My personal favorite error came from the game Wing Commander III, which had such high system requirements that I used its installer's test app to benchmark my machine for a few years.
Sometime about when I got a 6x CD-ROM, it gave me the classic warning:
"Error: Your CD-ROM reads data faster than is possible."
The tiered internet the telcos want to make is not based on bandwidth. We already have that and it makes perfect sense: if I want 3 MBps instead of 1.5, I pay more. Companies like Google probably pay tons for all the bandwidth they need.
The problem is that the telcos are looking at companies like Google, and have realized that using this bandwidth they have paid for, Google is making a hefty profit, and the telcos want a cut. So they mask it up a bit and say they're charging extra to "ensure speedy delivery" or whatever it is they couch their lies in.
I think of it this way: Let's say there are two factories on the same power grid, and each use 1.21 Gigawatt-hours of power this month. Most us would rightly assume that they will pay the same amount for this power. Now, if the telcos have their way, it would be like allowing the power company to charge Factory A extra, simply because they produce a largely profitable product.
Actually, they alreadytried that. In a House bill in 2004, Congress attempted to secure our rights to skip whatever part of a transmission (or DVD) we desired, as they wanted to make it legal for a number of new products that would automatically skip the gore and sex in movies and therefore make them "safer."
But tacked onto the end of a smart piece of legislation was the addition that it was illegal to skip any content that contained ads.
Luckily the Senate removed that part before they passed it, leaving a reasonably good piece of legislation.
They already do. It's part of the Closed Captioning space known as XDS (extended data services). Mostly it's used to set the clock in your VCR.
However, if your TV supports it (on some TV's it can be found near the Closed Caption menus), it will show you such information as what is currently being shown, and depending on the television, the genre and run time of the current broadcast.
It is the same argument of VHS vs DVD. If I own a VHS copy of a movie, it really bugs me that the movie industries want me to pay them again for THE SAME MOVIE!
What you're describing is actually their business model. A new format means everyone has to buy their music/movies/etc. again. It's also the main reason for "special editions," and "digital remastering."
They call this the "after-market," a whole new wonder of media distribution which was made possible by the Movie Industry's loss of the Sony/Betamax trial in the early 80's, and is the same market which they claim will be destroyed without DRM on music and a Broadcast Flag on television.
I'm watching this thing as closely as I can, but I don't think we're as doomed as we look.
Using an impact calculator that people have quoted in a number of earlier posts, 2004 MN4 (being only.4km wide) will only produce a crater about 4km wide (if it hits land). This is quite small, in fact.
The Chicxulub crater, left by the rock that killed the dinosaurs, is at least 150km in diameter, theoretically left by a rock 10km in diameter.
Essentially, unless you're under it or near the tidal wave, I don't think you have much to worry about from 2004 MN4. But now is a better time than ever to realize we need to work on our planetary defences.
Driving isn't a right, it's a privilege. In order to legally drive a car you have to pass a series of tests; you are required by law to carry a license when you drive in order to prove that you have passed them.
There are no laws stating you need to show an ID when you fly, at least not ones you or I could read in a law book. They are secret, set up by the FAA and the TSA, and changed at whim without the knowledge or care of congress. This is the main point of Gilmore v. Ashcroft.
And you're right about racial profiling. Cops have been pulling over black people for years. And airport security will be searching Arabs for years. Nothing is stopping a white person from speeding or blowing up a plane. Certainly not their ID.
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Haha, no, I don't know anyone related to DEFCON whatsoever. I just thought it'd be awesome to read about satellite hacking in some future post.
What impresses me most is that you can just upload patches to orbiting satellites. Sounds like a party for the next DEFCON...
My personal favorite error came from the game Wing Commander III, which had such high system requirements that I used its installer's test app to benchmark my machine for a few years.
Sometime about when I got a 6x CD-ROM, it gave me the classic warning:
"Error: Your CD-ROM reads data faster than is possible."
The tiered internet the telcos want to make is not based on bandwidth. We already have that and it makes perfect sense: if I want 3 MBps instead of 1.5, I pay more. Companies like Google probably pay tons for all the bandwidth they need.
The problem is that the telcos are looking at companies like Google, and have realized that using this bandwidth they have paid for, Google is making a hefty profit, and the telcos want a cut. So they mask it up a bit and say they're charging extra to "ensure speedy delivery" or whatever it is they couch their lies in.
I think of it this way: Let's say there are two factories on the same power grid, and each use 1.21 Gigawatt-hours of power this month. Most us would rightly assume that they will pay the same amount for this power. Now, if the telcos have their way, it would be like allowing the power company to charge Factory A extra, simply because they produce a largely profitable product.
Actually, they already tried that. In a House bill in 2004, Congress attempted to secure our rights to skip whatever part of a transmission (or DVD) we desired, as they wanted to make it legal for a number of new products that would automatically skip the gore and sex in movies and therefore make them "safer."
But tacked onto the end of a smart piece of legislation was the addition that it was illegal to skip any content that contained ads.
Luckily the Senate removed that part before they passed it, leaving a reasonably good piece of legislation.
They already do. It's part of the Closed Captioning space known as XDS (extended data services). Mostly it's used to set the clock in your VCR.
However, if your TV supports it (on some TV's it can be found near the Closed Caption menus), it will show you such information as what is currently being shown, and depending on the television, the genre and run time of the current broadcast.
It is the same argument of VHS vs DVD. If I own a VHS copy of a movie, it really bugs me that the movie industries want me to pay them again for THE SAME MOVIE!
What you're describing is actually their business model. A new format means everyone has to buy their music/movies/etc. again. It's also the main reason for "special editions," and "digital remastering."
They call this the "after-market," a whole new wonder of media distribution which was made possible by the Movie Industry's loss of the Sony/Betamax trial in the early 80's, and is the same market which they claim will be destroyed without DRM on music and a Broadcast Flag on television.
I'm watching this thing as closely as I can, but I don't think we're as doomed as we look.
Using an impact calculator that people have quoted in a number of earlier posts, 2004 MN4 (being only .4km wide) will only produce a crater about 4km wide (if it hits land). This is quite small, in fact.
The Chicxulub crater, left by the rock that killed the dinosaurs, is at least 150km in diameter, theoretically left by a rock 10km in diameter.
Essentially, unless you're under it or near the tidal wave, I don't think you have much to worry about from 2004 MN4. But now is a better time than ever to realize we need to work on our planetary defences.
Driving isn't a right, it's a privilege. In order to legally drive a car you have to pass a series of tests; you are required by law to carry a license when you drive in order to prove that you have passed them.
There are no laws stating you need to show an ID when you fly, at least not ones you or I could read in a law book. They are secret, set up by the FAA and the TSA, and changed at whim without the knowledge or care of congress. This is the main point of Gilmore v. Ashcroft.
And you're right about racial profiling. Cops have been pulling over black people for years. And airport security will be searching Arabs for years. Nothing is stopping a white person from speeding or blowing up a plane. Certainly not their ID.