No, it is an orgy of stupidity to cooperate with any censor. Why cooperate at all? Are their servers physically in all those countries?
They already cooperate. Their physical locations in the various countries mentioned in the EFF article require that they comply with legal takedown requests. They are not doing any new censoring.
Why not just move censored data to a country where it doesn't have to be censored?
That's exactly what they're doing. Instead of removing the blocked content for everyone, they block it only for those in the country where it was removed. The content still exists and is visible where the censorship does not apply. They are actually doing less censoring.
Correct. The EFF article points out that Twitter's locations are “United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, and soon Germany”, in addition to the United States (the “various countries” I was referring to). They are only obligated to act on legal requests inside those countries. This policy allows Twitter to expand its physical presence, without having to then deal with a convoluted mess of free speech laws that are different in each of those countries. And it's not limited to government requests. The bulk of what Twitter takes down has been DMCA-based.
It seems as though nobody who is reacting to what Twitter has stated actually read or thought about the new policy, instead parading headlines like “Social Suicide”. It's easily the most subversive and transparent approach to censorship to date. They are already obliged by law to remove content in various countries, and have done so. The alternative is complete blocking of the service by the country. Until now, complying required removing content globally. What Twitter has done is made it possible to only remove content in the country that requested the block (reactively, like DMCA takedowns), while still leaving it visible to the rest of the world.
Now countries with screwball notions of free speech cannot affect beyond their borders. Also, those *inside* the country will be notified that they are seeing blocked content, instead of just an absence, and the censoring will be documented on Chilling Effects. Before, if content were censored, it would be impossible to see it no matter where you are, or where you pretended to be. Now, people's voices can still get out, the oppression of their voices will be more apparent, and it's still possible to get around the censorship if necessary.
Same thing humans do, watch out for them and react. Except, unlike humans, autonomous cars aren't so distractible and can react much more quickly. Also, if networked, the cars can be warned of hazards by another car well before actually encountering it.
FTA: "So assuming the mission continues well, in 2014 the Rosetta Probe will land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will measure the comet's molecular composition. Then it will remain at rest as the comet orbits the sun for hundreds of millions of years. So somewhere in the solar system, where it is safe but hard to reach, a backup sample of human languages is stored, in case we need one."
Now that's some serious off-site backup. Good luck doing a restore in case of corruption. Even just incremental backups are going to be a bitch.
Honestly I fined those numbers rather impressive, considering several things. First, YouTube has a huge variety, and amount, of content, whereas the Olympics are extremely narrow by comparison. If you took a specific set of videos on YouTube that was more comparable to the Olympic coverage, the numbers would be a lot less disparate. Also, YouTube has been around a while and is firmly established as a place to watch video online. The kind of coverage being made available online and at the specific sites is not something people are used to.
Having a different kind of plugin required sure doesn't help the NBC online coverage either. NBCOlympics.com also has a huge competitor, the NBC networks themselves. YouTube doesn't exactly have to compete with major primetime coverage. The advantage to online was that it could be live without having to worry about timeslots and such, especially important given the time difference. However, since it's a full 12-hour or more difference for everyone in the US, they're asleep during the live streams, so the non-time limited advantage is lost.
I do think the whole thing could've been executed a bit better, but my viewing experience has been great so far. I really enjoyed being able to watch various sports that aren't on the mainstream coverage, such as sailing and fencing. I've even noticed some automatic bandwidth adjustment to keep the stream smooth, handy as I'm sharing a low-end cable connection with four others.
On a related note, being able to torrent British coverage of the games was especially interesting as the focus is, for the most part, quite different, both in terms of athletes and events.
Sort of. Resolution is the fineness of information that can be resolved given a fixed size. Keep in mind that number of pixels is not exactly image size, which can be described in cm or inches depending on the context. For example, a 10in by 10in image at 300dpi will have a much higher density of information when compared to a 10in by 10in image at 72dpi. So, these gigapixel images are potentially much higher resolution, depending on the physical dimensions it is presented at. Compared to most graphics on the web, these images are insanely high resolution. However, if they were printed out at 300dpi, their resolution would be the same as any typical printout, except the prints would be physically gigantic. You are right though that "pictures with a resolution of 1-gigapixel" is inaccurate, so far as it is missing scale, as noted by the sib post, though it is implicitly compared to typical photo scales.
No. However, it does show how easy it is to "crowdsource" the stalking and coordinate it using the Internet. He wasn't doing anything online himself, but people observing him in the real world were able to report back. They only used Google Maps to communicate where he was, not actually find him, and his Facebook account was inconsequential to the actual apprehension, used only for humiliation.
Fortunately, Will Wright's attitude with Spore, and every other game he has done, seems to be that he is creating a "toy" and not a game. Combined with the emphasis/reliance on procedural content, as well as the "pollenator" content sharing, it is looking like it will be easier than ever to focus exactly on what interests you while the game fleshes out the experience. Hopefully this is actually the case.
Any sort of game that relies on a top-down view would benefit immeasurably from this. I, myself, am awaiting the day when I'll be able to play an RTS like Starcraft on a table like this - without having to build the table myself. The flashy graphics and automated stuff might even spawn a resurgence of D&D and similar games. As you said, playing online or even over a LAN still doesn't have quite the same social feel.
He isn't duplicating the bricks themselves, but rather using the bricks to build an object, then duplicating the object as a solid form that just happens to look like assembled bricks.
It's backwards in that the online ads are very targeted and may have more personal relevance than the radio ads. But, as the others have said, radio ads have someone talking to you, making the connection between the ad and the user (at least seemingly) more personal - nmb3000's analogy of dimensions describes it well.
Firewalls are useful for monitoring traffic. The best way to detect a zombie computer is to look at the traffic coming in and out, checking for anomalies (such as excessive traffic to places nobody would be going to). Security Now is a great podcast that deals with security issues and locking down your systems. Episodes 3, 8, and 4 are particularly relevant. It can get technical at times but all-in-all it's a great explanation of how things work and what can be done to secure them.
I'm not positive and may be wrong, but I believe the enforcement of movie ratings is not mandatory, though I imagine few theaters would like to risk their reputation by not enforcing them. The argument is that if the movie ratings are not truly mandatory, then neither should game ratings be, especially since it's easier for parents to monitor what games their child plays. Personally, while I agree that voluntary rating systems are helpful, even if they need an overhaul, their enforcement should not be compulsory-it's not the job of the government to act as parent.
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No, it is an orgy of stupidity to cooperate with any censor. Why cooperate at all? Are their servers physically in all those countries?
They already cooperate. Their physical locations in the various countries mentioned in the EFF article require that they comply with legal takedown requests. They are not doing any new censoring.
Why not just move censored data to a country where it doesn't have to be censored?
That's exactly what they're doing. Instead of removing the blocked content for everyone, they block it only for those in the country where it was removed. The content still exists and is visible where the censorship does not apply. They are actually doing less censoring.
But that would require balls.
Ha. Says the anonymous coward.
To meet that requirement, Twitter would have to host their servers on a barge in the middle of the ocean.
Correct. The EFF article points out that Twitter's locations are “United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, and soon Germany”, in addition to the United States (the “various countries” I was referring to). They are only obligated to act on legal requests inside those countries. This policy allows Twitter to expand its physical presence, without having to then deal with a convoluted mess of free speech laws that are different in each of those countries. And it's not limited to government requests. The bulk of what Twitter takes down has been DMCA-based.
It seems as though nobody who is reacting to what Twitter has stated actually read or thought about the new policy, instead parading headlines like “Social Suicide”. It's easily the most subversive and transparent approach to censorship to date. They are already obliged by law to remove content in various countries, and have done so. The alternative is complete blocking of the service by the country. Until now, complying required removing content globally. What Twitter has done is made it possible to only remove content in the country that requested the block (reactively, like DMCA takedowns), while still leaving it visible to the rest of the world.
Now countries with screwball notions of free speech cannot affect beyond their borders. Also, those *inside* the country will be notified that they are seeing blocked content, instead of just an absence, and the censoring will be documented on Chilling Effects. Before, if content were censored, it would be impossible to see it no matter where you are, or where you pretended to be. Now, people's voices can still get out, the oppression of their voices will be more apparent, and it's still possible to get around the censorship if necessary.
See the point 3, SLAM on: http://blogs.forbes.com/briancaulfield/2010/10/09/four-reasons-google-cars-drive-better-than-you-do/
Same thing humans do, watch out for them and react. Except, unlike humans, autonomous cars aren't so distractible and can react much more quickly. Also, if networked, the cars can be warned of hazards by another car well before actually encountering it.
They are just giant butterflies, after all.
"Laser chopsticks" sounds way cooler than "optical tweezer" from TFAbstract. They should've gone with that in the paper.
...that's a tablet. Seriously, do they think cargo pockets are the predominant pocket variety?
They're one step ahead of you.
FTA: "So assuming the mission continues well, in 2014 the Rosetta Probe will land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will measure the comet's molecular composition. Then it will remain at rest as the comet orbits the sun for hundreds of millions of years. So somewhere in the solar system, where it is safe but hard to reach, a backup sample of human languages is stored, in case we need one."
Now that's some serious off-site backup. Good luck doing a restore in case of corruption. Even just incremental backups are going to be a bitch.
Honestly I fined those numbers rather impressive, considering several things. First, YouTube has a huge variety, and amount, of content, whereas the Olympics are extremely narrow by comparison. If you took a specific set of videos on YouTube that was more comparable to the Olympic coverage, the numbers would be a lot less disparate. Also, YouTube has been around a while and is firmly established as a place to watch video online. The kind of coverage being made available online and at the specific sites is not something people are used to.
Having a different kind of plugin required sure doesn't help the NBC online coverage either. NBCOlympics.com also has a huge competitor, the NBC networks themselves. YouTube doesn't exactly have to compete with major primetime coverage. The advantage to online was that it could be live without having to worry about timeslots and such, especially important given the time difference. However, since it's a full 12-hour or more difference for everyone in the US, they're asleep during the live streams, so the non-time limited advantage is lost.
I do think the whole thing could've been executed a bit better, but my viewing experience has been great so far. I really enjoyed being able to watch various sports that aren't on the mainstream coverage, such as sailing and fencing. I've even noticed some automatic bandwidth adjustment to keep the stream smooth, handy as I'm sharing a low-end cable connection with four others.
On a related note, being able to torrent British coverage of the games was especially interesting as the focus is, for the most part, quite different, both in terms of athletes and events.
You have to give them credit for popularizing Control, Alt, and Delete. Without Microsoft, those keys might have languished in obscurity.
Something like this, I would imagine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieroglyph
Sort of. Resolution is the fineness of information that can be resolved given a fixed size. Keep in mind that number of pixels is not exactly image size, which can be described in cm or inches depending on the context. For example, a 10in by 10in image at 300dpi will have a much higher density of information when compared to a 10in by 10in image at 72dpi. So, these gigapixel images are potentially much higher resolution, depending on the physical dimensions it is presented at. Compared to most graphics on the web, these images are insanely high resolution. However, if they were printed out at 300dpi, their resolution would be the same as any typical printout, except the prints would be physically gigantic. You are right though that "pictures with a resolution of 1-gigapixel" is inaccurate, so far as it is missing scale, as noted by the sib post, though it is implicitly compared to typical photo scales.
No. However, it does show how easy it is to "crowdsource" the stalking and coordinate it using the Internet. He wasn't doing anything online himself, but people observing him in the real world were able to report back. They only used Google Maps to communicate where he was, not actually find him, and his Facebook account was inconsequential to the actual apprehension, used only for humiliation.
Fortunately, Will Wright's attitude with Spore, and every other game he has done, seems to be that he is creating a "toy" and not a game. Combined with the emphasis/reliance on procedural content, as well as the "pollenator" content sharing, it is looking like it will be easier than ever to focus exactly on what interests you while the game fleshes out the experience. Hopefully this is actually the case.
Any sort of game that relies on a top-down view would benefit immeasurably from this. I, myself, am awaiting the day when I'll be able to play an RTS like Starcraft on a table like this - without having to build the table myself. The flashy graphics and automated stuff might even spawn a resurgence of D&D and similar games. As you said, playing online or even over a LAN still doesn't have quite the same social feel.
He isn't duplicating the bricks themselves, but rather using the bricks to build an object, then duplicating the object as a solid form that just happens to look like assembled bricks.
Bah, beaten. The curses of tabbed browsing
Don't forget the child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
It's backwards in that the online ads are very targeted and may have more personal relevance than the radio ads. But, as the others have said, radio ads have someone talking to you, making the connection between the ad and the user (at least seemingly) more personal - nmb3000's analogy of dimensions describes it well.
Bah, should be episode 46, not 4. Yay for proof reading.
Firewalls are useful for monitoring traffic. The best way to detect a zombie computer is to look at the traffic coming in and out, checking for anomalies (such as excessive traffic to places nobody would be going to). Security Now is a great podcast that deals with security issues and locking down your systems. Episodes 3, 8, and 4 are particularly relevant. It can get technical at times but all-in-all it's a great explanation of how things work and what can be done to secure them.
I'm not positive and may be wrong, but I believe the enforcement of movie ratings is not mandatory, though I imagine few theaters would like to risk their reputation by not enforcing them. The argument is that if the movie ratings are not truly mandatory, then neither should game ratings be, especially since it's easier for parents to monitor what games their child plays. Personally, while I agree that voluntary rating systems are helpful, even if they need an overhaul, their enforcement should not be compulsory-it's not the job of the government to act as parent.
Ooo the irony.