Banning coke cans that might really be cell phones seems reasonable to me. Cell phone calls can be intercepted by rf-sniffer type devices (not as easy as in the analog days, but still doable). And how many times have you every received one of those mysterious phone calls initiated when a friend or acqaintance has accidentally sat on their phone and redialed without realizing it. I have overheard some really strange conversations that way. Imagine what they might have transmitted if they sat on a camera phone.
It's a cardinal sin not to read the article first, but the intro blurb has filled my head with the image of the ultimate villian, that coke machine that killed all the little baseball players in that classic man vs machine thriller Maximum Overdrive.
Obsolete is some thing that might not matter, but the machine under discussion has a nonfunctional CD drive. That would make it difficult to use even obsolete software.
Does the laptop have a functional floppy drive? that might be sufficient, otherwise you have a lifeboat situation where you must limit yourself to only what can fit on the hard drive. If that's the case, you need a word processor, spreadsheet, a paint program, a drawing program and a dictionary with definitions (not just spellcheck). Then if you have plenty of room, some games and creative stuff. Just leave room for the user files.
If it was me, I'd swap out that faulty CD drive before sending it. they aren't that expensive.
There is no concept of "urban planning" in most African countries; it might not be "American-centric" but the game is highly prejudiced toward a western mindset.
Oil is a commodity, every barrel is identical to every other barrel. We could get all our oil from the Western hemisphere, Europe, Japan and the rest would then get all their oil from the Eastern Hemisphere, and everybody would pay more for the same product since two markets are less efficient than one. With global commodity markets, stuff gets where it needs to be, if you try to avoid doing business with someone you don't like, all you do is drive up the costs.
Just about everywhere, including the UK has more people getting blown up than the US. Unfortunately, the 9/11 event may have evened the body count.
Fortunately, when someone kills his intended victim with a firearm, he is less likely to have unintended victims. In the US, if you don't have enemies, you are less likely to become a victim.
They might make you sit in the emergency room for many hours, but they can't kick you out. It is illegal for the hospital to kick you out without treating you. If you don't pay, it is the hospital and the doctor who don't get paid, they can't come repossess your healthcare, the worst that they can do is bugger up your credit report which might not matter if you are extremely ill.
This is exactly why those who make the laws need to respect the power that they wield. Americans tend to be in the habit of following the law because for many Americans "legal" is synonymous with "moral" and "right". Much as I hate this simplified thinking, having lived outside the US, I can see how this atmosphere of general trust contributes to the quality of life that does not exist in more sophisticated and cynical cultures.
I'm all for having higher priced stamps for higher priority mail. The sender chooses the value and the receiver decides what value is worth opening, especially if he gets to keep the postage value for use in stamping his own mailings. Or the owner of the receiver's mail server should keep a percentage to compensate him for his trouble. .
With friends that I trust, I might put $100 worth of postage with the understanding that they'd send it back with their reply. And then they wouldn't need to waste time/money generating postage. We'd just recycle. This is good for folks who send as much as they receive and puts the burden on those who send more than they receive.
It might be best for the postage not to be real money, but some kind of time based system that can only be used as postage. But, I'm sure it wouldn't take long for postage units to be resold on Ebay, or duplicated for free by someone more clever than myself.
Back in the 70's, if you called up an 800 number, got put on hold and hung up, they would call you back sometimes. It was a service that Ma Bell provided before the breakup. That was back before Caller ID, you know the technology is available, so there must be a business reason they don't do it.
When will RC cars and Aircraft be outlawed?
I seem to remember a scene in a movie where an RC car fitted with a bomb was used to explode a car.
You were playing Grand Theft Auto. God help us if the powers that be ever play Grand Theft Auto. I doubt they will since they were obviously years behind in reading Tom Clancy books or they would have outlawed 747's.
WE need hobbies, too, especially those that educate kids and others in useful, but possibly dangerous, technologies.
Open societies do not outlaw knowledge simply because it can be abused. If anything, if only the bad guys know how something works, then the good people can't defend themselves.
Carried to extremes, only Al Queda will have the know-How to establish a moon base and then those of us stranded on earth will be in deep doo doo.
Surely anything that can be done with a model rocket can be done more easily with other aircraft. That doesn't mean any of them should be outlawed or restricted. It's just that going after the model rocketeers is ridiculous.
The primary purpose of these regulations is to restrict practical knowledge of the subject. If someone wants to use the knowledge to construct an illegal rocket, that is obviously already illegal. It is the restriction of knowledge that crosses the line of what should be allowed in an open society.
Back in the 70's, if you called an 800 number and got put on hold, you could hang up, and the company would call you back when someone was available. Does't the phone company provide that service anymore?
I prefer a voice message followed by beeps. Music is too intrusive, especially if it clashes with what I'm already listening to. I also like to be able to hit a key to get back to the menu.
If it must be music, I prefer something extremely nonintrusive. Being on hold not only takes down my phone line, but takes down all my audio input if it has music.
It's a little tricky in that telemarketers can collect in the name of honest charities if they hand over their profits to the charity. So the only way to tell is to get a handle on whether the caller is getting compensated out of what they collect. The charity, itself, may be happy to get any money at all. But, if you are like me, you'd rather that they get 100% of your money, not the 2% remaining after the telemarketer deducts it's reasonable fee.
I don't think honest charities use telemarketing, because the success rate is too low for them to afford it
Some do, but it's kind of gray. The telemarketing company is allowed to be compensated and the person placing the call is allowed to be paid. Find out how the person calling you is compensated. They will usually tell you if you ask. They might be volunteers doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They might be handicapped people doing it because call calling, is one of the most assessible jobs around if you can handle the abuse, or they might be students doing it for academic or community service credit.
The ones I don't like are the ones who do it for a living since they usually keep 95% of whatever contributions they get. But even they usually will answer the question by rudely replying that they have to eat, too, or something similar.
ISC would probably rather deal with ripples than tsunamis. This is as irresponsible as predicting a blizard in Atlanta when there is only a flake. I'd prefer to have a complete and accurate forcast, not wishful thinking.
Quite possibly they think they've done enough help/harm by suggesting that users switch to Opera, Mozilla, or Macintosh. However, I'd love to know the sites since it would help me identify the technologically clueless businesses out there. I already know not to use Microsoft products when I'm connected, but if my bank is on the list, they probably have other problems that might affect me. But, I suppose the ISC doesn't want to meet the biggest financial institutions in court.
Very easy, just get yourself a self propelled lawnmower, and one of those invisible fence systems, for keeping the dog in the yard. Tie the deadman switch wide open and let the mower be the dog and it's all set to use. Put those invisible fence dog collars on all the kids and dogs so they won't come in the yard and the mower won't leave and that's it. You could do the whole thing in less than an hour.
Slashdot Mirror
Banning coke cans that might really be cell phones seems reasonable to me. Cell phone calls can be intercepted by rf-sniffer type devices (not as easy as in the analog days, but still doable). And how many times have you every received one of those mysterious phone calls initiated when a friend or acqaintance has accidentally sat on their phone and redialed without realizing it. I have overheard some really strange conversations that way. Imagine what they might have transmitted if they sat on a camera phone.
It's a cardinal sin not to read the article first, but the intro blurb has filled my head with the image of the ultimate villian, that coke machine that killed all the little baseball players in that classic man vs machine thriller Maximum Overdrive.
Does the laptop have a functional floppy drive? that might be sufficient, otherwise you have a lifeboat situation where you must limit yourself to only what can fit on the hard drive. If that's the case, you need a word processor, spreadsheet, a paint program, a drawing program and a dictionary with definitions (not just spellcheck). Then if you have plenty of room, some games and creative stuff. Just leave room for the user files.
If it was me, I'd swap out that faulty CD drive before sending it. they aren't that expensive.
And someone wrote an epic poem about him in Old English and got an award for it?
Oil is a commodity, every barrel is identical to every other barrel. We could get all our oil from the Western hemisphere, Europe, Japan and the rest would then get all their oil from the Eastern Hemisphere, and everybody would pay more for the same product since two markets are less efficient than one. With global commodity markets, stuff gets where it needs to be, if you try to avoid doing business with someone you don't like, all you do is drive up the costs.
ICANN signed a contract that can't be cancelled for nonperformance? Surely they aren't that dumb
Berlin OLSR Wireless Mesh Testbed
Fortunately, when someone kills his intended victim with a firearm, he is less likely to have unintended victims. In the US, if you don't have enemies, you are less likely to become a victim.
They might make you sit in the emergency room for many hours, but they can't kick you out. It is illegal for the hospital to kick you out without treating you. If you don't pay, it is the hospital and the doctor who don't get paid, they can't come repossess your healthcare, the worst that they can do is bugger up your credit report which might not matter if you are extremely ill.
This is exactly why those who make the laws need to respect the power that they wield. Americans tend to be in the habit of following the law because for many Americans "legal" is synonymous with "moral" and "right". Much as I hate this simplified thinking, having lived outside the US, I can see how this atmosphere of general trust contributes to the quality of life that does not exist in more sophisticated and cynical cultures.
With friends that I trust, I might put $100 worth of postage with the understanding that they'd send it back with their reply. And then they wouldn't need to waste time/money generating postage. We'd just recycle. This is good for folks who send as much as they receive and puts the burden on those who send more than they receive.
It might be best for the postage not to be real money, but some kind of time based system that can only be used as postage. But, I'm sure it wouldn't take long for postage units to be resold on Ebay, or duplicated for free by someone more clever than myself.
Back in the 70's, if you called up an 800 number, got put on hold and hung up, they would call you back sometimes. It was a service that Ma Bell provided before the breakup. That was back before Caller ID, you know the technology is available, so there must be a business reason they don't do it.
Thanks, something else to add to the Netflix list
I seem to remember a scene in a movie where an RC car fitted with a bomb was used to explode a car.
You were playing Grand Theft Auto. God help us if the powers that be ever play Grand Theft Auto. I doubt they will since they were obviously years behind in reading Tom Clancy books or they would have outlawed 747's.
Open societies do not outlaw knowledge simply because it can be abused. If anything, if only the bad guys know how something works, then the good people can't defend themselves.
Carried to extremes, only Al Queda will have the know-How to establish a moon base and then those of us stranded on earth will be in deep doo doo.
The primary purpose of these regulations is to restrict practical knowledge of the subject. If someone wants to use the knowledge to construct an illegal rocket, that is obviously already illegal. It is the restriction of knowledge that crosses the line of what should be allowed in an open society.
Back in the 70's, if you called an 800 number and got put on hold, you could hang up, and the company would call you back when someone was available. Does't the phone company provide that service anymore?
If it must be music, I prefer something extremely nonintrusive. Being on hold not only takes down my phone line, but takes down all my audio input if it has music.
So that explains Madonna
It's a little tricky in that telemarketers can collect in the name of honest charities if they hand over their profits to the charity. So the only way to tell is to get a handle on whether the caller is getting compensated out of what they collect. The charity, itself, may be happy to get any money at all. But, if you are like me, you'd rather that they get 100% of your money, not the 2% remaining after the telemarketer deducts it's reasonable fee.
Some do, but it's kind of gray. The telemarketing company is allowed to be compensated and the person placing the call is allowed to be paid. Find out how the person calling you is compensated. They will usually tell you if you ask. They might be volunteers doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They might be handicapped people doing it because call calling, is one of the most assessible jobs around if you can handle the abuse, or they might be students doing it for academic or community service credit.
The ones I don't like are the ones who do it for a living since they usually keep 95% of whatever contributions they get. But even they usually will answer the question by rudely replying that they have to eat, too, or something similar.
Quite possibly they think they've done enough help/harm by suggesting that users switch to Opera, Mozilla, or Macintosh. However, I'd love to know the sites since it would help me identify the technologically clueless businesses out there. I already know not to use Microsoft products when I'm connected, but if my bank is on the list, they probably have other problems that might affect me. But, I suppose the ISC doesn't want to meet the biggest financial institutions in court.
Who is going to that much trouble to build something that has no brain and just stands there?
Very easy, just get yourself a self propelled lawnmower, and one of those invisible fence systems, for keeping the dog in the yard. Tie the deadman switch wide open and let the mower be the dog and it's all set to use. Put those invisible fence dog collars on all the kids and dogs so they won't come in the yard and the mower won't leave and that's it. You could do the whole thing in less than an hour.