It sounds like you're saying an attack needs to be carried out using a ballistic missile. Obviously, nobody's going to build one from a cave in Pakistan. But that's unfortunately not the case. Nightmare scenario: a terrorist cell obtains a nuclear weapon from a rogue state, or builds one themselves using enriched uranium and high explosives (the gun-type design used in the Hiroshima bomb is surprisingly easy to build). They then ship it to the United States by sea, relying on the fact that only 1% of incoming containers are currently inspected. They then transport it to the center of a city and detonate it, or if they're feeling lazy, just detonate it at the port.
This was not something that nobody pre-911 had ever imagined before.
Sure, the wiser ones. But you could still find many people pooh-poohing the idea that terrorists would cause truly massive destruction. Not so much anymore. I'm just saying that this event is the most convincing evidence of the seriousness of the threat.
Simple airline security precautions are what we needed. Not my reading list.
Absolutely not your reading list. But not just "simple airline security" either. We need extensive security measures including better coordinated intelligence, vastly increased inspections at seaports, and carefully measured foreign policy carrots and sticks for rogue states.
Honest question: how is it that you found high-school level mathematics difficult? I really have trouble understanding how anyone can be unable to do simple things like basic algebra and reading roots off the graph of a quadratic equation. I'm not trying to be snarky here, I'd really like to understand. What kind of "block" did you experience that prevented you from doing these tasks?
I have a bachelor's degree in math, so I have trouble imagining what it's like for people who are no good at it. (It's like that for many mathematicians, I think: my group theory professor couldn't understand why us undergraduates struggled so much with elementary stuff like the Sylow theorems.)
I like it, but it forces you to use a download manager but doesn't recommend anything good (stupid attempt at neutrality). I tried a few but they sucked. Could you suggest the best download manager to use with FlashGot on Windows?
To anyone else believing that the idea of a terrorist nuke attack is so preposterous that warning about it amounts to a troll, two things:
Both Bush and Kerry agreed during the debates that their number one foreign policy priority is preventing nuclear proliferation. They only disagreed on the best method to achieve this.
I've read more than one expert on nuclear proliferation state that, based on how many states have nuclear weapons/power and how leaky proliferation prevention methods are, a nuclear attack on American soil within the next 10 years strikes them as a fairly likely possibility.
Well, I was only talking about the physical medium. File formats are more important, yes. That said, in the case of text, no matter what the format is, unless there's encryption or something it will always be possible to at least extract the raw words while flushing the rich text/formatting data. For example, in the case of Microsoft Word there is a little free application called "antiword" that does just this. So again, although it would be convenient for file formats to remain open and stable, no history will be lost if they aren't.
Also, if you are referring to little-endian/big-endianness with your Motorola/Intel thing, this poses no problems at all for permanent data storage. It's purely a question of what's used by the CPU for temporary processing. If a document is big-endian on the HDD and the CPU is little-endian, it's trivial to swap the order of the bytes on the fly.
It doesn't matter. The data is digital, we can make perfect copies to current media formats. If anyone at all cares about this data, they can use one of the remaining computers that read them and copy it onto the hard drive of a web server, whereupon everyone in the world will be able to read it. This will always be the case.
I'd rather live with a 1/100,000 chance (3000 out of 300 million) of being killed by a terrorist on American soil
I do agree with your general point, but this is underestimating the potential danger of Al Qaeda. Sept 11 was scary not just because of the 3000 people that died but because it showed that terrorists were ready to go "all in" to cause as much destruction as possible to America, including (if they could only get their hands on them) the use of nuclear weapons that might kill millions.
Also, if you think our rights and freedoms are eroding right now, just consider the hysterical response to a successful nuclear attack. In that sense, protecting our security is necessary to protecting our freedoms.
Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, that does sound rather strange and out of process. I wasn't aware that had happened.
By minor, I only meant the subject of the article is a marginally notable subject, not that the effect on Wikipedia was minor. I find it silly that huge controversies on Wikipedia only seem to erupt over unimportant articles like the one on this guy, or some pedophilia advocacy group, etc.
That's not Orwellian, that's covering your butt so you don't get sued. People who emphasize "free speech" at all costs (in the context of Wikipedia) are ultimately more harmful than those who are willing to make compromises over individual, (very) minor articles like this one. The existence of the entire encyclopedia depends on occasionally taking acts like this.
What are you yammering about? At the time of the data loss, Wikipedia was a tiny project running on cheaply written wiki software. The data was simply flushed when they upgraded their server. No one had any inkling that Wikipedia would become as big as it is, and that these early edits would qualify as "history".
The incompetent ones? Seriously, I have no respect for a sysadmin who upon receiving an unsolicited attachment, even if it looks useful, doesn't at least examine it very carefully for clues of trojan-ness (going up to googling phrases in it) before opening it. Security is their job!
It's possible to make meaningful generalizations based on what the majority of a population does, without claiming to represent every single person in the country.
It's very offensive to Americans when someone claims the KKK were basically nice people, but it's not a crime. "Upset" is not a good reason to put people in jail.
Yes, you might actually not need an antivirus tool. Not something I'd recommend, since there are so many other ways to get infected and bugged even if you're careful
Really? I'm behind a NAT router which forwards no ports, and all my contact with the outside world is through the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. How exactly can I be infected if I don't run any suspicious executables?
Er, the article summary was basically copied from the MSNBC article linked to. Maybe it's a sales pitch from MSNBC but it's not one from slashdot. Chalk this up to the slashdot editors' usual laziness.
You don't do your position any good when you ascribe to your opponents opinions that they don't actually hold. All IDers acknowledge the existence of microevolution.
kid with decent grades from becoming disinterested and totally clocking out of school (which I guess was considered a rational fear at the time)
You laugh, but this is actually a serious problem. This study estimates that 25% of American gifted and talented students drop out of high school. Our lowest-common-denominator school system ensures that people with much more potential become demotivated and waste their chances.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like you're saying an attack needs to be carried out using a ballistic missile. Obviously, nobody's going to build one from a cave in Pakistan. But that's unfortunately not the case. Nightmare scenario: a terrorist cell obtains a nuclear weapon from a rogue state, or builds one themselves using enriched uranium and high explosives (the gun-type design used in the Hiroshima bomb is surprisingly easy to build). They then ship it to the United States by sea, relying on the fact that only 1% of incoming containers are currently inspected. They then transport it to the center of a city and detonate it, or if they're feeling lazy, just detonate it at the port.
Sure, the wiser ones. But you could still find many people pooh-poohing the idea that terrorists would cause truly massive destruction. Not so much anymore. I'm just saying that this event is the most convincing evidence of the seriousness of the threat.
Simple airline security precautions are what we needed. Not my reading list.
Absolutely not your reading list. But not just "simple airline security" either. We need extensive security measures including better coordinated intelligence, vastly increased inspections at seaports, and carefully measured foreign policy carrots and sticks for rogue states.
I have a bachelor's degree in math, so I have trouble imagining what it's like for people who are no good at it. (It's like that for many mathematicians, I think: my group theory professor couldn't understand why us undergraduates struggled so much with elementary stuff like the Sylow theorems.)
I like it, but it forces you to use a download manager but doesn't recommend anything good (stupid attempt at neutrality). I tried a few but they sucked. Could you suggest the best download manager to use with FlashGot on Windows?
Woo! First time I'm modded troll for someone disagreeing with me!
Also, if you are referring to little-endian/big-endianness with your Motorola/Intel thing, this poses no problems at all for permanent data storage. It's purely a question of what's used by the CPU for temporary processing. If a document is big-endian on the HDD and the CPU is little-endian, it's trivial to swap the order of the bytes on the fly.
I'm reminded of this this study estimating that perhaps 18 to 25% of American gifted and talented students drop out of high school.
It doesn't matter. The data is digital, we can make perfect copies to current media formats. If anyone at all cares about this data, they can use one of the remaining computers that read them and copy it onto the hard drive of a web server, whereupon everyone in the world will be able to read it. This will always be the case.
I do agree with your general point, but this is underestimating the potential danger of Al Qaeda. Sept 11 was scary not just because of the 3000 people that died but because it showed that terrorists were ready to go "all in" to cause as much destruction as possible to America, including (if they could only get their hands on them) the use of nuclear weapons that might kill millions.
Also, if you think our rights and freedoms are eroding right now, just consider the hysterical response to a successful nuclear attack. In that sense, protecting our security is necessary to protecting our freedoms.
Ah, googling a bit it seems you're right. I guess I'm the idiot who didn't know my units. That's pretty confusing usage, though.
Er, I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. You do realize that watts are a measure of energy output per second rather than total energy?
Also, there's no infrastructure for refilling the cell right now, so this can't be marketed. It's only a technology demo.
By minor, I only meant the subject of the article is a marginally notable subject, not that the effect on Wikipedia was minor. I find it silly that huge controversies on Wikipedia only seem to erupt over unimportant articles like the one on this guy, or some pedophilia advocacy group, etc.
That's not Orwellian, that's covering your butt so you don't get sued. People who emphasize "free speech" at all costs (in the context of Wikipedia) are ultimately more harmful than those who are willing to make compromises over individual, (very) minor articles like this one. The existence of the entire encyclopedia depends on occasionally taking acts like this.
What are you yammering about? At the time of the data loss, Wikipedia was a tiny project running on cheaply written wiki software. The data was simply flushed when they upgraded their server. No one had any inkling that Wikipedia would become as big as it is, and that these early edits would qualify as "history".
The incompetent ones? Seriously, I have no respect for a sysadmin who upon receiving an unsolicited attachment, even if it looks useful, doesn't at least examine it very carefully for clues of trojan-ness (going up to googling phrases in it) before opening it. Security is their job!
My point was precisely that you can stereotype without being "blanket" about it.
What makes you so sure I'm an American? Anyway, Japanese people themselves frequently make generalizations about their own culture.
It's possible to make meaningful generalizations based on what the majority of a population does, without claiming to represent every single person in the country.
It's very offensive to Americans when someone claims the KKK were basically nice people, but it's not a crime. "Upset" is not a good reason to put people in jail.
Really? I'm behind a NAT router which forwards no ports, and all my contact with the outside world is through the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. How exactly can I be infected if I don't run any suspicious executables?
Er, "stupid motherfucker" and "preposterous windbag" have very different meanings, so you're kind of proving his point.
Er, the article summary was basically copied from the MSNBC article linked to. Maybe it's a sales pitch from MSNBC but it's not one from slashdot. Chalk this up to the slashdot editors' usual laziness.
You don't do your position any good when you ascribe to your opponents opinions that they don't actually hold. All IDers acknowledge the existence of microevolution.
You laugh, but this is actually a serious problem. This study estimates that 25% of American gifted and talented students drop out of high school. Our lowest-common-denominator school system ensures that people with much more potential become demotivated and waste their chances.