wouldn't it have been a lot simpler to attack Americans in America if that was really their goal
You make a good point, TPFH. I think the explanation is that (even if he is guilty) he is not really a terrorist and none of his friends are. They are just people ready to travel to another country and fight for the cause they think is righteous. If this is terrorism, then the Marquis de Lafayette was a terrorist when he travelled to the US to help George Washington. Hawash never wanted to kill American civilians, if he wanted, he had more than enough opporunities in Intel.:) Hawash wanted to fight in another country for what he believed is right.
The actual crime is commited by the US government that wants to prevent him from doing it. They had every right to capture or even kill him in Afganistan, if he actually fought there, but what they did is really wrong.
Source code availability is important. Upgrading from Win95 to WinXP because there is one bug that nobody can fix is not pleasant. You get this one bug fixed, but hundreds (of thousands?) more are introduced. Plus you might lose compatibility. With Linux 0.* you can find the bug (yourself), fix it (yourself), patch your system and have it happily running again.
It seems that most people do not understand what the article is about (or they haven't read). Most of the comments here are either speculations about the terrible patent system or unreserved admiration of this super-technology. Here is the gist of it all.
A usual film hologram (like those that have been around since 1940s) is made and placed somewhere.
Light shines on the hologram, producing a 3D image (you have seen it many times).
The image of the keypad is seen in front of the hologram (no, it doesn't float in the air, you have to look at the hologram to see it).
Infrared sensors (like those in the projection keyboards) detect the movement of your fingers.
The "key-press" is sent to the computer.
The inventors explain very well what this keyboard is. It is not the keyboard from Minority Report. It is a keyboard to be used in places where you don't want to actually touch surfaces for one reason or another.
This is an interesting invention that might prove useful in some areas.
There is nothing bad about the patent. Although inventors don't need to have a working model to get the patent (for 2 hundreds years already), this company has a working prototype (seen at the top of the article in NYT).
The media overstates the importance of this technology a bit.
Totalitarianism, dictatorship, communisum, bushism, all the same.
See the definitions in a dictionary. These are all extremely different concepts.
Totalitarianism - total control over the population. Can be done without a dictator, like in "1984" or like it is slowly happens in the US. Dictatorship - direct and unlimited rule of a person. Many African states today are dictatorships without total control or communism. Communism - a system where people are not compensated for their work, but instead receive material values from the society according to their needs, while everyone contributes to the society with the voluntary labour. Bushism - a little bit of totalitarianism plus oligarchy. No dictatorship and no communism.
P.S. It's strange to see how people can so close-minded. Either you understand that Iraq war was a sham, or you understand the positive sides of communism, but not both... Hope my post helps.
Actually the navigation part of snopes.com design is quite good. And the animated gifs are just part of the 1995 style, which is admittedly retro, but still just as good as any modern design.
Then screw them.:) This shouldn't be a problem. Don't give a large advance (or don't give the advance at all) and specify clear requirements. When you get the finished work from the offshore artists/developers, check if it meets the requirements and if it does, then pay. Most offshore developers will understand your concerns very well and this should not be a problem.
If it's scary thinking about how much could have been done on the "world hunger" front, think what the US could have done if it spent the money on really important things. That is on fusion, nanotech and AI (and necessary supporting technologies). Frankly, these trillions of dollars might just have been enough to give these technologies already, creating a paradise on Earth in the precess. Too bad that huge military budgets remain a reality even today, after Cold War is long gone...
Well, some companies like 3D Realms and id Software are still independent.:) They employ publishers, but only for marketing, distribution, etc., not to to finance their development. If Duke Nukem Forever ever gets done, this will be an indie game.:)
You might want to find some non-free but really-really cheap artists. The solution is offshore development. If you are willing to pay something, an offshore game development studio in Russia or similar country can be an option, since the labour is much cheaper there...
It's not about enacting the laws, it's about considering existing legislation and thinking... thinking about how future technologies fit in the picture. Trying to foresee potential problems, conflicts, etc. And then using all means necessary to smoothen the transition to posthuman world. Educating people, promoting the transhumanist ideas and yes, if it is necessary, lobbying for certain laws even before there is a pressing need.
Well, read about Extreme Body Modification. People who want to part with their healthy body parts do not meet much understanding and consideration. You say that a person with a better bionic arm will be treated just like a person with an inferiour prostetic arm and more or less like any other person. May be.
But what about a person who wants to replace a "perfectly" healthy natural arm with a bionic one? Judging from experience, he will have to resort to underground rogue doctors a la Blade Runner or Johnny Mnemonic. What if someone wants to trade his legs for a high-tech wheelchair?
So while stem cell research is all good and valuable, you shouldn't shun other potential problems.
KaZaA Lite is the best to get MP3s, porn and popular software quickly. eMule (eDonkey network) is the best to get movies, games and software reliably, as well as full albums, ebooks and porn. What Gnutella is good for, I don't know. Direct Connect ++ is best to get stuff if you have a very fast connection. BitTorrent is best to get fresh movie, anime and other releases and some legit stuff like game demos. FreeNet is not really usefull as of today. IRC is good to get fresh movie and software releases quickly. Usenet is good to get fresh stuff quickly if your ISP has a good newsserver or you are willing to subscribe to a paid one, but it's bad for hunting down specific stuff.
Another thing is that sharing will not stop all the authors/artists/directors/programmers from creating new books/music/movies/software. It might have some negative impact, but do realise that there is a positive impact as well. What piracy/sharing effectively does is sort of moving the content to the public domain. So yes, the variety of the content moved to the public domain might decrease a bit (although it's really irrelevant, because in 70 years we will probably live in the posthuman world already), but the quantity (how wide it is distributed) definitely increases. The net result is most probably good.
The question is, can RIAA make this cost-effective? Sure, some of your friends would rat you for $1M. But can you (together with people on the local network) repay that to RIAA? Not sure. Another thing is that this would do incredible damage to RIAA's image and would ultimately help to contain or destroy them.
That's great. What's more is that you are much safer legally if you only share with friends. The program could come with the default setting of friends-only (then your searches are limited to the friends and you don't relay the searches), but you could easily switch to global setting.
If only the journalists writing the original articles would do the same... I mean, look at how they treated that Pinkerton-wannabe. Is that sticking with the facts? No, article submitters have to compensate for that.:]
Please don't think it's impossible to imprison 30 million people. I admit it is highly unlikely, but there is a chance (howether slim) that the US will continue on its totalitarisation path and eventually organisations like RIAA will be given "go" in regards to these 30 million.
And if there is the political will to proceed, millions of people can be found, convicted and jailed, all with nearly inhuman efficiency.
Slashdot Mirror
If (Talibal == Terrorists) // they supported Al Queda // they supported Taliban
USA = Terrorists;
wouldn't it have been a lot simpler to attack Americans in America if that was really their goal
:) Hawash wanted to fight in another country for what he believed is right.
You make a good point, TPFH. I think the explanation is that (even if he is guilty) he is not really a terrorist and none of his friends are. They are just people ready to travel to another country and fight for the cause they think is righteous. If this is terrorism, then the Marquis de Lafayette was a terrorist when he travelled to the US to help George Washington. Hawash never wanted to kill American civilians, if he wanted, he had more than enough opporunities in Intel.
The actual crime is commited by the US government that wants to prevent him from doing it. They had every right to capture or even kill him in Afganistan, if he actually fought there, but what they did is really wrong.
Yeah, originally I wanted to put "successfully" and "peace" in quotes...
Last I checked, US govt successfully used the bombs in Iraq to establish peace there. Double standards?
Out of the desire to use my mouse, I went and sunk a few bucks and bought the crossover application...
You could simply connect the mouse to your laptop, couldn't you?
Source code availability is important. Upgrading from Win95 to WinXP because there is one bug that nobody can fix is not pleasant. You get this one bug fixed, but hundreds (of thousands?) more are introduced. Plus you might lose compatibility. With Linux 0.* you can find the bug (yourself), fix it (yourself), patch your system and have it happily running again.
A usual film hologram (like those that have been around since 1940s) is made and placed somewhere.
Light shines on the hologram, producing a 3D image (you have seen it many times).
The image of the keypad is seen in front of the hologram (no, it doesn't float in the air, you have to look at the hologram to see it).
Infrared sensors (like those in the projection keyboards) detect the movement of your fingers.
The "key-press" is sent to the computer.
The inventors explain very well what this keyboard is. It is not the keyboard from Minority Report. It is a keyboard to be used in places where you don't want to actually touch surfaces for one reason or another.
This is an interesting invention that might prove useful in some areas.
There is nothing bad about the patent. Although inventors don't need to have a working model to get the patent (for 2 hundreds years already), this company has a working prototype (seen at the top of the article in NYT).
The media overstates the importance of this technology a bit.
The company has good PR manager.
Another useful OS Windows product might be Miranda.
Totalitarianism, dictatorship, communisum, bushism, all the same.
See the definitions in a dictionary. These are all extremely different concepts.
Totalitarianism - total control over the population. Can be done without a dictator, like in "1984" or like it is slowly happens in the US.
Dictatorship - direct and unlimited rule of a person. Many African states today are dictatorships without total control or communism.
Communism - a system where people are not compensated for their work, but instead receive material values from the society according to their needs, while everyone contributes to the society with the voluntary labour.
Bushism - a little bit of totalitarianism plus oligarchy. No dictatorship and no communism.
P.S. It's strange to see how people can so close-minded. Either you understand that Iraq war was a sham, or you understand the positive sides of communism, but not both... Hope my post helps.
Actually the navigation part of snopes.com design is quite good. And the animated gifs are just part of the 1995 style, which is admittedly retro, but still just as good as any modern design.
Then screw them. :) This shouldn't be a problem. Don't give a large advance (or don't give the advance at all) and specify clear requirements. When you get the finished work from the offshore artists/developers, check if it meets the requirements and if it does, then pay. Most offshore developers will understand your concerns very well and this should not be a problem.
If it's scary thinking about how much could have been done on the "world hunger" front, think what the US could have done if it spent the money on really important things. That is on fusion, nanotech and AI (and necessary supporting technologies). Frankly, these trillions of dollars might just have been enough to give these technologies already, creating a paradise on Earth in the precess. Too bad that huge military budgets remain a reality even today, after Cold War is long gone...
Well, some companies like 3D Realms and id Software are still independent. :) They employ publishers, but only for marketing, distribution, etc., not to to finance their development. If Duke Nukem Forever ever gets done, this will be an indie game. :)
You might want to find some non-free but really-really cheap artists. The solution is offshore development. If you are willing to pay something, an offshore game development studio in Russia or similar country can be an option, since the labour is much cheaper there...
related link: http://www.dailytelefrag.com/index.php (English version of the web-site, Russian version of which has a sub-site for professional developers).
So is the situation with writers different? Are they as comfortable working for free as programmers are?
Well, they have the money and you don't, Mr. Smart Guy.
It's not about enacting the laws, it's about considering existing legislation and thinking... thinking about how future technologies fit in the picture. Trying to foresee potential problems, conflicts, etc. And then using all means necessary to smoothen the transition to posthuman world. Educating people, promoting the transhumanist ideas and yes, if it is necessary, lobbying for certain laws even before there is a pressing need.
Well, read about Extreme Body Modification. People who want to part with their healthy body parts do not meet much understanding and consideration. You say that a person with a better bionic arm will be treated just like a person with an inferiour prostetic arm and more or less like any other person. May be.
But what about a person who wants to replace a "perfectly" healthy natural arm with a bionic one? Judging from experience, he will have to resort to underground rogue doctors a la Blade Runner or Johnny Mnemonic. What if someone wants to trade his legs for a high-tech wheelchair?
So while stem cell research is all good and valuable, you shouldn't shun other potential problems.
KaZaA Lite is the best to get MP3s, porn and popular software quickly.
eMule (eDonkey network) is the best to get movies, games and software reliably, as well as full albums, ebooks and porn.
What Gnutella is good for, I don't know.
Direct Connect ++ is best to get stuff if you have a very fast connection.
BitTorrent is best to get fresh movie, anime and other releases and some legit stuff like game demos.
FreeNet is not really usefull as of today.
IRC is good to get fresh movie and software releases quickly.
Usenet is good to get fresh stuff quickly if your ISP has a good newsserver or you are willing to subscribe to a paid one, but it's bad for hunting down specific stuff.
Another thing is that sharing will not stop all the authors/artists/directors/programmers from creating new books/music/movies/software. It might have some negative impact, but do realise that there is a positive impact as well. What piracy/sharing effectively does is sort of moving the content to the public domain. So yes, the variety of the content moved to the public domain might decrease a bit (although it's really irrelevant, because in 70 years we will probably live in the posthuman world already), but the quantity (how wide it is distributed) definitely increases. The net result is most probably good.
The question is, can RIAA make this cost-effective? Sure, some of your friends would rat you for $1M. But can you (together with people on the local network) repay that to RIAA? Not sure. Another thing is that this would do incredible damage to RIAA's image and would ultimately help to contain or destroy them.
That's great. What's more is that you are much safer legally if you only share with friends. The program could come with the default setting of friends-only (then your searches are limited to the friends and you don't relay the searches), but you could easily switch to global setting.
If only the journalists writing the original articles would do the same... I mean, look at how they treated that Pinkerton-wannabe. Is that sticking with the facts? No, article submitters have to compensate for that. :]
There are simularities, yes. But there is also a difference and that is what the parent poster was trying to say.
Please don't think it's impossible to imprison 30 million people. I admit it is highly unlikely, but there is a chance (howether slim) that the US will continue on its totalitarisation path and eventually organisations like RIAA will be given "go" in regards to these 30 million.
And if there is the political will to proceed, millions of people can be found, convicted and jailed, all with nearly inhuman efficiency.
Let's hope this never happens.