After all we all have leaders that are the people best qualified to make hard decisions based on all the rational evidence that is available.
It's not like they were picked for their charisma and ability to raise money from various people wanting special access.
And our wonderful legislatures, composed of the best minds available, who would immediately understand the "gravity" of the situation and pass the necessary laws to enable the populace to line up behind emergency programs while maintaining a functioning society.
It's not like they were picked for their charisma and ability to direct federal money to their districts.
In closing I would just like to say that our best and brightest would lead us through.
Create the world first. A consistent world that is "big enough" to allow for many thousands of "heroes - Top 1%ers" without them unnecessarily disturbing each other.
And make the world truly persistent. If UberJoeFoot kills a particular evildoer, then the evildoer is DEAD. I suggest starting out with a world comparable to a real planet.
Once you have the world running you make the modifications to allow the 1%ers to move around/play without being bored to tears making that 2 week journey to town. Don't forget to limit the ability of players using these work arounds to drive NPC 's out of business.
Last but not least, create time lines with various story lines. Hints, warnings, local tales....
In other words, Create the world, then create the stories and player characters.
Detecting the presense of an invisibility "cloak" is quite simple in theory. Not much harder for limited areas, but would be difficult for large areas or in highly mobile applications.
Simply put, it's a matter of timing.
If light is being guided around an object then it's taking a longer path than normal. Therefor the amount of time for the light to travel to an item behind the cloaked object would be longer than the time required if the cloak is not there.
As I said. Concept is quite simple.
For limited area's, for instance a hallway, an array of lasers in a frequency being cloaked (I'm guessing visible) would show the timing discrepancy easily.
For larger areas it would be more difficult on an engineering level. Mobile detectors would be even more complicated.
"I can't see you, but I know EXACTLY where you are!"
Internet gambling is just one facet of the real problem.
Somewhere along the line we changed from being citizens of the government to dependents of the government. We lost much of our freedom to do as we wish with minimal intrusions by the government. Phrases such as "For the good of all", "It's for your own good", "It will save many lives.", and of course the classic that's applied to far to many situations, "It's for the children.".
I'm not saying there isn't a place for government meddling, just that it should be kept to a bare minimum with a very high burden of proof to create and just to make sure, it should regularly expire and have to pass the same burden to reenact.
The real fact is, you are not free unless you have the right to fail. Gambling away your life or house is fail. I believe they used many of the same arguments to enact prohibition as they are using for gambling now. Think about it.
If the mpaa want's people to use TV's (or other devices) that have such restrictions they they should set up factories and SELL them. If the market wants them then tally-ho.
All technological societies ( those that would expand across the galaxy being a subset ) would get to the point of building a device to generate a Higgs boson which would initiate destruction of sun/planet/solar system. Thus no technological civilizations would never have a chance to expand and the Fermi paradox is solved.
A lot of posts have alleged unauthorized access. A few mentioned using the password from the amazon account. Here's the relevant quote from the article.
"The code cycled sequentially through case numbers, requesting a new document from PACER every three seconds. In this manner, Swartz got nearly 20 million pages of court documents, which his script uploaded to Amazonâ(TM)s EC2 cloud computing service."
Note the perl script ran on the libraries computer. As a member of the public, using a FREE service available to the public he was authorized to use the computer. So unless there were specific rules saying he could not install a script it was authorized access.
Also note that the perl script SENT the documents to the amazon account, therefor he wasn't accessing the information from outside. The script, barring any probibitation from sending documents outside or baring Public use of the library computer when the specific user wasn't actually at the computer, was sending the documents outside.
To recap, barring any specific prohibitions:
Person authorized to use the computer. CHECK Person runs script to more efficiently use the public access. CHECK Script running on public access system in library sends results of searches to outside account. CHECK
Those who authorized the free public access SHOCKED because they didn't stop or even warn people not to use the FREE access the way they imagined. CHECK
As with the majority of lawsuits that need to get the real identity of the poster, this one will not result in little to no legal battles. Generally the idea is to identify the people so that OTHER measures may be taken.
I'll leave it to your imagination on what Other Measures a Police Chief can use with relative immunity.
Beam splitter, Fresnel lens, simple prisms, whatever works to separate different parts of the spectrum. Thermal energy going to thermal power generation, the rest going to solar cells that efficiently utilized that particular part of the spectrum.
One could make a good argument that DRM is proof of a conspiracy to steal music as well as encouraging or even insisting that customers break the DMCA.
They absolutely know that DRM encourages such behavior so that legal owners of the music must do so in order to retain the ability to play the music they have purchased.
Last I heard we had the right to make a backup copy but the DMCA trumps that. So a legal right is made impossible which encourages customers to commit crimes. Now I'm not saying that they aren't breaking the law. But rioting does not excuse inciting a riot.
The accuser was involved in a domestic dispute with the Mr. Calixte shortly before he made the accusations.
The accuser was deemed credible because he had worked with the police on other investigations.
The accuser claimed these crimes had been committed previously and over a period of time.
He only mentioned them after a domestic dispute, doing so might be reasonably labeled as retaliation or revenge. Which puts a big dent in credible.
In addition he can be considered a co-conspirator as he was aware of these ongoing crimes, committed in his presence, and chose not to report them. Another big dent in credible.
I would be interested in learning if there was any compensation for providing information to the police in this or any investigation. This would be to determine if the accuser had any incentives or assumption of incentives other than revenge or retaliation.
As to the Mr. Calixte expertize the warrant stated that he "is a computer science major who is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers."
Yet such an expert failed to understand that logs are kept, worked for the IT dept (logs can be scrubbed). Failed to take simple precautions using proxy servers available all over the world that can be used to remain anonymous for web browsing/work, for email, for any number of services etc.
Most amusing:
If Mr. Calixte created the gay website and the claim is not true then he's (being the roommate) reasonably and predictably going to be assumed to be gay as well. Note: I personally don't care if one or both roommates or even the detective is gay other than as it applies to this matter.
Last but not least. This was done by someone who is competent but in no way a "master of the trade". Since domestic disputes tend to build up over time, it's just as reasonable to assume the accuser, with the help and skills of another close friend, created this as a setup. Not difficult if Mr. Calixte left his laptop loose in the room when out for the evening or some such.
15Mbps = 15 X 1,048,576bps = 15,728,640bps 15,728,640bps X 60 sec/min X 60 min/hour X 24 hour/day X 30 days/month = 40,768,634,880,000 bits/month 40,768,634,880,000 bits/month / 1,073,741,824 bits / Gb = 37968.75 Gb 37968.75 Gb / 8 bits per byte = 4746.09375 GB 15 Mbps connection capped at 100 GB = 2.107 % of the possible bandwidth (4746.09375 GB).
25 Mbps connection capped at 250 GB = 3.16 % of the possible bandwidth (7910.15625 GB).
Now if I sign up for a max downloaded data of 100 GB with max speed of 15Mbps then fine.
If I signed up last week for a 15Mbps connection and they are cutting me back to 2.1 % of that connection (regardless of how much I actually use), then I have a problem.
It's time for a new party. One that I believe will appeal to the majority of people in this country.
Lets try Fiscally conservative and socially liberal for a change.
In other words, keep the Government out of my life for the most part. Not a totally libertarian position, I do think the government does have a job to do. Namely to defend the BORDERS and provide reliable information to the citizens so THEY can decide how to live their lives.
I want a constitutional amendment that prohibits anyone from running for office or from supporting anyone who may run for office or from reporting about running for office until 6 months prior to the election.
As has been said before. This is fricking way to much.
Took me 5 min's to come up with a reasonable solution to the issues.
Original Problem: Some companies need skilled employee's that are not available in the US.
Created problems: Many companies like hiring folks from elsewhere because even with associated costs of the visa and transportation it's still a huge cost savings over paying US wages for the same work.
Solution: Have a relatively unlimited pool of available H1B visa's. With the provision that anyone hired must be paid 110% of the prevailing US wage for the work.
That way if they really need skills not available they can get them but there is a real financial incentive to use local talent.
H1B's are designed to allow US employers to obtain employee's with skills that they are UNABLE TO FIND IN THE US. Unfortunately, as they stand, H1B's are a lucrative source of cheaper labor.
One simple change. Allow employers to hire H1B's but they must pay 10% over prevailing US wages.
The purpose is to allow employers to get the talent they need when it's not available in this country.
The problem is that H1-B employee's are willing to work for considerably less than the prevailing wage in this country, in addition the restrictions on the H1-B visa allows predatory employers to abuse the employee.
The solution as I see it is to have very broad limits on the number of H1-B's but to strictly enforce a salary of 10% over the prevailing wage in this country. Therefor they can get the talent they need, but it will cost them extra. Lets the employer get what they need but gives them a real incentive to seek local talent.
Not a lot of data out there on this. On one paper without any references I got figures of 10% to 33%. On another "some OB/GYN's report that as little as 20% of fertilizations result in detectable pregnancies". I would think it's on the low side of the middle of those.
Isn't viable? Due to genetic abnormality, or because the mother's womb has issues and causes failure to implant?
Ridiculous, I agree wholeheartedly. Keep in mind that I'm just logically extending from the belief that all fertilized eggs are people. As a society we go to incredibly lengths to rescue an individual in danger and it logically follows that if this is your belief system you would extend such incredible lengths to this.
Again, I'm not advocating this, I'm just extending the effects of the belief system to it's logical (not necessarily reasonable) conclusion.
Slashdot Mirror
Cease your concerns.
After all we all have leaders that are the people best qualified to make hard decisions based on all the rational evidence that is available.
It's not like they were picked for their charisma and ability to raise money from various people wanting special access.
And our wonderful legislatures, composed of the best minds available, who would immediately understand the "gravity" of the situation and pass the necessary laws to enable the populace to line up behind emergency programs while maintaining a functioning society.
It's not like they were picked for their charisma and ability to direct federal money to their districts.
In closing I would just like to say that our best and brightest would lead us through.
Don't do that!!!
I darn near had to buy another keyboard.
Create the world first. A consistent world that is "big enough" to allow for many thousands of "heroes - Top 1%ers" without them unnecessarily disturbing each other.
And make the world truly persistent. If UberJoeFoot kills a particular evildoer, then the evildoer is DEAD. I suggest starting out with a world comparable to a real planet.
Once you have the world running you make the modifications to allow the 1%ers to move around/play without being bored to tears making that 2 week journey to town. Don't forget to limit the ability of players using these work arounds to drive NPC 's out of business.
Last but not least, create time lines with various story lines. Hints, warnings, local tales....
In other words, Create the world, then create the stories and player characters.
Detecting the presense of an invisibility "cloak" is quite simple in theory. Not much harder for limited areas, but would be difficult for large areas or in highly mobile applications.
Simply put, it's a matter of timing.
If light is being guided around an object then it's taking a longer path than normal. Therefor the amount of time for the light to travel to an item behind the cloaked object would be longer than the time required if the cloak is not there.
As I said. Concept is quite simple.
For limited area's, for instance a hallway, an array of lasers in a frequency being cloaked (I'm guessing visible) would show the timing discrepancy easily.
For larger areas it would be more difficult on an engineering level. Mobile detectors would be even more complicated.
"I can't see you, but I know EXACTLY where you are!"
This delay, like all the others, as well as the delays to come maintain the actual start date at December 12 2012.
All hail the creation of the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, immediately followed by an earth shattering KABOOM!
Internet gambling is just one facet of the real problem.
Somewhere along the line we changed from being citizens of the government to dependents of the government. We lost much of our freedom to do as we wish with minimal intrusions by the government. Phrases such as "For the good of all", "It's for your own good", "It will save many lives.", and of course the classic that's applied to far to many situations, "It's for the children.".
I'm not saying there isn't a place for government meddling, just that it should be kept to a bare minimum with a very high burden of proof to create and just to make sure, it should regularly expire and have to pass the same burden to reenact.
The real fact is, you are not free unless you have the right to fail. Gambling away your life or house is fail. I believe they used many of the same arguments to enact prohibition as they are using for gambling now. Think about it.
A few security questions
Any attempt at encryption?
Considering that pretty much all internet traffic is copied, how hard would it be to watch someone's screen?
Is this processing limited to extreme graphics or is that spreadsheet being watched.
Yes there are plenty more, but enough for now.
If the mpaa want's people to use TV's (or other devices) that have such restrictions they they should set up factories and SELL them. If the market wants them then tally-ho.
All technological societies ( those that would expand across the galaxy being a subset ) would get to the point of building a device to generate a Higgs boson which would initiate destruction of sun/planet/solar system. Thus no technological civilizations would never have a chance to expand and the Fermi paradox is solved.
A lot of posts have alleged unauthorized access. A few mentioned using the password from the amazon account. Here's the relevant quote from the article.
"The code cycled sequentially through case numbers, requesting a new document from PACER every three seconds. In this manner, Swartz got nearly 20 million pages of court documents, which his script uploaded to Amazonâ(TM)s EC2 cloud computing service."
Note the perl script ran on the libraries computer. As a member of the public, using a FREE service available to the public he was authorized to use the computer. So unless there were specific rules saying he could not install a script it was authorized access.
Also note that the perl script SENT the documents to the amazon account, therefor he wasn't accessing the information from outside. The script, barring any probibitation from sending documents outside or baring Public use of the library computer when the specific user wasn't actually at the computer, was sending the documents outside.
To recap, barring any specific prohibitions:
Person authorized to use the computer. CHECK
Person runs script to more efficiently use the public access. CHECK
Script running on public access system in library sends results of searches to outside account. CHECK
Those who authorized the free public access SHOCKED because they didn't stop or even warn people not to use the FREE access the way they imagined. CHECK
Nothing to see folks, move along.
As with the majority of lawsuits that need to get the real identity of the poster, this one will not result in little to no legal battles. Generally the idea is to identify the people so that OTHER measures may be taken.
I'll leave it to your imagination on what Other Measures a Police Chief can use with relative immunity.
Ward
Since I'm fond of flights of fancy...
Beam splitter, Fresnel lens, simple prisms, whatever works to separate different parts of the spectrum. Thermal energy going to thermal power generation, the rest going to solar cells that efficiently utilized that particular part of the spectrum.
The rest of course is the engineering.
One could make a good argument that DRM is proof of a conspiracy to steal music as well as encouraging or even insisting that customers break the DMCA.
They absolutely know that DRM encourages such behavior so that legal owners of the music must do so in order to retain the ability to play the music they have purchased.
Last I heard we had the right to make a backup copy but the DMCA trumps that. So a legal right is made impossible which encourages customers to commit crimes. Now I'm not saying that they aren't breaking the law. But rioting does not excuse inciting a riot.
The accuser was involved in a domestic dispute with the Mr. Calixte shortly before he made the accusations.
The accuser was deemed credible because he had worked with the police on other investigations.
The accuser claimed these crimes had been committed previously and over a period of time.
He only mentioned them after a domestic dispute, doing so might be reasonably labeled as retaliation or revenge. Which puts a big dent in credible.
In addition he can be considered a co-conspirator as he was aware of these ongoing crimes, committed in his presence, and chose not to report them. Another big dent in credible.
I would be interested in learning if there was any compensation for providing information to the police in this or any investigation. This would be to determine if the accuser had any incentives or assumption of incentives other than revenge or retaliation.
As to the Mr. Calixte expertize the warrant stated that he "is a computer science major who is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers."
Yet such an expert failed to understand that logs are kept, worked for the IT dept (logs can be scrubbed). Failed to take simple precautions using proxy servers available all over the world that can be used to remain anonymous for web browsing/work, for email, for any number of services etc.
Most amusing:
If Mr. Calixte created the gay website and the claim is not true then he's (being the roommate) reasonably and predictably going to be assumed to be gay as well. Note: I personally don't care if one or both roommates or even the detective is gay other than as it applies to this matter.
Last but not least. This was done by someone who is competent but in no way a "master of the trade". Since domestic disputes tend to build up over time, it's just as reasonable to assume the accuser, with the help and skills of another close friend, created this as a setup. Not difficult if Mr. Calixte left his laptop loose in the room when out for the evening or some such.
Ok, A few numbers to start with:
1 Megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
1 Gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
15Mbps = 15 X 1,048,576bps = 15,728,640bps
15,728,640bps X 60 sec/min X 60 min/hour X 24 hour/day X 30 days/month = 40,768,634,880,000 bits/month
40,768,634,880,000 bits/month / 1,073,741,824 bits / Gb = 37968.75 Gb
37968.75 Gb / 8 bits per byte = 4746.09375 GB
15 Mbps connection capped at 100 GB = 2.107 % of the possible bandwidth (4746.09375 GB).
25 Mbps connection capped at 250 GB = 3.16 % of the possible bandwidth (7910.15625 GB).
Now if I sign up for a max downloaded data of 100 GB with max speed of 15Mbps then fine.
If I signed up last week for a 15Mbps connection and they are cutting me back to 2.1 % of that connection (regardless of how much I actually use), then I have a problem.
Can't resist.
I have the old version of that:
iShotJR
It's time for a new party. One that I believe will appeal to the majority of people in this country.
Lets try Fiscally conservative and socially liberal for a change.
In other words, keep the Government out of my life for the most part. Not a totally libertarian position, I do think the government does have a job to do. Namely to defend the BORDERS and provide reliable information to the citizens so THEY can decide how to live their lives.
*sigh*
I want a constitutional amendment that prohibits anyone from running for office or from supporting anyone who may run for office or from reporting about running for office until 6 months prior to the election.
As has been said before. This is fricking way to much.
For petes sake. Any communications media can be a "terrorist tool".
Perhaps they should shoot all pigeons cause they can carry messages.
Hmmm what about those evil grandmothers that send cookies, they could be hiding terrorist messages...
and make sure to kill all goats in case someone ties a message to their balls. .....
*sigh*
Exactly, there is that enforcement thing. Give the ICE folks some work to do.
I'm continually amazed at the H1B visa issue.
Took me 5 min's to come up with a reasonable solution to the issues.
Original Problem: Some companies need skilled employee's that are not available in the US.
Created problems: Many companies like hiring folks from elsewhere because even with associated costs of the visa and transportation it's still a huge cost savings over paying US wages for the same work.
Solution: Have a relatively unlimited pool of available H1B visa's. With the provision that anyone hired must be paid 110% of the prevailing US wage for the work.
That way if they really need skills not available they can get them but there is a real financial incentive to use local talent.
Ward
H1B's are designed to allow US employers to obtain employee's with skills that they are UNABLE TO FIND IN THE US. Unfortunately, as they stand, H1B's are a lucrative source of cheaper labor.
One simple change. Allow employers to hire H1B's but they must pay 10% over prevailing US wages.
Now if you want something amusing....
If a large group of terrorists deliberately and publicly assumed aliases of popular American names... They could just work down the popularity list.
Anyone amused by judging by name yet?
The purpose is to allow employers to get the talent they need when it's not available in this country.
The problem is that H1-B employee's are willing to work for considerably less than the prevailing wage in this country, in addition the restrictions on the H1-B visa allows predatory employers to abuse the employee.
The solution as I see it is to have very broad limits on the number of H1-B's but to strictly enforce a salary of 10% over the prevailing wage in this country. Therefor they can get the talent they need, but it will cost them extra. Lets the employer get what they need but gives them a real incentive to seek local talent.
Not a lot of data out there on this. On one paper without any references I got figures of 10% to 33%. On another "some OB/GYN's report that as little as 20% of fertilizations result in detectable pregnancies". I would think it's on the low side of the middle of those.
Isn't viable? Due to genetic abnormality, or because the mother's womb has issues and causes failure to implant?
Ridiculous, I agree wholeheartedly. Keep in mind that I'm just logically extending from the belief that all fertilized eggs are people. As a society we go to incredibly lengths to rescue an individual in danger and it logically follows that if this is your belief system you would extend such incredible lengths to this.
Again, I'm not advocating this, I'm just extending the effects of the belief system to it's logical (not necessarily reasonable) conclusion.