you know what's even better? When the players each have their own station in the same room. Even better than that? when there can be more than two or more than four of them.
Except for the whole smell thing. That does start to become an issue after awhile.
There are a few actually. Building security systems now are not dependent on landlines, so it's harder for someone to sever the security system's ability to report trouble. Medical alert monitoring is easier and works away from the residence more reliably. Cars can report-in when there's a likely automobile accident and can get map information in real-time instead of relying on outdated locally-stored maps exclusively. For those that want to spend the money, they can have full Internet access nearly everywhere they go, so businesses have made use of this for real-time status reporting (think package delivery) and for general Internet use.
Now, most of these were achieved with "G" and "2G" speeds. It's tough to say that beyond being able to add realtime video capability that there have been too many significant improvements.
The one specific thing that I'll acknowledge of Donald Trump is that he bows the least to political correctness that he disagrees with. Most people operating in political or media circles are very good at maintaining something of a filter on how they truly feel as compared to the image that they want to project. Trump has much less of a filter, and is more inclined to backpedal than to initially self-censor, or his self-censoring leaves just enough ambiguity or implication to state what he wants to without actually fully committing.
The downside is that this appeals to our baser natures; it brings us down, rather than attempting to make us better or to raise us to a higher standard. At least it's out in the open though.
Off the top of my head, space exploration has furthered materials science and telecommunications.
I'm sure that a lot of technology originally developed for space has ultimately contributed to our infrastructure. It may not have resulted in consumer products, but that doesn't mean that people don't rely on those developments every day.
Repairing existing infrastructure is not likely to need significant environmental impact studies, as the existing presence of the decaying infrastructure has already made its impact on the environment.
Countries have played technological leap-frog for some time. The United States was ahead of many European nations until their rebuilding after WWII made it necessary to put in new equipment, equipment that was arguably better than what the United States didn't have to replace in the first place.
As to Cuba and cell phones, it all depends on how much rural coverage they want and how much potential disruption in urban areas they want in order to put in ubiquitous urban networks. Personally, if they're going to install conduit they may as well design a very open and versatile "layer 0" to allow for easy future growth or revision, regardless of what technology might be vogue at the time.
yeah, but some people also swear by the sound quality of vinyl. which is something that books can't claim.
Don't underestimate the feel of quality paper providing the right contrast between ink and page such that reading is very easy on the eyes and on the hands holding the book, the typefaces used in the book, and the kerning that an expert typesetter has chosen to make the printed page easiest to read.
Granted, mass-market paperbacks and cheap hardcovers may not have as much attention to detail, but I've found that ebooks have a lot of problems with special formatting unless they've literally gone the route of PDF, at which case you lose the supposed advantages of scaling and such.
The printed book also makes it very easy to access appendices. I read a fair amount of science fiction and fantasy. These works often come maps, and in multi-volume series they'll list characters and define technological terms so that the reader may easily figure out where they left off. None of the ebook readers that I have played with have had easy ways to use the appendices for these.
There don't seem to be very many good free alternatives other than microsoft's default package. I've wondered if it's possible for me to make my own security system, but I've never given it a good amount of thought.
If classification is the name of the game, couldn't you use some machine learning techniques based on what malware does and write your own classifier?
If I remember right Thunderbyte Antivirus did something much like that. At some point Thunderbyte was bought-out and I honestly have no idea what happened after that.
In my opinion, the best approach for malware that is pulled-in by the user is to restrict what the user can do to the computer. Yes, that means annoying issues installing software such that a privileged account has to be logged into, but it also means that if the user makes serious mistakes the solution is to back up their non-executable data, delete their account and its files, and recreate and restore the data.
On all of my Windows boxes I set up the user to have only minimal permissions. I reserve administrative functions for an admin account.
There's a difference though. At a minimum to use a vinyl record player I have to have electrical power, a record-player that's in good working order, and a record that's playable. This is basically the same set of considerations for playing any music recorded on to a physical medium that's machine-interpreted, be it CD, tape, player-piano, minidisc, phonograph cylinder, whatever, with the exception that there are a few mechanically-powered forms (phonograph disc, phonograph cylinder, and player-piano) where there are entirely mechanical machines that come with their own issues.
To read a book I need the book, at least for approximately 50% of the day, and the other 50% of the day I'm stuck with the same constraints as I am for anything else in the form of the availability of artificial light.
For e-book readers, depending on the reader, I need a power source to at least charge, and I need to connect the reader to another device (at least minimally a computer in the retailer if my e-book reader lacks any kind of network/wifi, but most likely a computer or wifi at home). For readers that go a VERY long time I still need a light source, or for readers that work in the dark I need to be able to replace or recharge batteries frequently.
I've suggested a fairly straightforward approach before, as we have a lot of problems with insurance here too... When conditions prompt an officer to confirm the paperwork for an automobile and driver, if two forms of paperwork are not in-order then the car is impounded. So, if the driver cannot produce both current proof of insurance and cannot produce a driver's license, or if the insurance and the vehicle registration are both expired, or if the driver's license is suspended and the registration is expired, the car is at least temporarily seized until such time that the owner of the vehicle can produce valid paperwork. On top of that, if any paperwork should prove to be fraudulent like forged proof of insurance or forged registration/title paperwork or a VIN mismatch, the vehicle should be impounded even if only that one form of paperwork is out-of-order, and if the State-issued paperwork is out-of-order, the officer should detain the driver on the scene until the VIN issue can either be resolved (ie, confirm that the VIN on the car itself is not registered as stolen) or the driver should be arrested pending resolution of the situation.
Yes, these situations will result in some people having their cars confiscated who will probably not be able to sort-out the problems to get them back. On the other hand everyone is held to the same standard- one must have a license, one must have insurance, and one must have a properly titled and registered vehicle. Where I live a license costs something like $30 and one has to pass a couple of simple tests, and be able to produce vital-records paperwork to get the license. Title is literally $5 if I remember correctly, and registration is a sliding-scale based on a depreciation of a percentage of initial purchase price, until reaching a floor of $25 after a decade. The only part of driving that is actually expensive is the insurance, but again, everyone is supposed to have it. My point is, if someone cannot maintain these then they really shouldn't be driving, and if they drive after having these taken away in defiance of the law then I don't really have a problem with the law being used to take away the instrument that they've used to break it. If someone is not allowed to drive and they leave the car parked then there isn't a problem and thus there's no need to confiscate it, but if they drive anyway then they do so at the peril of their vehicle.
That was my take on it too, or that they're from this otherwise unknown gas giant that's now gone. Hell, so by this measure Pluto might have formed as a moon and become a rogue planet due to gravitational disruption...
One of the dangers in creating such a scenario is that if the executive branch no longer has its confimed long-term appointees, the highest-ranking lifetime bureaucrats that are not appointed and serve through multiple administrations become the de-facto leaders of their departments. You end up with Deputy Directors with more power than cabinet secretaries, and if those Deputy Directors do not go along with the plans of the President they can make the President little more than a figurehead.
One should study the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who was impeached but whose conviction fell short by a single vote if memory serves. He basically just filled a chair the rest of his Presidency.
I gather I would agree with a good chunk of what Mr. Lessig wants to achieve, but I don't think that his proposal for how to go about changing it is workable. Politics is local. Local people run for local offices, and then run for regional offices, then statewide office, then Federal office. If one doesn't pay attention to those people at the local level one can't complain too much for what crap floats to the top.
No, but the passage of a law would mean that the corporation as a layer between its owners and its assets would find its "rights" are solely those of its owners, rather than a second set defined for itself.
I've found that when I'm horribly verbally abusive to telemarketers they actually take me off of their calling list. For that to work one has to make it very personal to the individual on the other end of the line. Be careful though, do not stray into threat territory. It actually works best when one suggests an action for them to perform upon themselves, the more vulgar, the better. The goal is to put the call center operator out-of-sorts. They're used to people being rude, but if one is vulgar in a way they're not expecting then it can work.
I also once managed to figure out the name of a telemarketing firm, and from there was able to find the name of the owner, and due to his Linked In profile I was able to find his home telephone number, and it turned out he was actually local. I called him at dinner time and we had a little chat. They never called me again after that. Probably helped that his firm was somewhat trying to run as a local business regarding energy efficiency (something like the Go Green campaign) and were doing the telemarketing in-house instead of contracting it out, but after our little chat the calls from his company ended.
Phones are used to communicate. How about identifying the carrier, going to the carrier with a subpoena for the ownership information and communications logs, and go from there?
It's also common for a new player to play to somewhat disadvantaged groups first in order to let the goodwill from their actions help force the changes they need to be in the market, only to drop those disadvantaged groups once they no longer need them anymore.
Prices falling does not mean that service quality rises. It usually means that the product or service quality drops too, but since the consumer can't shop-around terribly easily the consumer accepts the quality drop out of pragmatism.
How the fuck does this "company's" market capitalization rise to the level of $5 billions. It's like a cross between the game of musical chairs and herpes. It's fun while everyone is listening to the music and switching seats, but when your friends find out about the results of your medical tests, you may end up flat on your ass.
Same way the dotcom bubble happened. People that do not truly know what it takes to make something work are looking for the next hot thing to jump on to ride to profit, so they throw money at anything that looks different hoping some of it will work, and thus the hype builds. Uber is the sexy thing right now, and it's growth rate has actually influenced its growth rate in a feedback loop.
Once governments crack-down on Uber for what it is, a passenger livery company operating by ignoring passenger-livery laws, it will either have to meld into the fray of all of the other passenger livery companies and it won't really be cheaper, or it will go bust.
The future of passenger livery will be in autonomous vehicles. The bulk of the employees will be office staff that handle company paperwork or will be mechanics servicing the vehicles on a schedule. Actual drivers will be limited to chauffering clients that pay for premium service and don't want to touch a door handle or their own bags, or to senior care or medical transport where the driver may have to work with custom wheelchairs or have to provide assistance in and out of the vehicle. Run of the mill point-A to point-B won't require a company representative to accompany the passenger. The owner or leasee of the fleet will be the licensing point for the livery company, be it one car or a thousand cars.
And even if Uber requires proof of commercial insurance from a driver in order to begin to drive for them, I can call up my insurance agent, get any insurance changes I need made and pay the premium over the phone, get paperwork sent to me to prove it, then call that agent up again a few days later and cancel the policy and get a refund sans the days that have already passed that I was covered for.
Slashdot Mirror
you know what's even better? When the players each have their own station in the same room. Even better than that? when there can be more than two or more than four of them.
Except for the whole smell thing. That does start to become an issue after awhile.
Heh. I'm trying to figure out what this has to do with geek/tech news.
There are articles on Slashdot?
There are a few actually. Building security systems now are not dependent on landlines, so it's harder for someone to sever the security system's ability to report trouble. Medical alert monitoring is easier and works away from the residence more reliably. Cars can report-in when there's a likely automobile accident and can get map information in real-time instead of relying on outdated locally-stored maps exclusively. For those that want to spend the money, they can have full Internet access nearly everywhere they go, so businesses have made use of this for real-time status reporting (think package delivery) and for general Internet use.
Now, most of these were achieved with "G" and "2G" speeds. It's tough to say that beyond being able to add realtime video capability that there have been too many significant improvements.
The one specific thing that I'll acknowledge of Donald Trump is that he bows the least to political correctness that he disagrees with. Most people operating in political or media circles are very good at maintaining something of a filter on how they truly feel as compared to the image that they want to project. Trump has much less of a filter, and is more inclined to backpedal than to initially self-censor, or his self-censoring leaves just enough ambiguity or implication to state what he wants to without actually fully committing.
The downside is that this appeals to our baser natures; it brings us down, rather than attempting to make us better or to raise us to a higher standard. At least it's out in the open though.
Off the top of my head, space exploration has furthered materials science and telecommunications.
I'm sure that a lot of technology originally developed for space has ultimately contributed to our infrastructure. It may not have resulted in consumer products, but that doesn't mean that people don't rely on those developments every day.
Repairing existing infrastructure is not likely to need significant environmental impact studies, as the existing presence of the decaying infrastructure has already made its impact on the environment.
Honestly, the biggest problem is financial cost.
Countries have played technological leap-frog for some time. The United States was ahead of many European nations until their rebuilding after WWII made it necessary to put in new equipment, equipment that was arguably better than what the United States didn't have to replace in the first place.
As to Cuba and cell phones, it all depends on how much rural coverage they want and how much potential disruption in urban areas they want in order to put in ubiquitous urban networks. Personally, if they're going to install conduit they may as well design a very open and versatile "layer 0" to allow for easy future growth or revision, regardless of what technology might be vogue at the time.
yeah, but some people also swear by the sound quality of vinyl. which is something that books can't claim.
Don't underestimate the feel of quality paper providing the right contrast between ink and page such that reading is very easy on the eyes and on the hands holding the book, the typefaces used in the book, and the kerning that an expert typesetter has chosen to make the printed page easiest to read.
Granted, mass-market paperbacks and cheap hardcovers may not have as much attention to detail, but I've found that ebooks have a lot of problems with special formatting unless they've literally gone the route of PDF, at which case you lose the supposed advantages of scaling and such.
The printed book also makes it very easy to access appendices. I read a fair amount of science fiction and fantasy. These works often come maps, and in multi-volume series they'll list characters and define technological terms so that the reader may easily figure out where they left off. None of the ebook readers that I have played with have had easy ways to use the appendices for these.
There don't seem to be very many good free alternatives other than microsoft's default package. I've wondered if it's possible for me to make my own security system, but I've never given it a good amount of thought.
If classification is the name of the game, couldn't you use some machine learning techniques based on what malware does and write your own classifier?
If I remember right Thunderbyte Antivirus did something much like that. At some point Thunderbyte was bought-out and I honestly have no idea what happened after that.
In my opinion, the best approach for malware that is pulled-in by the user is to restrict what the user can do to the computer. Yes, that means annoying issues installing software such that a privileged account has to be logged into, but it also means that if the user makes serious mistakes the solution is to back up their non-executable data, delete their account and its files, and recreate and restore the data.
On all of my Windows boxes I set up the user to have only minimal permissions. I reserve administrative functions for an admin account.
There's a difference though. At a minimum to use a vinyl record player I have to have electrical power, a record-player that's in good working order, and a record that's playable. This is basically the same set of considerations for playing any music recorded on to a physical medium that's machine-interpreted, be it CD, tape, player-piano, minidisc, phonograph cylinder, whatever, with the exception that there are a few mechanically-powered forms (phonograph disc, phonograph cylinder, and player-piano) where there are entirely mechanical machines that come with their own issues.
To read a book I need the book, at least for approximately 50% of the day, and the other 50% of the day I'm stuck with the same constraints as I am for anything else in the form of the availability of artificial light.
For e-book readers, depending on the reader, I need a power source to at least charge, and I need to connect the reader to another device (at least minimally a computer in the retailer if my e-book reader lacks any kind of network/wifi, but most likely a computer or wifi at home). For readers that go a VERY long time I still need a light source, or for readers that work in the dark I need to be able to replace or recharge batteries frequently.
I've suggested a fairly straightforward approach before, as we have a lot of problems with insurance here too... When conditions prompt an officer to confirm the paperwork for an automobile and driver, if two forms of paperwork are not in-order then the car is impounded. So, if the driver cannot produce both current proof of insurance and cannot produce a driver's license, or if the insurance and the vehicle registration are both expired, or if the driver's license is suspended and the registration is expired, the car is at least temporarily seized until such time that the owner of the vehicle can produce valid paperwork. On top of that, if any paperwork should prove to be fraudulent like forged proof of insurance or forged registration/title paperwork or a VIN mismatch, the vehicle should be impounded even if only that one form of paperwork is out-of-order, and if the State-issued paperwork is out-of-order, the officer should detain the driver on the scene until the VIN issue can either be resolved (ie, confirm that the VIN on the car itself is not registered as stolen) or the driver should be arrested pending resolution of the situation.
Yes, these situations will result in some people having their cars confiscated who will probably not be able to sort-out the problems to get them back. On the other hand everyone is held to the same standard- one must have a license, one must have insurance, and one must have a properly titled and registered vehicle. Where I live a license costs something like $30 and one has to pass a couple of simple tests, and be able to produce vital-records paperwork to get the license. Title is literally $5 if I remember correctly, and registration is a sliding-scale based on a depreciation of a percentage of initial purchase price, until reaching a floor of $25 after a decade. The only part of driving that is actually expensive is the insurance, but again, everyone is supposed to have it. My point is, if someone cannot maintain these then they really shouldn't be driving, and if they drive after having these taken away in defiance of the law then I don't really have a problem with the law being used to take away the instrument that they've used to break it. If someone is not allowed to drive and they leave the car parked then there isn't a problem and thus there's no need to confiscate it, but if they drive anyway then they do so at the peril of their vehicle.
Depending on how extensive the network is, the car's conventional odometer could be used to assess a usage tax.
If the system is not extensive enough then a special trip-odometer could be fitted to count the distance driven on the system.
no, "X" for variable, not "X" for Roman Numeral ten.
Yes, I know it was in jest.
That was my take on it too, or that they're from this otherwise unknown gas giant that's now gone. Hell, so by this measure Pluto might have formed as a moon and become a rogue planet due to gravitational disruption...
Congress can override a veto.
One of the dangers in creating such a scenario is that if the executive branch no longer has its confimed long-term appointees, the highest-ranking lifetime bureaucrats that are not appointed and serve through multiple administrations become the de-facto leaders of their departments. You end up with Deputy Directors with more power than cabinet secretaries, and if those Deputy Directors do not go along with the plans of the President they can make the President little more than a figurehead.
One should study the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who was impeached but whose conviction fell short by a single vote if memory serves. He basically just filled a chair the rest of his Presidency.
I gather I would agree with a good chunk of what Mr. Lessig wants to achieve, but I don't think that his proposal for how to go about changing it is workable. Politics is local. Local people run for local offices, and then run for regional offices, then statewide office, then Federal office. If one doesn't pay attention to those people at the local level one can't complain too much for what crap floats to the top.
No, but the passage of a law would mean that the corporation as a layer between its owners and its assets would find its "rights" are solely those of its owners, rather than a second set defined for itself.
I've found that when I'm horribly verbally abusive to telemarketers they actually take me off of their calling list. For that to work one has to make it very personal to the individual on the other end of the line. Be careful though, do not stray into threat territory. It actually works best when one suggests an action for them to perform upon themselves, the more vulgar, the better. The goal is to put the call center operator out-of-sorts. They're used to people being rude, but if one is vulgar in a way they're not expecting then it can work.
I also once managed to figure out the name of a telemarketing firm, and from there was able to find the name of the owner, and due to his Linked In profile I was able to find his home telephone number, and it turned out he was actually local. I called him at dinner time and we had a little chat. They never called me again after that. Probably helped that his firm was somewhat trying to run as a local business regarding energy efficiency (something like the Go Green campaign) and were doing the telemarketing in-house instead of contracting it out, but after our little chat the calls from his company ended.
Phones are used to communicate. How about identifying the carrier, going to the carrier with a subpoena for the ownership information and communications logs, and go from there?
It's also common for a new player to play to somewhat disadvantaged groups first in order to let the goodwill from their actions help force the changes they need to be in the market, only to drop those disadvantaged groups once they no longer need them anymore.
Compared to so many horrible recurring spam offtopic posts the cow one is almost a breath of fresh air.
Not when there are other negative factors created due to the increase in supply.
Prices falling does not mean that service quality rises. It usually means that the product or service quality drops too, but since the consumer can't shop-around terribly easily the consumer accepts the quality drop out of pragmatism.
How the fuck does this "company's" market capitalization rise to the level of $5 billions. It's like a cross between the game of musical chairs and herpes. It's fun while everyone is listening to the music and switching seats, but when your friends find out about the results of your medical tests, you may end up flat on your ass.
Same way the dotcom bubble happened. People that do not truly know what it takes to make something work are looking for the next hot thing to jump on to ride to profit, so they throw money at anything that looks different hoping some of it will work, and thus the hype builds. Uber is the sexy thing right now, and it's growth rate has actually influenced its growth rate in a feedback loop.
Once governments crack-down on Uber for what it is, a passenger livery company operating by ignoring passenger-livery laws, it will either have to meld into the fray of all of the other passenger livery companies and it won't really be cheaper, or it will go bust.
The future of passenger livery will be in autonomous vehicles. The bulk of the employees will be office staff that handle company paperwork or will be mechanics servicing the vehicles on a schedule. Actual drivers will be limited to chauffering clients that pay for premium service and don't want to touch a door handle or their own bags, or to senior care or medical transport where the driver may have to work with custom wheelchairs or have to provide assistance in and out of the vehicle. Run of the mill point-A to point-B won't require a company representative to accompany the passenger. The owner or leasee of the fleet will be the licensing point for the livery company, be it one car or a thousand cars.
And even if Uber requires proof of commercial insurance from a driver in order to begin to drive for them, I can call up my insurance agent, get any insurance changes I need made and pay the premium over the phone, get paperwork sent to me to prove it, then call that agent up again a few days later and cancel the policy and get a refund sans the days that have already passed that I was covered for.