The United States Constitution holds that no warrant shall issue without probable cause. This means that no Arrest can take place without a Direct Connection to an Injury or the imminent liklihood of such. This NEGATES all this "Law" stuff. There has been no INJURY. For the minor addition line, That is not a material injury.
I love all the ILLEGAL stuff that goes around these days. If we followed the US Constitution such absurd thinking would be drummed out of town. There simply is no probable cause for this person's arrest.
Actually since he tends to encourage good things, there is genuine question if he is not doing a public service maritorious of a reward! I respect a Hacker who helps. I have no respect for the type who steals and damages. What he has done would be the equal to telling somebody that he found your door unlocked on your car and sent you a picture of him with the door open to prove it.
The issue of Network Security and locking data is a difficult one and most difficult for company types to get taken serously. He helps them see the need without damaging anything.
The reaction he gets from others is almost like I got when some years ago I suggested that the State where I live outlaw some farming practices that spread Mad Cow disease. The reaction was not that I was trying to help but that I was trying to hurt. Today one can see the damage of not doing what I suggested.
Enforcement of LAW without regards to the real damage and real merits of the situation is absolutely INSANE. It assumes that we must follow the law even when it is absurd to do so. I see nowhere in law or common law where we are required to do so.
Isn't Math Grand! It can extend beyond any rationality. Added to a computer it can completely depart reality.
I experimented with this using different masses and different velocities. I could get a circumstance where a 400 Kiloton blast would occur about every 54 years on earth from an Iron 20m across. The programmers here are simply too enthusiastic about the end of the world. Nice calculator though and probably correct in the mid ranges of the parameters but not likely on the far ends either way you go.
The moral may be the company should be more careful but the fact is that the ex-employee if he actually did this should be prosecuted for thieft. If a person leaves their door open it is not a licence for others to take his property. It may be stupid but stealing remains the action of the thief even if he does not break a lock to do it.
I would second the motion and add a few US voters and states into the discussion. (Mod this guy up!)
It is impossible to fix problems that people want to keep. They will simply fix your fix and like a dog or cat that has been "fixed".
The Energy situation in North America is that we have lived for about 60 years with a massive surplus of electricity generation capacity as a result of much regulation with careful managment and some Cold War supplies that came open as a result of the Nuclear builddowns of the 1980's. Well we are OUT of reserve. The Population growth has eaten it up. The Deregulation and Environmental Forces have conspired to see no new facilities of consequence. Population is rising at 3.5% per year due to unbridled Immigration
You go figure out a solution but remember! You can't build more or you would be against the Capitalists and the Eco Types. The Eco Types think that they can just stop and the Capitalists want a shortage to make money from. You can't Stop Immigration or you would be a "Racist" or a "Bigot" or something like that.... and so on. Well if anyone has a solution speak up and you will be shot by those who don't want one.
Just a final note: When the blackout happened the thing I noted was the sulfur stench in the air and smarting my eyes with SO2. You see I live in Alabama with the US TVA. For about a month after the blackout until the Nuke Stations got fully up in the North East, the US TVA carried the load. The had no more reserve using normal operations capacity so they kicked off the scrubbers and smoked the air but good! Burning about 300,000 kg of coal/min tends to make a lot of smoke!
Re:Nicaragua, Grenada, Panama in the 80's
on
Weapons in Space
·
· Score: 1
While I wouldn't disagree, because I don't know about the comment facts. I would like to point out that Granada also has a few strategic factors like LOCATION that might have been a factor.
I live in Alabama. While the folks in California thought Nicaragua was no problem as their closest point is about 1300 miles (2000 Km) from the country I only live about 850 miles away and was well within range of the Russian Bombers that they were building runways for and also on Granada. The Critical link from Russia was Ganada to Nicaragua.
The supersonic bombers take about 20 to 30 minutes to get to my house and thus make very little of coastal defenses whereas they tended to give nearly twice the time to defend for California.
The Issue of a 12000 foot runway in Granada was Refueling for Strike and also basing. Doubtless other issues came up as well.
For those discussing the merits of US efforts, I submit that for the most part the Americas have not been the "Armed Camps" of war like Europeans and Asians is largely due to US Intervention and US VERY STRONG policy regards the rise of power in the region.
This actually is the issue regards space based weapons. The USA is seeking to extract from the world the situation that has us perpetually at risk for massive destruction that currently exists. This is why.
The problem with these space based weapons is that they produce no terror. They serve absolutely no deterrent purpose. They are useless unless fired and appear as a "bolt from the blue" to the affected parties. There is little or no warning or "Callback" involved.
I prefer old fashioned Nukes for terror. That big hot mushroom cloud tends to get into the immagination and work quite well. You have to shoot one at somebody every now and then for this to work. The concept of you or your devices being suddenly destroyed without apparent cause or warning just doesn't come into mind very well especially for those not so aware.
The point here was driven home to me by being in the Philippines and then talking with my family there. (I am American all the way but married to a filippina.) These were pretty connected people who had been to Clark and Subic. They were personal associates with the government types and quite a few were Armed Forces Types. They simply had no clue about the "Cold War" etc.
It has been said that, "A truly successful army is one nobody dares to fight." This emphasis on high tech and super weapons is not scaring anybody and as such is not succeding at saving us the wars. These are doubltless damned effective killing machines. They are just about worthless as negotiation tools.
Don't mark me as against these weapons, just that the misunderstanding of their effect is horrendous. These weapons are for "Survival" not for any other purpose. They assure that in conflict the other guy loses. They are an insurance policy against death.
Regards Iraq, I appreciate all of the comments about how we misjudged (We did!) or that we have problems, (We do!) and etc. The whole problem here seems to be one of a lack of time machines. We cannot go back to the decision point and change what happened. We may only do with where we are now. So here is the lowdown.
The USA is going to lose about 20,000 killed in Iraq and about 100,000 wounded before it gets over. Don't wish for cheaper it would only have a worse result. Pulling out shy of doing the full job would only cause worse to happen. This is the road we are on so folks lets ride and quit fussing about what we "Should have done."
Believe me that I wish we had done much differently!
Failure! It never intended to succeed! It is a great success at that.
Homeland Security will give us the most excellent catalogue of the latest Al Qaeda damages and how every step was accomplished. This Faternal Order of Odd Toe Taggers (FOOTT) called the Homeland Security needs to step somewhere else. I have watched their regional drills. Money wasted by the ton as they figure out how to haul away the dead.
Nobody discussed how if poison Gas was used to throw Baking Soda out to catch it or if it was a Biological Weapon how to teach the people to wash their hands... (oops this one needs to be done ahead of time doesn't it!)
It just gets worse and worse. They push the citizens asside and try to ignore them while the citizens regularly report the miscreants. In the end we all lose because citizenship is held in low regard while "professionalism" crushes it.
Remember these are the people who are telling us we cannot control our borders while they manufacture the break by refusing to enforce the LAW!
Regards the signature... Just so you know it. Racism against Indians does not consist of telling the bad deeds of the Indian Government or those of various Indian Companies or of the US Government.
The most important thing to understand here is that this has nothing to do with Capitalism. Capitalism is where an investor invests money in return for a share of the profits. When the CEO takes the profits it is THEFT. When the CEO falsely posts profits it is FRAUD. When the CEO runs a company never intending to pay dividends, it is called "Selling the Blue Sky" a crime.
When the Company moves to another country to avoid US Laws and to avoid paying its investors the fact that US Trade Representative Zoellick calls it free trade and his minions around the world call it "Capitalism" doesn't make it so. The fact that the Press calls it Capitalism doesn't make them right. The fact that there are hired liars trying to make the current US Government Sponsored Trade War against the US Middle Class look good doesn't make it good.
Ughhhh! Am I going to have to endure a whole day without the borg guy popping in from M$ and sturring up something? Just imagine the SCO and M$ news that might really be hiding behind the Data, er Date?!
I have 25 fully grown hens at my house. Each is able to carry at least 1 hard drive containing 280 gig. When chased by the 3 cocks I have these hens have been known to fly at a forward speed of about 30 km/hr for a distance upwards to 100m. So these hens should be able to carry a message of 7,000 Gig over 100m in just 9 sec. This would be about 7 times faster than a 10/100 line at max. My chickens should be at least as good as a Cat5e 10/100 Connection. Providing my Cocks are feeling sexy.
A substantial increase in efficiency for single transmissions can be achieved by throwing out some scratch mix. This performance boost is followed by a significant degrading of the transmission rate for several hours.
If the freezer gets empty this transmission rate may suffer a substantial decline.
I saw this problem when I first saw Electronic Calculators and saw fellow students in school writing out all those decimal places as part of the answer. (Those of us trained in slide rules never believed in that) Then I saw them actually make a mistake and then use that mistake in further and further calculations.
The problem here is two fold.
First the people using these machine guns for math don't know where to aim their shots. They really are using them to substitute for understanding what they are doing and to "Flock" the world with numbers. This gives rise to errors of judgement as well as the illusion that they actually know what they are doing.
To best illustrate this mistake look into cosmology. They use the "Model" of math to do a lot of limit calculations. Essentially they calculate a fraction 1/x where x approaches 0. This is fairly valid in the first 5 or 6 decimal places but after that it begins to degrade as the model departs reality. In the end when x reaches zero the math genius types here don't seem to understand that they are measuring a physical reaction and the lowest real number in the universe is 1! These limit calculations are convenient but in fact they should be calculating x/y where x is approaching a very large number and y is approaching 1. In any case the model has failed and this is the problem in Business math.
The second problem is the "unreality" of the numbers used for estimation in business. (Or science) Many things we simply do not have a measure over and do not control. As such making decisions assuming you have this from spreadsheet numbers is CRAZY.
Mod this guy up EXTRA. He gets it. The RIAA problem is one of extortionists who are trying to continue to make the profits they made selling plastic LP Records when the system doesn't even need any media. They demand that the artists pay them and the consumers pay them. In the end what service does the RIAA do?
I generally do not buy and have not downloaded music. I do understand the marketing and know that these RIAA types are people without a service to sell. They have been bypassed by technology and are in the "Buggy Whip" business
With the history of police contracting out traffic enforcement to companies who rigged stop lights and used cameras it probably should worry people about what the police might do.
This isn't a case of "if you don't have anything to hide." Remember that RFID tags if spoofed could hang the wrong guy!
The case of someone exiting a bank post robbery gives "Probable Cause." But merely scanning everyone doesn't give "Probable Cause." This has to do with how we use and access the data. The bank camera is OK to use if the bank is robbed and I don't see RFID differently. The Bank camera used to simply scan for every infraction is probably a bad idea. This idea of not being worried about what the police do regards modern technology and RFID is historically unwise. Every time police forces use technology that is new, they abuse it until restrained. It just happens this way.
This is a serious issue. The matter of someone being able to monitor everything people do will call into question all manner of legal issues and definitely needs thought before it is implemented.
The issue of what this tech can be used for has so many deep and penetrating details. If RFID tags are in your purchace goods and you check out but they remain active as you drive down the road, can the police access the data without a search warrant? How about a marketing company checking all of the goods and seeing your travels etc. What do we do about Identity Theft here? There are so many issues that need looked into. Doubtless even if we try there are many more we have not even thought of yet.
Civilized people are facing the choice between the individual becoming merely a tool or cog in the Commercial world of the Industrialists or if the Industrialists tools will work for the Individual. Making this decision out of ignorance is not wise.
If you run a trade war against your own people where you make them markup their wages 150% in order to pay the taxes. If you allow all comers from around the world in tax free or low taxed. If you allow your mega corps to take your new tech stuff off shore to build it. If you run a space program that is "International" by staffing and access to data but "US" only for the bill. If you do all these things and a few more stupid things like sending a man to do a robot job. If your contractors are offshore but your contract is paid with domestic taxes. Is it any wonder what is happening?
Mod this guy up a lot! He gets it. If M$ locks stuff up more, they will drive people to Linux. It is that simple. The reality of M$ trying to hold on this way is best seen in the efforts in China and India. Giving them more control will wipe them out faster
Well it will sooner or later come around that your buying records will become a public Police Record (As with the books you buy under the patriot act). Then they will pattern your buying as a "Terrorist" if you are not cooperating with the latest dictum. Or they will monitor you for diet and restrict your health benefits if you...(Whatever is the latest violation) I guess I had better get my "Tin Foil Hat" because somebody is likely to think I am crazy to say this.
The problem here is that RFID will get spoofed and tricked and counterfitted. It just looks like the most likely to get faked because of the lack of "Human" counter checking. Bar Codes can be faked easily with the scanners now, but the fact that there is a person looking over the goods and checking to see if the code made sense keeps this sort of fraud down. RFID has as its objective the end of the Human cross check.
Once faked, well you might just be a "Terrorist" by their data scan but the facts might just alter that a bit.
Well if you use this definition, the moon that we see from earth is actually in orbit around the sun. I know everybody will think it orbits the earth but in fact it co-orbits the sun with the earth. Map out its path if you doubt this.
Hey, I am an American and I like Linux! My admiration is for something that works. I like the fact that no longer does my money go to support an Robber-Baron who has very nearly destroyed the Software Development industry in the USA. I am very pro USA and like Linux so we need to drop the "Anti-American" from the reason it grows. Anti Robber-Barons maybe but not Anti-US.
This is not to say that some "Anti-US" feelings exist. They do.
For the record for my US fellow citizens, wake up! The feelings and impressions of the rest of the world may not all just be nationalism, hate and arrogance. I have family in the Philippines. I know that the impressions of the USA are not what most US people think. The reasons are not even close!
The "Freedom" stuff of the cold war days is HISTORY! Actually the USA is in many cases more "unfree" than other countries. The "Prosperity" stuff is also mostly in the past. The reasons for and the opinions vary greatly but frankly most US types need to be sent that famous post card showing the earth with the caption "Wish you were here." Most US Politicos need sent one showing the Milky Way with the same caption.
The United States Senate and House are pushing heavily to clarify the regulation of cable etc. Frankly since I am a bit older and suffer from that odd mental abnormality called MEMORY, I seriously question if the FCC does not have the power to regulate cable. I seem to remember a few odd events regarding Telephone conversations being a bit regulated regards profanity as well... (Yes they did in times past!)
There is another issue that seems to have been forgotten by the FCC. Very nearly all the CATV programming is TRANSMITTED before it gets to your CATV system. Seems to me this might just be not as unregulated an area as people think. It would appear that the FCC actually has been ignoring the issue. Dare we say avoiding enforcing the law?
Somebody Mod this guy up! He has told what is really going on. All the funny arguments to the contrary his report goes right to the fact. His report tells what is going on and right on the point.
What is going on in world trade is that the USA gave the EU the drivers seat regards the WTO and GATT and they are driving. The fact that it was American Ignorance that allowed this to develop does nothing to alter the fact.
Frankly as an American I am glad at several levels that M$ is getting the *#%##!!** knocked out of them by the EU. But this has more to do with the old dictum that in war, "The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend." M$ is probably everything and worse than described on/..
The reality of our world is that Americans are being IGNORANT of reality too much and are shall we say stepping in the manure. Examples of this extend widely and are too numerous to name here.
The whole issue centers around the issue or Nexis in law. (The Connection) So long as the law allows that you are connected or had contact with the Plaintiff you are subject to the laws he has. It would seem that since the webpage is deliberately placed in a media and advertized in a way such as to affect the actions of a person in this or that jurisdiction it comes under the law.
The problem is that the EU for example does not honor UTAH warrants like the 49 other US States do. So this really only applies inside the USA. The Netherlands tried to apply jurisdiction as did Belgium to the whole world over "War Crimes" recently. It almost worked but the USA had other ideas on the matter and turned some screws and that died.
The real issue here is that the Business pushing the spam is selling goods inside the USA so it pretty much comes under the Nexis of US Courts and Laws. It would take a simple act of US Law forbidding the collection of any foreign debt which was incurred outside of US Laws and the Spammers would be out of MONEY.
If any US State simply forbid the collection of Credit Cards and Payments of Debits with Triplicate Damages plus Legal the Money guys would get in line. (Same as US Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1979)
Slashdot Mirror
The United States Constitution holds that no warrant shall issue without probable cause. This means that no Arrest can take place without a Direct Connection to an Injury or the imminent liklihood of such. This NEGATES all this "Law" stuff. There has been no INJURY. For the minor addition line, That is not a material injury.
I love all the ILLEGAL stuff that goes around these days. If we followed the US Constitution such absurd thinking would be drummed out of town. There simply is no probable cause for this person's arrest.
Actually since he tends to encourage good things, there is genuine question if he is not doing a public service maritorious of a reward! I respect a Hacker who helps. I have no respect for the type who steals and damages. What he has done would be the equal to telling somebody that he found your door unlocked on your car and sent you a picture of him with the door open to prove it.
The issue of Network Security and locking data is a difficult one and most difficult for company types to get taken serously. He helps them see the need without damaging anything.
The reaction he gets from others is almost like I got when some years ago I suggested that the State where I live outlaw some farming practices that spread Mad Cow disease. The reaction was not that I was trying to help but that I was trying to hurt. Today one can see the damage of not doing what I suggested.
Enforcement of LAW without regards to the real damage and real merits of the situation is absolutely INSANE. It assumes that we must follow the law even when it is absurd to do so. I see nowhere in law or common law where we are required to do so.
Isn't Math Grand! It can extend beyond any rationality. Added to a computer it can completely depart reality.
I experimented with this using different masses and different velocities. I could get a circumstance where a 400 Kiloton blast would occur about every 54 years on earth from an Iron 20m across. The programmers here are simply too enthusiastic about the end of the world. Nice calculator though and probably correct in the mid ranges of the parameters but not likely on the far ends either way you go.
The moral may be the company should be more careful but the fact is that the ex-employee if he actually did this should be prosecuted for thieft. If a person leaves their door open it is not a licence for others to take his property. It may be stupid but stealing remains the action of the thief even if he does not break a lock to do it.
I would second the motion and add a few US voters and states into the discussion. (Mod this guy up!)
It is impossible to fix problems that people want to keep. They will simply fix your fix and like a dog or cat that has been "fixed".
The Energy situation in North America is that we have lived for about 60 years with a massive surplus of electricity generation capacity as a result of much regulation with careful managment and some Cold War supplies that came open as a result of the Nuclear builddowns of the 1980's. Well we are OUT of reserve. The Population growth has eaten it up. The Deregulation and Environmental Forces have conspired to see no new facilities of consequence. Population is rising at 3.5% per year due to unbridled Immigration
You go figure out a solution but remember! You can't build more or you would be against the Capitalists and the Eco Types. The Eco Types think that they can just stop and the Capitalists want a shortage to make money from. You can't Stop Immigration or you would be a "Racist" or a "Bigot" or something like that.... and so on. Well if anyone has a solution speak up and you will be shot by those who don't want one.
Just a final note: When the blackout happened the thing I noted was the sulfur stench in the air and smarting my eyes with SO2. You see I live in Alabama with the US TVA. For about a month after the blackout until the Nuke Stations got fully up in the North East, the US TVA carried the load. The had no more reserve using normal operations capacity so they kicked off the scrubbers and smoked the air but good! Burning about 300,000 kg of coal/min tends to make a lot of smoke!
While I wouldn't disagree, because I don't know about the comment facts. I would like to point out that Granada also has a few strategic factors like LOCATION that might have been a factor.
I live in Alabama. While the folks in California thought Nicaragua was no problem as their closest point is about 1300 miles (2000 Km) from the country I only live about 850 miles away and was well within range of the Russian Bombers that they were building runways for and also on Granada. The Critical link from Russia was Ganada to Nicaragua.
The supersonic bombers take about 20 to 30 minutes to get to my house and thus make very little of coastal defenses whereas they tended to give nearly twice the time to defend for California.
The Issue of a 12000 foot runway in Granada was Refueling for Strike and also basing. Doubtless other issues came up as well.
For those discussing the merits of US efforts, I submit that for the most part the Americas have not been the "Armed Camps" of war like Europeans and Asians is largely due to US Intervention and US VERY STRONG policy regards the rise of power in the region.This actually is the issue regards space based weapons. The USA is seeking to extract from the world the situation that has us perpetually at risk for massive destruction that currently exists. This is why.
The problem with these space based weapons is that they produce no terror. They serve absolutely no deterrent purpose. They are useless unless fired and appear as a "bolt from the blue" to the affected parties. There is little or no warning or "Callback" involved.
I prefer old fashioned Nukes for terror. That big hot mushroom cloud tends to get into the immagination and work quite well. You have to shoot one at somebody every now and then for this to work. The concept of you or your devices being suddenly destroyed without apparent cause or warning just doesn't come into mind very well especially for those not so aware.
The point here was driven home to me by being in the Philippines and then talking with my family there. (I am American all the way but married to a filippina.) These were pretty connected people who had been to Clark and Subic. They were personal associates with the government types and quite a few were Armed Forces Types. They simply had no clue about the "Cold War" etc.
It has been said that, "A truly successful army is one nobody dares to fight." This emphasis on high tech and super weapons is not scaring anybody and as such is not succeding at saving us the wars. These are doubltless damned effective killing machines. They are just about worthless as negotiation tools.
Don't mark me as against these weapons, just that the misunderstanding of their effect is horrendous. These weapons are for "Survival" not for any other purpose. They assure that in conflict the other guy loses. They are an insurance policy against death.
Regards Iraq, I appreciate all of the comments about how we misjudged (We did!) or that we have problems, (We do!) and etc. The whole problem here seems to be one of a lack of time machines. We cannot go back to the decision point and change what happened. We may only do with where we are now. So here is the lowdown.
The USA is going to lose about 20,000 killed in Iraq and about 100,000 wounded before it gets over. Don't wish for cheaper it would only have a worse result. Pulling out shy of doing the full job would only cause worse to happen. This is the road we are on so folks lets ride and quit fussing about what we "Should have done."
Believe me that I wish we had done much differently!
Failure! It never intended to succeed! It is a great success at that.
Homeland Security will give us the most excellent catalogue of the latest Al Qaeda damages and how every step was accomplished. This Faternal Order of Odd Toe Taggers (FOOTT) called the Homeland Security needs to step somewhere else. I have watched their regional drills. Money wasted by the ton as they figure out how to haul away the dead.Nobody discussed how if poison Gas was used to throw Baking Soda out to catch it or if it was a Biological Weapon how to teach the people to wash their hands... (oops this one needs to be done ahead of time doesn't it!)
It just gets worse and worse. They push the citizens asside and try to ignore them while the citizens regularly report the miscreants. In the end we all lose because citizenship is held in low regard while "professionalism" crushes it.Remember these are the people who are telling us we cannot control our borders while they manufacture the break by refusing to enforce the LAW!
Regards the signature... Just so you know it. Racism against Indians does not consist of telling the bad deeds of the Indian Government or those of various Indian Companies or of the US Government.
The most important thing to understand here is that this has nothing to do with Capitalism. Capitalism is where an investor invests money in return for a share of the profits. When the CEO takes the profits it is THEFT. When the CEO falsely posts profits it is FRAUD. When the CEO runs a company never intending to pay dividends, it is called "Selling the Blue Sky" a crime.
When the Company moves to another country to avoid US Laws and to avoid paying its investors the fact that US Trade Representative Zoellick calls it free trade and his minions around the world call it "Capitalism" doesn't make it so. The fact that the Press calls it Capitalism doesn't make them right. The fact that there are hired liars trying to make the current US Government Sponsored Trade War against the US Middle Class look good doesn't make it good.
Ughhhh! Am I going to have to endure a whole day without the borg guy popping in from M$ and sturring up something? Just imagine the SCO and M$ news that might really be hiding behind the Data, er Date?!
This is already the purpose of windows.
Usually the best Ideas originate as jokes. Could this be one of them?
On the other hand most government projects are jokes. So why can't /. have a few!?
I have 25 fully grown hens at my house. Each is able to carry at least 1 hard drive containing 280 gig. When chased by the 3 cocks I have these hens have been known to fly at a forward speed of about 30 km/hr for a distance upwards to 100m. So these hens should be able to carry a message of 7,000 Gig over 100m in just 9 sec. This would be about 7 times faster than a 10/100 line at max. My chickens should be at least as good as a Cat5e 10/100 Connection. Providing my Cocks are feeling sexy.
A substantial increase in efficiency for single transmissions can be achieved by throwing out some scratch mix. This performance boost is followed by a significant degrading of the transmission rate for several hours.
If the freezer gets empty this transmission rate may suffer a substantial decline.
I saw this problem when I first saw Electronic Calculators and saw fellow students in school writing out all those decimal places as part of the answer. (Those of us trained in slide rules never believed in that) Then I saw them actually make a mistake and then use that mistake in further and further calculations.
The problem here is two fold.
First the people using these machine guns for math don't know where to aim their shots. They really are using them to substitute for understanding what they are doing and to "Flock" the world with numbers. This gives rise to errors of judgement as well as the illusion that they actually know what they are doing.
To best illustrate this mistake look into cosmology. They use the "Model" of math to do a lot of limit calculations. Essentially they calculate a fraction 1/x where x approaches 0. This is fairly valid in the first 5 or 6 decimal places but after that it begins to degrade as the model departs reality. In the end when x reaches zero the math genius types here don't seem to understand that they are measuring a physical reaction and the lowest real number in the universe is 1! These limit calculations are convenient but in fact they should be calculating x/y where x is approaching a very large number and y is approaching 1. In any case the model has failed and this is the problem in Business math.
The second problem is the "unreality" of the numbers used for estimation in business. (Or science) Many things we simply do not have a measure over and do not control. As such making decisions assuming you have this from spreadsheet numbers is CRAZY.Mod this guy up EXTRA. He gets it. The RIAA problem is one of extortionists who are trying to continue to make the profits they made selling plastic LP Records when the system doesn't even need any media. They demand that the artists pay them and the consumers pay them. In the end what service does the RIAA do?
I generally do not buy and have not downloaded music. I do understand the marketing and know that these RIAA types are people without a service to sell. They have been bypassed by technology and are in the "Buggy Whip" business
With the history of police contracting out traffic enforcement to companies who rigged stop lights and used cameras it probably should worry people about what the police might do.
This isn't a case of "if you don't have anything to hide." Remember that RFID tags if spoofed could hang the wrong guy!
The case of someone exiting a bank post robbery gives "Probable Cause." But merely scanning everyone doesn't give "Probable Cause." This has to do with how we use and access the data. The bank camera is OK to use if the bank is robbed and I don't see RFID differently. The Bank camera used to simply scan for every infraction is probably a bad idea. This idea of not being worried about what the police do regards modern technology and RFID is historically unwise. Every time police forces use technology that is new, they abuse it until restrained. It just happens this way.
This is a serious issue. The matter of someone being able to monitor everything people do will call into question all manner of legal issues and definitely needs thought before it is implemented.
The issue of what this tech can be used for has so many deep and penetrating details. If RFID tags are in your purchace goods and you check out but they remain active as you drive down the road, can the police access the data without a search warrant? How about a marketing company checking all of the goods and seeing your travels etc. What do we do about Identity Theft here? There are so many issues that need looked into. Doubtless even if we try there are many more we have not even thought of yet.
Civilized people are facing the choice between the individual becoming merely a tool or cog in the Commercial world of the Industrialists or if the Industrialists tools will work for the Individual. Making this decision out of ignorance is not wise.
If you run a trade war against your own people where you make them markup their wages 150% in order to pay the taxes. If you allow all comers from around the world in tax free or low taxed. If you allow your mega corps to take your new tech stuff off shore to build it. If you run a space program that is "International" by staffing and access to data but "US" only for the bill. If you do all these things and a few more stupid things like sending a man to do a robot job. If your contractors are offshore but your contract is paid with domestic taxes. Is it any wonder what is happening?
What do you expect?
Mod this guy up a lot! He gets it. If M$ locks stuff up more, they will drive people to Linux. It is that simple. The reality of M$ trying to hold on this way is best seen in the efforts in China and India. Giving them more control will wipe them out faster
Well it will sooner or later come around that your buying records will become a public Police Record (As with the books you buy under the patriot act). Then they will pattern your buying as a "Terrorist" if you are not cooperating with the latest dictum. Or they will monitor you for diet and restrict your health benefits if you...(Whatever is the latest violation) I guess I had better get my "Tin Foil Hat" because somebody is likely to think I am crazy to say this.
The problem here is that RFID will get spoofed and tricked and counterfitted. It just looks like the most likely to get faked because of the lack of "Human" counter checking. Bar Codes can be faked easily with the scanners now, but the fact that there is a person looking over the goods and checking to see if the code made sense keeps this sort of fraud down. RFID has as its objective the end of the Human cross check.
Once faked, well you might just be a "Terrorist" by their data scan but the facts might just alter that a bit.
Well if you use this definition, the moon that we see from earth is actually in orbit around the sun. I know everybody will think it orbits the earth but in fact it co-orbits the sun with the earth. Map out its path if you doubt this.
Hey, I am an American and I like Linux! My admiration is for something that works. I like the fact that no longer does my money go to support an Robber-Baron who has very nearly destroyed the Software Development industry in the USA. I am very pro USA and like Linux so we need to drop the "Anti-American" from the reason it grows. Anti Robber-Barons maybe but not Anti-US.
This is not to say that some "Anti-US" feelings exist. They do.
For the record for my US fellow citizens, wake up! The feelings and impressions of the rest of the world may not all just be nationalism, hate and arrogance. I have family in the Philippines. I know that the impressions of the USA are not what most US people think. The reasons are not even close!
The "Freedom" stuff of the cold war days is HISTORY! Actually the USA is in many cases more "unfree" than other countries. The "Prosperity" stuff is also mostly in the past. The reasons for and the opinions vary greatly but frankly most US types need to be sent that famous post card showing the earth with the caption "Wish you were here." Most US Politicos need sent one showing the Milky Way with the same caption.
The United States Senate and House are pushing heavily to clarify the regulation of cable etc. Frankly since I am a bit older and suffer from that odd mental abnormality called MEMORY, I seriously question if the FCC does not have the power to regulate cable. I seem to remember a few odd events regarding Telephone conversations being a bit regulated regards profanity as well... (Yes they did in times past!)
There is another issue that seems to have been forgotten by the FCC. Very nearly all the CATV programming is TRANSMITTED before it gets to your CATV system. Seems to me this might just be not as unregulated an area as people think. It would appear that the FCC actually has been ignoring the issue. Dare we say avoiding enforcing the law?
Somebody Mod this guy up! He has told what is really going on. All the funny arguments to the contrary his report goes right to the fact. His report tells what is going on and right on the point.
What is going on in world trade is that the USA gave the EU the drivers seat regards the WTO and GATT and they are driving. The fact that it was American Ignorance that allowed this to develop does nothing to alter the fact.
Frankly as an American I am glad at several levels that M$ is getting the *#%##!!** knocked out of them by the EU. But this has more to do with the old dictum that in war, "The Enemy of my Enemy is my friend." M$ is probably everything and worse than described on /..
The reality of our world is that Americans are being IGNORANT of reality too much and are shall we say stepping in the manure. Examples of this extend widely and are too numerous to name here.
The whole issue centers around the issue or Nexis in law. (The Connection) So long as the law allows that you are connected or had contact with the Plaintiff you are subject to the laws he has. It would seem that since the webpage is deliberately placed in a media and advertized in a way such as to affect the actions of a person in this or that jurisdiction it comes under the law.
The problem is that the EU for example does not honor UTAH warrants like the 49 other US States do. So this really only applies inside the USA. The Netherlands tried to apply jurisdiction as did Belgium to the whole world over "War Crimes" recently. It almost worked but the USA had other ideas on the matter and turned some screws and that died.
The real issue here is that the Business pushing the spam is selling goods inside the USA so it pretty much comes under the Nexis of US Courts and Laws. It would take a simple act of US Law forbidding the collection of any foreign debt which was incurred outside of US Laws and the Spammers would be out of MONEY.
If any US State simply forbid the collection of Credit Cards and Payments of Debits with Triplicate Damages plus Legal the Money guys would get in line. (Same as US Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1979)