure thoughts? Someday the government may have the power to know your most intimate thoughts. Think of the field day Bush and his ilk would have!
Cute little space opera. Not real Science Fiction. I'll probably see it anyway, just for the political intrigue, which is actually not bad and hits close to reality.
The rest is just a hyped up swash-bucking flick in space polished with Hollywood Magic, but oh well. It does bring back some pleasnt memories from the time far, far away when it first came out.
The real annoying thing is that there is no way the system can really work at stopping terrorists, unless they are already *known* to be terrorists.
I personally spoke with a large software firm about this very issue -- how can such a system keep the false positives low to nill while catching the ocassional needle or two in a very large haystack, and they waffled on the question. Considering the number of terrorists are extremely small with regards the rest of the population, how can you possible have enough data to be statistically significant? Again, they waffled on the question, giving a half-baked "executive response" rather than anything concrete.
The real truth is we are far more likely to die in a car crash than to die at the hands of a would-be terrorist. Yet, billions are being poured into Homeland Insecurity and the TSA efforts, and what do we have? High false positive rates, millions of needlessly harrased travelers, and it's hard to get a fix on the false negative rates since terrorists are so rare to begin with.
In short, the entire approach makes no sense.
But try explaining this to the general public, who tend to be dumb as boards when it comes to basic statistics and probabality.
90% of the public is simply unable to think, but merely jumps from one belief pattern to another. That my friends is the problem.
Perhaps one day people will come to their senses and start using Open Office instead.
To hell with Microsoft and their proprietary standards, software dripping with overfeaturitis that most people will never use, let alone understand, and -- oh yes -- the big price tag. Not to mention the Big Barn Door for macro virii and the like.
For $$$$$, you can have all that and more with Microsoft products. Or for free you can have products that can just get the damn work done already.
Microsoft reminds me of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation from Hitchhicker's Guide -- the whole lot of them will be up against the wall when the Linux Revolution comes!!!!
Rather than worrying about whether taxpayers should be paying for closed-sourced solutions, ask the question of why taxpayers are paying taxes at all, given that the ROI is mighty poor.
Eliminate compulsory taxes, which are unconstitutional anyway, and let people choose where their money goes, if it goes anywhere at all.
That way, silly projects like this would never see any funding.
I suppose some of the scenarios we see in old films of cracking into building and traffic lights and the like will come to pass.
Security is almost always an afterthought. Then when something does go wrong, it's next to impossible to retrofit secure measures in an insecure system.
What a wasted effort. Hurd is not likely to go anywhere, and what would be the point? I'd much rather see that effort used to enhance Linux with more drivers and applications.
A day late, a dollar short. K3b rocks. They should've focused their efforts on new functionality.
On the other hand, we don't want to discouarge developers from porting their apps to Linux. If anything, we should be encouarging them all the more. Having "too many" apps on Linux would be a Good Thing.
The whole issue of copyright needs to change. The Internet did not exist when copyright law was forged, and today information is the currency for a freer society.
I would like to see us move away from slamming everyone over the head with a copyright, and towards free content. Creative means may be employed by the artists to make money off of their fine works.
As far as PHP projects, I've created an extremely powerful E-Commerce system that is slowly evolving into a content manager. The system already is being used to host the operations of a $multi-million business. I do a lot of backend stuff that is not too apparent from the front-end.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, I despise Card. He may be a great writer of Science Fiction, but his bigoted attitudes makes it impossible for this SF lover to read his works anymore.
Blockbuster may have plebian appeal, but my money is on Netflix.
Besides, Blockbuster sent someone to jail once for failing to return a *single* rental (the woman simply lost the movie and forgot about it). After hearing that, I promptly canceled my Blockbuster account. No worries with Netflix on that! I can keep the rentals out as long as I want!!!!!!!
So, rent from Blockbuster at your own risk. If the threat of being Busted for failure to return a rental doesn't bother you, if their limited Block of titles doesn't faze you, and if you don't mind their "no late fee" late fee deceptions, then rent from BlockBuster by all means!!!!
For instance, take this random number:
47105259
Substitute syllables for the digits, and you have:
ra(4)fit(7)on(1)ze(0)pa(5)ki(2)pa(5)ma(9)
rafitonzepakipama
This is an over-simplification of how to do this, but one can easily see that the pronouncable password can be every bit as secure as the random string.
It was ignored because, well, they wanted it to happen. An excuse to deepy entrench the US in the Gulf region was needed.
- Locutus
Are you
And now when they miniturize these things to be the size of insects...
I think it is quite silly and worrisome that PC users have to be so concerned about virii and spyware and have to invest time and effort in dealing with these hassles. Now we've got to have these same annoyances for our cell phones and PDAs? Excuse me?
No one wants to think about security until it's too damned late. Better to deal the issue up front than take a hit later. But will they listen to little ole' me? Nope!
So I sit by the side lines and watch with glee the idiots making the same lame-brain mistakes over and over again, and then have to suffer for it -- or their customers have to suffer for it. Talk about divine comedy. Now that's entertainment!
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The rest is just a hyped up swash-bucking flick in space polished with Hollywood Magic, but oh well. It does bring back some pleasnt memories from the time far, far away when it first came out.
Nice technology, but wrong applications.
I personally spoke with a large software firm about this very issue -- how can such a system keep the false positives low to nill while catching the ocassional needle or two in a very large haystack, and they waffled on the question. Considering the number of terrorists are extremely small with regards the rest of the population, how can you possible have enough data to be statistically significant? Again, they waffled on the question, giving a half-baked "executive response" rather than anything concrete.
The real truth is we are far more likely to die in a car crash than to die at the hands of a would-be terrorist. Yet, billions are being poured into Homeland Insecurity and the TSA efforts, and what do we have? High false positive rates, millions of needlessly harrased travelers, and it's hard to get a fix on the false negative rates since terrorists are so rare to begin with.
In short, the entire approach makes no sense.
But try explaining this to the general public, who tend to be dumb as boards when it comes to basic statistics and probabality.
90% of the public is simply unable to think, but merely jumps from one belief pattern to another. That my friends is the problem.
Just proves there is no bounds to human creativity...
To hell with Microsoft and their proprietary standards, software dripping with overfeaturitis that most people will never use, let alone understand, and -- oh yes -- the big price tag. Not to mention the Big Barn Door for macro virii and the like.
For $$$$$, you can have all that and more with Microsoft products. Or for free you can have products that can just get the damn work done already.
Microsoft reminds me of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation from Hitchhicker's Guide -- the whole lot of them will be up against the wall when the Linux Revolution comes!!!!
Perhaps we'll see more of these one-stop "plug-in" CD solutions -- and what a sneaky way to proliferate Linux throughout the enterprise.
This gives me ideas...
Is this really as serious as it sounds?
Eliminate compulsory taxes, which are unconstitutional anyway, and let people choose where their money goes, if it goes anywhere at all.
That way, silly projects like this would never see any funding.
Security is almost always an afterthought. Then when something does go wrong, it's next to impossible to retrofit secure measures in an insecure system.
Oh well, some people are born to lose.
Yet another search portal.
On the other hand, we don't want to discouarge developers from porting their apps to Linux. If anything, we should be encouarging them all the more. Having "too many" apps on Linux would be a Good Thing.
Yet another search portal
I would like to see us move away from slamming everyone over the head with a copyright, and towards free content. Creative means may be employed by the artists to make money off of their fine works.
Check out Hydranuke.com
As far as PHP projects, I've created an extremely powerful E-Commerce system that is slowly evolving into a content manager. The system already is being used to host the operations of a $multi-million business. I do a lot of backend stuff that is not too apparent from the front-end.
This surely rocks.
I know, I know. We had a similar problem here in New Hamsphire -- some idiot politican wanted to tax email. Go figure.