It's too bad that we don't have such noble and exciting frontiers these days
Hey we got the Cassini Mission, very exciting (IMHO) indeed. Granted it's not a manned mission but you have to admit that mission goals are both ambitious and unique (and just wait until Hugyens lands on Titan !).
One wonders if this all comes to pass, what Japanese company in there right mind would ever "open the kimono" relative to new product development to Microsoft (come to think of it, what company in their right mind ANYWHERE in the world would do this ?).
On the surface it sure looks like a government sanctioned license to steal to me. I mean it's not as if M$ hasn't been ripping off other companies ideas for years, but this is the first I've ever heard of a major economic powers government sanctioning it... sheesh, J.P. Morgan must be looking up from HELL green with envy.
Believe me I share your disgust for these 419 scammers, but the issue I see with you're reasoning in A. & B. above is that by cutting off those blocks which are held by cyber cafes you knock off a lot of innocent people that don't have any other way to get Internet Access at a *reasonable* price.
I'm thinking this would be tantamount to shutting down the phone system in order to get rid of telemarketers.
Seems to me the best bet is end user education, ISP's, the media and informed users need to get the word out relative to these scams.
A.) Most of these scammers utilize cyber cafes to do their dirty work (thus you'd be cutting off net access to people who aren't scammers).
B.) These scammers aren't exclusively in Nigeria, many specimens have been posted originating in various African and European countries.
C.) Who would administer the blocks ? I would imagine ISP's don't want to get into this game, nor would the regional registries.
Could just be my take on it, but isn't that the whole point of Fedora ? more a less the "unstable branch" for RHEL ?
One would think that they would want to move the Fedora "branch" as far along as possible (and field test as much as possible) in between RHEL releases in order to incoporate as many stable features & fixes as possible into RHEL.
I'm not a big Red Hat user (prefer Gentoo myself) but that was my take on the Fedora projects goals.
This is Seriously getting ridiculous, when are the AV vendors going to go ahead and just classify Internet Explorer as a Virus ?(or at the very least the most effective breach vector ever written).
ended up having a president appointed by a panel of judges
This is a bald-faced "Urban Myth" go back and review the facts of the 2000 election and you'll find the Supreme Court in reality ended up being a non-factor in the outcome of the election.
you make some good points, but as the 2000 Presidential Election demonstrated, some of my countrymen can't figured out A.) how to make a X B.) How many X's to put on each line of the Ballot. In other words the simpler the user interface the more Americans will actually comply with balloting regulations and thus have their votes counted.
IMHO Digital voting systems are VERY feasible as well as a good idea. Just look at the global banking system - primarily digital with systems oversight of other distributed systems and capable of securely moving around trillions of dollars a day almost without incident. If we can do this, it seems to me to be a no-brainer to put together a reliable and secure E-Voting platform.
Good point and from my reading of this clause & the 12th amendment you are correct.
I would think though that the popular elections were placed in November to supply lead-time to the formal selection of electors to the electoral college for the states. Logically this would mean that whichever state required the most "lead-time" would dictate the latest date of the popular election (assuming an election delay, unless the Congress changed the day nation wide for Elector selection).
In any case the President couldn't remain in office (without being re-elected) past January 20th since that day is specified by the 20th Amendment.
IMHO the very idea of a delay in the popular election is scary on a couple of levels --
1.) The losing side would shout to the rafters that the election was unfair due to the delay
2.) If the delay was driven by a terrorist attack the attackers would gain HUGE credibility by the very fact that they were able to interrupt our democratic process (not to mention marking every election day therafter as prime attack timing).
3.) The shake up in public perception that our electoral process is a "sacred Democratic institution" (as if the 2000 Presidential Election didn't already cast enough doubt on that).
Actually I don't think the state governors could do this... Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution specifically states (in reference to the Presidential Electorate) that :
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
I'm no lawyer but it appears that in order to change the election day it would take an act of (the U.S.) Congress.
Consolidation is only natural among relatively "young" business sectors ("economic history" is rife with examples). With the proliferation of companies in the sector, overlapping product offerings, finite market size and the struggle to offer REAL value propositions to customers it's rather inevitable.
Now if you add the unique trends that are pressuring this sectors consolidation like Open-source and "off-shoring" it's rather a surprise it's taken this long for the media to recognize it. Let's face it the software sector has grown bloated and in a lot of cases has lost touch with customers needs. A good "shakin-up" is just the ticket for improved quality and reasonable margins (re: pricing).
It's a great strength of capitalism that the market eventually will grab a shovel and bash in the heads of those companies whose demise will lead to better value for the customer (well that's the theory anyways;-) ).
Interesting, but sad article. I just find it so difficult to believe that people continue to fall for this oh so obvious scam....makes you wonder if some people would still fall for the "I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale" line.
FYI:
For some funny accounts of how would be victims turn the tables on 419 scammers check out this site:
Well actually one theory suggests that Methane in Titans atmosphere is broken down by radiation (from both the sun and Cosmic Rays trapped in Saturns Magnetic Field) into Ethane.
Since Ethane boils at -89 Deg C, and freezes at about -183 Deg C, it would be quite feasible for liquid Ethane to both exist on the surface and "rain" (or snow) down from the sky.
So basically Titan could be the richest natural gas find in history;-) (and if there was free oxygen it would surely hold the record as the "most flammable world around").
Where do you get your information ? we're still at the point where's there is NO WAY to determine if life is viable on Europa or not, we have no idea if a liquid water ocean exists under its solid ice surface and won't until we have a lander capable of drilling (or melting) through the surface ice(a LONG ways a way).
BTW the Huygens probe's primary mission is NOT to look for life on Titan, rather it's to study the chemistry and geology of that moon. It's HIGHLY, HIGHLY unlikely that any life exists there (as we understand life that is) since the surface temperatures hover at near absolute ZERO (-178 DegC or so), and the atmospheric chemistry is all wrong to support life. Perhaps deep within Titan, but's that's a long shot.
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It's too bad that we don't have such noble and exciting frontiers these days
Hey we got the Cassini Mission, very exciting (IMHO) indeed. Granted it's not a manned mission but you have to admit that mission goals are both ambitious and unique (and just wait until Hugyens lands on Titan !).
Good points Erik .. .
One wonders if this all comes to pass, what Japanese company in there right mind would ever "open the kimono" relative to new product development to Microsoft (come to think of it, what company in their right mind ANYWHERE in the world would do this ?).
On the surface it sure looks like a government sanctioned license to steal to me. I mean it's not as if M$ hasn't been ripping off other companies ideas for years, but this is the first I've ever heard of a major economic powers government sanctioning it... sheesh, J.P. Morgan must be looking up from HELL green with envy.
w00t ! this is great news , can't wait to get Slack 10 onto a lab box and put it through it's paces.
Anybody done testing on this puppy yet ? I would be interested to hear impressions of server side app performance (especially on Intel based servers).
Believe me I share your disgust for these 419 scammers, but the issue I see with you're reasoning in A. & B. above is that by cutting off those blocks which are held by cyber cafes you knock off a lot of innocent people that don't have any other way to get Internet Access at a *reasonable* price.
I'm thinking this would be tantamount to shutting down the phone system in order to get rid of telemarketers.
Seems to me the best bet is end user education, ISP's, the media and informed users need to get the word out relative to these scams.
The problem with using IP blocking is that
A.) Most of these scammers utilize cyber cafes to do their dirty work (thus you'd be cutting off net access to people who aren't scammers).
B.) These scammers aren't exclusively in Nigeria, many specimens have been posted originating in various African and European countries.
C.) Who would administer the blocks ? I would imagine ISP's don't want to get into this game, nor would the regional registries.
Could just be my take on it, but isn't that the whole point of Fedora ? more a less the "unstable branch" for RHEL ?
One would think that they would want to move the Fedora "branch" as far along as possible (and field test as much as possible) in between RHEL releases in order to incoporate as many stable features & fixes as possible into RHEL.
I'm not a big Red Hat user (prefer Gentoo myself) but that was my take on the Fedora projects goals.
This is Seriously getting ridiculous, when are the AV vendors going to go ahead and just classify Internet Explorer as a Virus ?(or at the very least the most effective breach vector ever written).
ended up having a president appointed by a panel of judges
This is a bald-faced "Urban Myth" go back and review the facts of the 2000 election and you'll find the Supreme Court in reality ended up being a non-factor in the outcome of the election.
you make some good points, but as the 2000 Presidential Election demonstrated, some of my countrymen can't figured out
A.) how to make a X
B.) How many X's to put on each line of the Ballot.
In other words the simpler the user interface the more Americans will actually comply with balloting regulations and thus have their votes counted.
IMHO Digital voting systems are VERY feasible as well as a good idea. Just look at the global banking system - primarily digital with systems oversight of other distributed systems and capable of securely moving around trillions of dollars a day almost without incident. If we can do this, it seems to me to be a no-brainer to put together a reliable and secure E-Voting platform.
Thanks for the correction guys, very informative as well....
;-) ...
I guess it would be more accurate to say that Mozilla corrected the vulnerability quickly after it was WIDELY publicized.
Just goes to show ya the Bugzilla scholars DO add value
Mozilla already fixed this vulnerabilty (Mozilla 1.7.1 & FireFox 0.92) took what 3 or 4 days after it was discovered ?
Microsoft will surely fix this in no more than 2 "Microsoft" Days which is around 6 months for the rest of Earth's population.
Good point and from my reading of this clause & the 12th amendment you are correct.
I would think though that the popular elections were placed in November to supply lead-time to the formal selection of electors to the electoral college for the states. Logically this would mean that whichever state required the most "lead-time" would dictate the latest date of the popular election (assuming an election delay, unless the Congress changed the day nation wide for Elector selection).
In any case the President couldn't remain in office (without being re-elected) past January 20th since that day is specified by the 20th Amendment.
IMHO the very idea of a delay in the popular election is scary on a couple of levels --
1.) The losing side would shout to the rafters that the election was unfair due to the delay
2.) If the delay was driven by a terrorist attack the attackers would gain HUGE credibility by the very fact that they were able to interrupt our democratic process (not to mention marking every election day therafter as prime attack timing).
3.) The shake up in public perception that our electoral process is a "sacred Democratic institution" (as if the 2000 Presidential Election didn't already cast enough doubt on that).
Actually I don't think the state governors could do this ... Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution specifically states (in reference to the Presidential Electorate) that :
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
I'm no lawyer but it appears that in order to change the election day it would take an act of (the U.S.) Congress.
Amen !! well said.
Consolidation is only natural among relatively "young" business sectors ("economic history" is rife with examples). With the proliferation of companies in the sector, overlapping product offerings, finite market size and the struggle to offer REAL value propositions to customers it's rather inevitable.
;-) ).
Now if you add the unique trends that are pressuring this sectors consolidation like Open-source and "off-shoring" it's rather a surprise it's taken this long for the media to recognize it. Let's face it the software sector has grown bloated and in a lot of cases has lost touch with customers needs. A good "shakin-up" is just the ticket for improved quality and reasonable margins (re: pricing).
It's a great strength of capitalism that the market eventually will grab a shovel and bash in the heads of those companies whose demise will lead to better value for the customer (well that's the theory anyways
Interesting, but sad article. I just find it so difficult to believe that people continue to fall for this oh so obvious scam....makes you wonder if some people would still fall for the "I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale" line.
FYI: For some funny accounts of how would be victims turn the tables on 419 scammers check out this site:
http://www.scamorama.com
Well actually one theory suggests that Methane in Titans atmosphere is broken down by radiation (from both the sun and Cosmic Rays trapped in Saturns Magnetic Field) into Ethane. Since Ethane boils at -89 Deg C, and freezes at about -183 Deg C, it would be quite feasible for liquid Ethane to both exist on the surface and "rain" (or snow) down from the sky. So basically Titan could be the richest natural gas find in history ;-) (and if there was free oxygen it would surely hold the record as the "most flammable world around").
Where do you get your information ? we're still at the point where's there is NO WAY to determine if life is viable on Europa or not, we have no idea if a liquid water ocean exists under its solid ice surface and won't until we have a lander capable of drilling (or melting) through the surface ice(a LONG ways a way). BTW the Huygens probe's primary mission is NOT to look for life on Titan, rather it's to study the chemistry and geology of that moon. It's HIGHLY, HIGHLY unlikely that any life exists there (as we understand life that is) since the surface temperatures hover at near absolute ZERO (-178 DegC or so), and the atmospheric chemistry is all wrong to support life. Perhaps deep within Titan, but's that's a long shot.