RCA Victor is proud to announce our newest advances in consumer video distribution:
As you well know, audiophiles have historically complained about the poor quality of digital CD recordings for their compressed frequency response range, tendency to degrade over time, and fragile nature, compared to their vaunted vinyl LPs. Abstracting on this technology, we have revised our cherished RCA Selectavision Video Disc system to the new RCA Selectavision Gold Video Disc System! Now, you too can own movie gold! Stored on a golden, grooved disc and read with a stylus, you can enjoy hundreds of years of quality video reproduction, with no fading, "laser rot", or incompatible compression schemes, just pure, high quality video reproduction!
Check out these incredible features:
Incredible, one touch play system! No menus to navigate, just put it in and hit play! It even closes the tray for you!
Real, true analog video! None of this lossy compression associated with Digital Video Discs, just true, unlimited quality analog! Want better picture? Just buy the higher resolution player! All discs are encoded at the highest quality, so you 'see' what you want with the player you choose!
Digital Sound? Your ears aren't Digital! Our high quality CX/Matte surround stereo system encodes audio the way you hear it, in pristine, analog form!
Live somewhere where theft is a problem? No problem! Our media is large enough and solid enough that your average "grab and go" criminal won't be able to take it, even if he's tempted by the solid gold, 24K construction. He may lust after it, but he can't take it!
Prices for this marvel start at $300 for the unit, and $2,500 per title! And, we'll even give you a trade in of $5.00 per proof of purchase for each title in your existing collection that you replace with your RCA Gold release! For a collection of 100 movies, that's a savings of nearly $500!
I got my first computer in 1988, and I started using it heavily in 1992, BBSing in as much free time as a twelve-year-old was allowed to have. I was diagnosed with mild near-sightedness a year later. While it's possible that I was already having problems, I didn't recall having trouble until then, and during times when I've been on vacation and not needed to sit two and a half feet from a screen and also avoided reading books for a couple of weeks I find that my far-field vision actually improves temporarily.
I know that this is very unscientifically reasoned, but I suspect that my continued use of computers and my love for reading are both contributing to my eye sight problems. My vision is not very bad (20/40 in one eye, probably 20/60 in the other) and I could probably pass a driving test without my glasses. I can see perfectly clearly up to three or four feet with my left eye as well, and about a foot with my right eye.
I've also noticed that the amount of light strongly dictates how badly my vision is impaired. I can read signs at 30 feet without my glasses on during the day, and I can see a movie without correction too. At night or in lower light conditions I need the adjustment that my glasses give me.
I'm considering getting prescription sunglasses when I get my new prescription, and wearing them for driving, so to try to not wear any glasses at all when I'm not driving. I want to see if my own lifestyle has made my vision worse, and if so, to see if I can correct it or at least improve it by myself. I'd love to not have to wear glasses except at night, and if that means turning off the computer more often and spending more time outside then maybe for my health it's worth it.
"I've worked for large corporations for most of my adult life. I've always had admin access to myown machines, and I doubt I'de work at a company that thoight it was necessary to remove it. A network admin that can't keep the network usable, despite all the crazy shit users get up to, just isn't very good at his job, IMO."
When I was a student at the university I used the X-terminals that they had in the computing sites. I didn't have any access more than any one else who had userlevel access to the UNIX machines. The only perk that I had was that a teacher was willing to sign off on expanding my AFS account to the maximum 200MB size, so that I had room to store programs that I had compiled locally. I was able to use my own choice of windowmanager, productivity suite, and even things like IRC clients and web browsers without needing insanely high levels of access. Yeah, I did a lot of my own compiling, but only because it was an HP-UX machine, so there weren't precompiled binaries for some of what I wanted to do. If it had been a Sun box or a Linux box it would have been even easier.
Local administrator access isn't necessary if the computer allows users to install software at a user level rather than on a systemwide level. Since user software should all run in userland that should never have become an issue. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to do things different and we all pay the price for that.
Yeah, but that's a lot more involved than just walking up the Director of Audit Service's desk, looking at the back of the photo of his daughter, and typing the name that was written down into the password field...
And the process that I describe and use really doesn't take any skill with a computer.
I tape it under my mouse to be secure through being more obscure. Unfortunately since I've been using a GUI on the box, the ink got smudged since I wrote it down a year ago.
I'm trying to figure out if you're attempting to be sarcastic in places or not, but I'm still not quite sure.
The keys need to be held by only a small group of people. "Too many cooks spoil the soup" applies very well to a corporate network, even down to the workstation configuration. It's possible to screw up the whole enchilada from that point too, ore at least have some major negative effect, and it's much better that if the intent is for it to be a managed network for it to be managed, dammit. If not, it's a free-for-all.
Many of my users are very smart people. Unfortunately, they're good only with their own home PCs. They don't understand why we don't always do things the same way that they themselves do them, nor will they until they come to appreciate the demands that present themselves in trying to keep a 30,000 computer network up and functioning for everyone despite their different needs. Where I work, our network is supported by ten field and bench technicians, two data cabling technicians, two telephone system technicians, and four helpdesk persons as far as interface-with-the-user support is concerned. Our back end is four network engineers, four software specialists, one AS/400 administrator, two Computer Operators, and a slew of programmers to write the software that the users will do their jobs with. It's a very, very small department given the size of the organization, and if we had better, tighter control over the security of the workstations it'd be a much easier job.
Re:Very true
on
Insider Threat
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"This book reminded me of another good read, Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick. You would be surprised how easy it is to get information from people."
No, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm able to figure out any random user's password about 70% of the time just based on their pictures or other obvious habits. Couple that with organizations that give users full local computer administrator access (the bane of any kind of real security) and weak password schemes on remote systems and it's a wonder that there aren't MORE problems than there are.
I understand why some of the lackadasical policies on security have come to exist; IT departments not responding quickly to user requests for necessary changes in access causes users to fight for access, IT departments' annoyance with having to change user access on a frequent basis causes their own annoyance, and software that requires more access to install or use than should really be necessary all contribute to this problem. It also doesn't help that some of the many business-friendly devices like PDAs use the same conduits that tiny, insecure storage devices like USB Flash Memory use, so people wishing to steal data can do so with ease.
I do understand why company owners or upper management want to have the ability to have admin-level access; it's easier if they have to fire an IT administrator to be able to set up the account for a new IT adminsitrator, it's easier if they have to provide access to some kind of emergency after-hours IT consultant, and it's just good for the owner to have a key. The trouble is that too many owners decide to use such an account as their own personal account rather than to operate on restricted account and only log in as the SysOp when necessary. I've seen many neophyte Linux users operate as root 24/7, only to be compromised by a trojan, or much more common, break the computer themselves by mistake because they fumbled something that would have been trivial as a user, but catastrophic as root.
I can't remember the last time that I had to log in as root on my own box; I read logs and have basic hardware management set so my user account can handle it, but I rarely if ever have to change IP addresses or renew a DHCP lease by hand, reboot, or reconfigure anything. When I have to, sudo is my friend, so I don't even have to run a root shell unless I'm going to be spending so much time changing or editing that running a shell makes sense. I'd rather just not take the risk.
Well, if I were an informant, I'd get a second phone. If I were an undercover officer, I'd imagine that the department itself would issue me some way to communicate that I'd use exclusively with them.
If I were trying to find a Narc, I'd be more inclined to try to look at their cell phone myself for a few minutes than I would be to try to obtain other records, at least at first. That's free, versus spending money and standing out. If I were absolutely certain of their connections then I wouldn't bother to buy records and leave a trail to follow, and if I were just suspicious then I'd keep observing them and going over past situations to try to determine a pattern that confirms the suspicion or not.
If they are attorneys, then that problem is handily solved. Of course, if they have that kind of money, they already probably have a lawyer or two on retainer, so the actual hit might not be bad at all.
"Absolutely true. The moral crime occurs when you copy something that you (or the person you give it to) might otherwise have bought. This deprives the creators of income."
Another one for you to wrap your brain around... What if the creator wasn't selling the software, or if it was otherwise unavailable through any official means to the recipient? This becomes important with out-of-print books, movies, and music in the non-computer realm, and can be interesting for embedded software and old versions of progams and operating systems. It further applies to things like old console games that inventive people have managed to copy from ROM chips into PC-usable data, so that the games can be used with video-game system emulators. Nintendo, Sega, Namco, Konami, etc aren't producing more copies of the games for the old systems, let alone continuing to port the existing software for the new ones. In that regard these companies have made contributions to culture and then restricted the availablity of that, straining culture or forcing it to abandon what it holds dear on account of corporate will, not will of the society.
That last one is a little more outlandish, but the same basic principle applies, even if a little obtuse.
"It shouldn't be as hard as it is to say, 'Bush, you fucked up. You're out. We're going to give some other horses ass a shot.'."
If people would understand that if they didn't re-elect the same people unless they really, really proved that they earned it then perhaps our political system and government wouldn't be so screwed up. Yeah, in 2004 Kerry was probably not the strongest candidate to run against Bush, but we'd already given Bush four years to do the job, and his performance was lackluster at absolute best. I wanted someone, ANYONE else to do the job for four years, and if they sucked, we not re-elect them either. When someone comes along who doesn't suck then perhaps they get a chance at a second term, otherwise they're out. If the public did this for three or four presidential elections then perhaps we'd actually get a decent set of candidates to choose from...
"It disturbs me we as a society equate morals with laws. Yes laws do include legislation of morality and have for centuries, but also legislates how we properly do business which has no basis or common ethics or Christian teachings."
You bring up a good point that I hadn't even realised. I hadn't applied the prospect to copyright compared to theft. If I compare copyright infringement to theft of tangible goods I find that the theft of goods deprives a person or a group of persons of a thing, which is a thing that that person or group of persons cannot sell, use, or otherwise decide a fate over. Software isn't a thing, in that nothing physical from the original creator of the software is required in order for anyone to have access to the software, so "theft" isn't the proper term.
I don't personally play video games anymore. I haven't since the days of Quake II. If I had copies of copyrighted software but didn't use them it would be no different than if I didn't have them at all. This distinction becomes important because ideas like software, music, movies, television shows, and the like are all contributions to culture, and in my opinion culture is much too important to let anyone control for too long, and I also believe that if a group chooses to contribute to culture in order to profit by it then they should lose some hold over that which is their contribution. It becomes culture's property, and thus public domain, rather than remaining excluive to the creator.
It appears that my ideas aren't supported by the majority of people right now, unfortunately, and continued copyright extensions are proof enough of that.
"I hope you realize that an `Informative' mod can also, like grandparent, be a joke. He did, after all, provide information about this deadly substance."
And vice versa. I find that half of time the hard-found information that I post to slashdot is somehow considered Funny...
Does it? There's no shortage of new cars on the road here, despite the levy on using them on public roads. The auto industry has historically done an impeccable job of convincing people that they need a new car every few years anyway, even if it would still be cheaper to repair and maintain their current one.
Powerplants in automobiles really haven't changed over the last 40 years compared to other industries' technological improvements. The Chrysler 318 was produced from 1967 to 2003 with only minor revisions. The physical block never changed, save for the lack of drilling out an oil galley when they switched to oiling through the rocker arm pushrod instead of oiling through the rocker shaft. The Chevrolet 305, 350, and 454 are still in production if memory serves, and those are staples of the '60s as well if again I'm thinking straight. If the federal government created evolving standards for increasing fuel economy and forced automakers to support their products by creating retrofit assemblies that would allow for me to put new, inexpensive better burn cylinder heads, ported fuel injection, and better post-combustion emissions lowering equipment that could fairly easily be installed on older vehicles then I don't think that it would be a problem. I'd love it if I could keep driving my '78 Chrysler Cordoba for another 20 years because an emissions-certified upgrade could be performed that would be easy to maintain and would provide power equivalent to the modern 360 engines used in Dodge trucks through 2003.
As for safety features, seatbelts were mandated in 1964 or thereabouts. Airbags weren't standard until the 1990s, and passenger airbags, side airbags, and other things are still new or reasonably new. Disc brakes have been standard on most cars and trucks for the front wheels since the early seventies, and we still use drum brakes on the back today on almost all standard-duty vehicles. Yes, older cars don't have cab-deformation hinderances like new cars, but as the driver of an older car I know that and I try to be careful. I also know that if I'm really worried about it, I can go to a frame shop and have front and rear sub-frame connectors put in, which will strengthen the car through the middle. And without crash statistics compared to hospital statistics I can't make the blanket statement that more people are injured in older cars than newer ones. I won't say that it's not true, but I won't say that it is true either.
Cars are supposed to be durable goods. With as much as they cost, they should be in service for at least a decade, and with proper maintenance potentially a lot longer than that. It's dumb to spend $20,000 or more on something only to get rid of it in a couple of years for another. We could save a lot of money by not playing the fad replacement game.
So, I guess we won't be using thep pringle-can macro lens to look at the server hosting the pringle-can macro lens site, unless we want to look at a charred, burned out hulk that used to be computer chassis...
Here is a pringle can antenna. This is a pringle can pinhole camera. Another pringles project, a pencil holder. A bunch more uses for pringle cans are available here.
How about just leaving vehicle registration taxes like Arizona's in effect? Here, plates are based on vehicle worth, depreciated from the time the car was new something like 16% per year until down to $20. A new Escalade could cost a couple grand to put on plates, while that Hyundai Accent might only be $200 new to register.
This eliminates the entire problem of cost/miles when miles could be in different states, without having to track individual movements. If you don't like the tax, drive an older vehicle or cheaper one. If you try to pull a fast one by not registering your car in-state then you'll be cited and fined $500, plus the cost to register.
Enforcement is starting to go up against our seasonal "visitors" who move here for six months, let 'em get burned and have to register. They're the ones polluting our air every winter anyway.
"Is this industrial espionage at work or only bluff?"
Actually, I talked to someone from Google awhile ago who said that there was a new feature coming out but didn't say what it was, but when I suggested that it was a good thing that they didn't yet give it a forward DNS resolve he just got real quiet. It's possible that someone just looked up available resolves from Google's DNS servers and extracted base.google.com, and proceded to figure out what it did.
Yeah, after a move I got lazy and didn't hook my main workstation back up (it had a bad cap on the motherboard anyway, so that still needs to be addressed) so I went from 1.5GB RAM in that computer to my laptop, which has 192MB RAM. Other than GIMP and browsing some Fark Photoshop contests I don't have any problem running with 192MB RAM with a 2.4 kernel and Gnome.
So if it or anything else with its own onboard power system blew up it wouldn't take out the primary habitat. Or, so that devices used out in the lunar environment proper would be less likely to traffic lunar fines into the main living area. Think of it as a detached garage.
That may be true, but I've got to think that as a human, I'd rather increase the amount of survivable space to as much as I could afford or justify. It'd be a way of bringing some kind of feeling of home with me. Seeing as how it would probably be safest to store equipment under some kind of physical shield anyway it may as well be a pressurized environment to make things more comfortable for me.
so maintenance can easily be performed upon it?
I don't know about you, but I'm annoyed enough working on my car outdoors on this planet, when I'd much rather work on it in a garage where I can control lighting, temperature, and cleanliness of the workspace better than I can exposed...
Slashdot Mirror
As you well know, audiophiles have historically complained about the poor quality of digital CD recordings for their compressed frequency response range, tendency to degrade over time, and fragile nature, compared to their vaunted vinyl LPs. Abstracting on this technology, we have revised our cherished RCA Selectavision Video Disc system to the new RCA Selectavision Gold Video Disc System! Now, you too can own movie gold! Stored on a golden, grooved disc and read with a stylus, you can enjoy hundreds of years of quality video reproduction, with no fading, "laser rot", or incompatible compression schemes, just pure, high quality video reproduction!
Check out these incredible features:
Prices for this marvel start at $300 for the unit, and $2,500 per title! And, we'll even give you a trade in of $5.00 per proof of purchase for each title in your existing collection that you replace with your RCA Gold release! For a collection of 100 movies, that's a savings of nearly $500!
Call to order now!
I got my first computer in 1988, and I started using it heavily in 1992, BBSing in as much free time as a twelve-year-old was allowed to have. I was diagnosed with mild near-sightedness a year later. While it's possible that I was already having problems, I didn't recall having trouble until then, and during times when I've been on vacation and not needed to sit two and a half feet from a screen and also avoided reading books for a couple of weeks I find that my far-field vision actually improves temporarily.
I know that this is very unscientifically reasoned, but I suspect that my continued use of computers and my love for reading are both contributing to my eye sight problems. My vision is not very bad (20/40 in one eye, probably 20/60 in the other) and I could probably pass a driving test without my glasses. I can see perfectly clearly up to three or four feet with my left eye as well, and about a foot with my right eye.
I've also noticed that the amount of light strongly dictates how badly my vision is impaired. I can read signs at 30 feet without my glasses on during the day, and I can see a movie without correction too. At night or in lower light conditions I need the adjustment that my glasses give me.
I'm considering getting prescription sunglasses when I get my new prescription, and wearing them for driving, so to try to not wear any glasses at all when I'm not driving. I want to see if my own lifestyle has made my vision worse, and if so, to see if I can correct it or at least improve it by myself. I'd love to not have to wear glasses except at night, and if that means turning off the computer more often and spending more time outside then maybe for my health it's worth it.
Local administrator access isn't necessary if the computer allows users to install software at a user level rather than on a systemwide level. Since user software should all run in userland that should never have become an issue. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to do things different and we all pay the price for that.
Yeah, but that's a lot more involved than just walking up the Director of Audit Service's desk, looking at the back of the photo of his daughter, and typing the name that was written down into the password field...
And the process that I describe and use really doesn't take any skill with a computer.
I tape it under my mouse to be secure through being more obscure. Unfortunately since I've been using a GUI on the box, the ink got smudged since I wrote it down a year ago.
Too damn many TLAs, BFLAs, and EBFLAs...
(Three Letter Acronyms, Bigger Four Letter Acronyms, and Even Bigger Five Letter Acronyms, for the uninitiated)
I'm trying to figure out if you're attempting to be sarcastic in places or not, but I'm still not quite sure.
The keys need to be held by only a small group of people. "Too many cooks spoil the soup" applies very well to a corporate network, even down to the workstation configuration. It's possible to screw up the whole enchilada from that point too, ore at least have some major negative effect, and it's much better that if the intent is for it to be a managed network for it to be managed, dammit. If not, it's a free-for-all.
Many of my users are very smart people. Unfortunately, they're good only with their own home PCs. They don't understand why we don't always do things the same way that they themselves do them, nor will they until they come to appreciate the demands that present themselves in trying to keep a 30,000 computer network up and functioning for everyone despite their different needs. Where I work, our network is supported by ten field and bench technicians, two data cabling technicians, two telephone system technicians, and four helpdesk persons as far as interface-with-the-user support is concerned. Our back end is four network engineers, four software specialists, one AS/400 administrator, two Computer Operators, and a slew of programmers to write the software that the users will do their jobs with. It's a very, very small department given the size of the organization, and if we had better, tighter control over the security of the workstations it'd be a much easier job.
"This book reminded me of another good read, Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick. You would be surprised how easy it is to get information from people."
No, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm able to figure out any random user's password about 70% of the time just based on their pictures or other obvious habits. Couple that with organizations that give users full local computer administrator access (the bane of any kind of real security) and weak password schemes on remote systems and it's a wonder that there aren't MORE problems than there are.
I understand why some of the lackadasical policies on security have come to exist; IT departments not responding quickly to user requests for necessary changes in access causes users to fight for access, IT departments' annoyance with having to change user access on a frequent basis causes their own annoyance, and software that requires more access to install or use than should really be necessary all contribute to this problem. It also doesn't help that some of the many business-friendly devices like PDAs use the same conduits that tiny, insecure storage devices like USB Flash Memory use, so people wishing to steal data can do so with ease.
I do understand why company owners or upper management want to have the ability to have admin-level access; it's easier if they have to fire an IT administrator to be able to set up the account for a new IT adminsitrator, it's easier if they have to provide access to some kind of emergency after-hours IT consultant, and it's just good for the owner to have a key. The trouble is that too many owners decide to use such an account as their own personal account rather than to operate on restricted account and only log in as the SysOp when necessary. I've seen many neophyte Linux users operate as root 24/7, only to be compromised by a trojan, or much more common, break the computer themselves by mistake because they fumbled something that would have been trivial as a user, but catastrophic as root.
I can't remember the last time that I had to log in as root on my own box; I read logs and have basic hardware management set so my user account can handle it, but I rarely if ever have to change IP addresses or renew a DHCP lease by hand, reboot, or reconfigure anything. When I have to, sudo is my friend, so I don't even have to run a root shell unless I'm going to be spending so much time changing or editing that running a shell makes sense. I'd rather just not take the risk.
Well, if I were an informant, I'd get a second phone. If I were an undercover officer, I'd imagine that the department itself would issue me some way to communicate that I'd use exclusively with them.
If I were trying to find a Narc, I'd be more inclined to try to look at their cell phone myself for a few minutes than I would be to try to obtain other records, at least at first. That's free, versus spending money and standing out. If I were absolutely certain of their connections then I wouldn't bother to buy records and leave a trail to follow, and if I were just suspicious then I'd keep observing them and going over past situations to try to determine a pattern that confirms the suspicion or not.
If they are attorneys, then that problem is handily solved. Of course, if they have that kind of money, they already probably have a lawyer or two on retainer, so the actual hit might not be bad at all.
"Absolutely true. The moral crime occurs when you copy something that you (or the person you give it to) might otherwise have bought. This deprives the creators of income."
Another one for you to wrap your brain around... What if the creator wasn't selling the software, or if it was otherwise unavailable through any official means to the recipient? This becomes important with out-of-print books, movies, and music in the non-computer realm, and can be interesting for embedded software and old versions of progams and operating systems. It further applies to things like old console games that inventive people have managed to copy from ROM chips into PC-usable data, so that the games can be used with video-game system emulators. Nintendo, Sega, Namco, Konami, etc aren't producing more copies of the games for the old systems, let alone continuing to port the existing software for the new ones. In that regard these companies have made contributions to culture and then restricted the availablity of that, straining culture or forcing it to abandon what it holds dear on account of corporate will, not will of the society.
That last one is a little more outlandish, but the same basic principle applies, even if a little obtuse.
Wouldn't it be Esperanza?
"It shouldn't be as hard as it is to say, 'Bush, you fucked up. You're out. We're going to give some other horses ass a shot.'."
If people would understand that if they didn't re-elect the same people unless they really, really proved that they earned it then perhaps our political system and government wouldn't be so screwed up. Yeah, in 2004 Kerry was probably not the strongest candidate to run against Bush, but we'd already given Bush four years to do the job, and his performance was lackluster at absolute best. I wanted someone, ANYONE else to do the job for four years, and if they sucked, we not re-elect them either. When someone comes along who doesn't suck then perhaps they get a chance at a second term, otherwise they're out. If the public did this for three or four presidential elections then perhaps we'd actually get a decent set of candidates to choose from...
"It disturbs me we as a society equate morals with laws. Yes laws do include legislation of morality and have for centuries, but also legislates how we properly do business which has no basis or common ethics or Christian teachings."
You bring up a good point that I hadn't even realised. I hadn't applied the prospect to copyright compared to theft. If I compare copyright infringement to theft of tangible goods I find that the theft of goods deprives a person or a group of persons of a thing, which is a thing that that person or group of persons cannot sell, use, or otherwise decide a fate over. Software isn't a thing, in that nothing physical from the original creator of the software is required in order for anyone to have access to the software, so "theft" isn't the proper term.
I don't personally play video games anymore. I haven't since the days of Quake II. If I had copies of copyrighted software but didn't use them it would be no different than if I didn't have them at all. This distinction becomes important because ideas like software, music, movies, television shows, and the like are all contributions to culture, and in my opinion culture is much too important to let anyone control for too long, and I also believe that if a group chooses to contribute to culture in order to profit by it then they should lose some hold over that which is their contribution. It becomes culture's property, and thus public domain, rather than remaining excluive to the creator.
It appears that my ideas aren't supported by the majority of people right now, unfortunately, and continued copyright extensions are proof enough of that.
"I hope you realize that an `Informative' mod can also, like grandparent, be a joke. He did, after all, provide information about this deadly substance."
And vice versa. I find that half of time the hard-found information that I post to slashdot is somehow considered Funny...
Does it? There's no shortage of new cars on the road here, despite the levy on using them on public roads. The auto industry has historically done an impeccable job of convincing people that they need a new car every few years anyway, even if it would still be cheaper to repair and maintain their current one.
Powerplants in automobiles really haven't changed over the last 40 years compared to other industries' technological improvements. The Chrysler 318 was produced from 1967 to 2003 with only minor revisions. The physical block never changed, save for the lack of drilling out an oil galley when they switched to oiling through the rocker arm pushrod instead of oiling through the rocker shaft. The Chevrolet 305, 350, and 454 are still in production if memory serves, and those are staples of the '60s as well if again I'm thinking straight. If the federal government created evolving standards for increasing fuel economy and forced automakers to support their products by creating retrofit assemblies that would allow for me to put new, inexpensive better burn cylinder heads, ported fuel injection, and better post-combustion emissions lowering equipment that could fairly easily be installed on older vehicles then I don't think that it would be a problem. I'd love it if I could keep driving my '78 Chrysler Cordoba for another 20 years because an emissions-certified upgrade could be performed that would be easy to maintain and would provide power equivalent to the modern 360 engines used in Dodge trucks through 2003.
As for safety features, seatbelts were mandated in 1964 or thereabouts. Airbags weren't standard until the 1990s, and passenger airbags, side airbags, and other things are still new or reasonably new. Disc brakes have been standard on most cars and trucks for the front wheels since the early seventies, and we still use drum brakes on the back today on almost all standard-duty vehicles. Yes, older cars don't have cab-deformation hinderances like new cars, but as the driver of an older car I know that and I try to be careful. I also know that if I'm really worried about it, I can go to a frame shop and have front and rear sub-frame connectors put in, which will strengthen the car through the middle. And without crash statistics compared to hospital statistics I can't make the blanket statement that more people are injured in older cars than newer ones. I won't say that it's not true, but I won't say that it is true either.
Cars are supposed to be durable goods. With as much as they cost, they should be in service for at least a decade, and with proper maintenance potentially a lot longer than that. It's dumb to spend $20,000 or more on something only to get rid of it in a couple of years for another. We could save a lot of money by not playing the fad replacement game.
So, I guess we won't be using thep pringle-can macro lens to look at the server hosting the pringle-can macro lens site, unless we want to look at a charred, burned out hulk that used to be computer chassis...
Here is a pringle can antenna.
This is a pringle can pinhole camera.
Another pringles project, a pencil holder.
A bunch more uses for pringle cans are available here.
How about just leaving vehicle registration taxes like Arizona's in effect? Here, plates are based on vehicle worth, depreciated from the time the car was new something like 16% per year until down to $20. A new Escalade could cost a couple grand to put on plates, while that Hyundai Accent might only be $200 new to register.
This eliminates the entire problem of cost/miles when miles could be in different states, without having to track individual movements. If you don't like the tax, drive an older vehicle or cheaper one. If you try to pull a fast one by not registering your car in-state then you'll be cited and fined $500, plus the cost to register.
Enforcement is starting to go up against our seasonal "visitors" who move here for six months, let 'em get burned and have to register. They're the ones polluting our air every winter anyway.
"Is this industrial espionage at work or only bluff?"
Actually, I talked to someone from Google awhile ago who said that there was a new feature coming out but didn't say what it was, but when I suggested that it was a good thing that they didn't yet give it a forward DNS resolve he just got real quiet. It's possible that someone just looked up available resolves from Google's DNS servers and extracted base.google.com, and proceded to figure out what it did.
It's not just bass players. These jokes are applied to any given musician. I first heard them used with Viola players.
What do you call a Viola player with two brain cells?
Pregnant.
What do you call a busload of Viola players going off a cliff?
A Shame.
What do you call a busload of Viola players going off a cliff with a few empty seats?
A Crying Shame
I worked somewhere once where originally the QA test process was the time it took to burn the product to CD...
Thankfully we at least progressed to where we'd confirm if it would read again later in a different drive... *grin*
Yeah, after a move I got lazy and didn't hook my main workstation back up (it had a bad cap on the motherboard anyway, so that still needs to be addressed) so I went from 1.5GB RAM in that computer to my laptop, which has 192MB RAM. Other than GIMP and browsing some Fark Photoshop contests I don't have any problem running with 192MB RAM with a 2.4 kernel and Gnome.
So if it or anything else with its own onboard power system blew up it wouldn't take out the primary habitat. Or, so that devices used out in the lunar environment proper would be less likely to traffic lunar fines into the main living area. Think of it as a detached garage.
That may be true, but I've got to think that as a human, I'd rather increase the amount of survivable space to as much as I could afford or justify. It'd be a way of bringing some kind of feeling of home with me. Seeing as how it would probably be safest to store equipment under some kind of physical shield anyway it may as well be a pressurized environment to make things more comfortable for me.
so maintenance can easily be performed upon it? I don't know about you, but I'm annoyed enough working on my car outdoors on this planet, when I'd much rather work on it in a garage where I can control lighting, temperature, and cleanliness of the workspace better than I can exposed...