It's hard to create safeguards when we're not even sure of all the negatives.
I remember before there were consumer protection laws, and if you bought a defective car, too bad sucker. That was the way for years. Am I going to argue that all safeguards are an infringement? No. Am I going to argue that we're figuring it out? Yes.
Please don't apply simple "take personal responsibility for the fact the world sucks and hates you" rules. We can make it better, but we have to know what's wrong first.
It's nice once in a while to talk about what's right, but, yeah, that's not nearly as sexy and frightening.
1979: Hiding that Apple ][ with VisiCalc that the MIS staff has forbidden because users can't be trusted to produce accurate reports without someone with a Masters doing the coding.
1984: Sneaking PCs into an all-mainframe shop by having the customer buy them as parts, on seperate POs.
1985: Networking those PCs peer-to-peer over 1MB coax so they could share a "big" 40 MB hard drive and a "fast" 6PPM laser printer.
That was the last generation of revolution. Now comes the software revolution, where disposable widgets take the place of $450 office "productivity" packages.
It's a glorious dawn, and I'm laughing at all you young turks thinking you're going to control it. Embrace and control it, lads. Never forbid anything unless you have something better.
Gee. Take that much power out of a surface wind? Makes you kinda wonder what happens when you take that much energy out of a system that determines a lot of weather and water temperature and moves it inland to, say, make toast.
It ain't the data, it's the LOCATION of the chip and the INTERPRETATION by persons unknown and unaccountable. In this age when travel can indicate evil intent when interpreted by paranoids in dark rooms, you can't imagine?
And if your passport is cloned, how hard would it to build a "case" that YOU cloned it in order to obfuscate your location? Of course, that won't be for long, as you'll disappear to an UNDISCLOSED location.
People want to hate Microsoft exactly the way they hated (and still hate) The Phone Company and The Guy Who Won't Turn Down His Freakin' Subwoofer When He's Sitting In His Car Because He Can't Smoke Inside and, yes, The Weather.
All things bigger than us, beyond any reasonable control, and ubiquitous. Let's face it, we're forced to use Microsoft products in a lot of environments, just like I used to have to deal with Jersey Bell. Both suck(ed), but they're there, you know what you're dealing with, and, yes, you can sit and complain about something other than The Weather.
What's really wrong is the general purpose model of computing has gotten so completely bloated and out of touch with real people that it's a culture on its own, with titanic momentum. Think human-scale.
Not all Christians are bible-thumping bigoted idiots bent on blah-blah-blahing their way into every nook and cranny until we're all like them, and then they can find another reason to hate us. The people you're thinking of would hate people no matter what the circumstances.
Many other Christians understand the Bible's metaphorical message, and try to live their lives in gentle kindness and generosity.
You, however, remain ignorant and in only tentative charge of a computer. The only difference between you and the people we're talking about is you dress less neatly.
1) We are the government. We're free to overthrow it one election at a time. 2) Police. That's what they're for. If your home is being invaded all the time? Maybe it's time to move.
Next we'll be discussing the sudden rash of flagburning that everyone has to be protected from and the very jolly way that privatizing highways will make them not turn to gravel.
Has it occured to anyone that whoever made this threat is a terrorist equivalent of a pointy-headed-boss/marketing exec who is exhorting unknown terrorist hacker-types to unleash one of those virus thingies that he's heard about? Like, they sat in a meeting in some coffee house and said "Yeah! We could release one of those virus thingies! We'd rule the world! Get one of those computer infidels on the internets!"
Isn't this the equivalent of a pathetic "release the hounds," only there are no hounds, and the "leadership" doesn't know that?
Oh, and to religious extremists, isn't technology part of the global, modernistic infidelity?
I mean, really. After 50 years of being immersed in computing, STILL NO NON-TECHNICAL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW COMPUTERS WORK and yet they STILL TELL geeks to do the IMPOSSIBLE.
What's next? A Koran that can fly and spits dates?
I, for one, am sick and tired of our moron overlords.
It's never that simple, and you've obviously never tried it. Most plans provide little coverage for everyday events and horrible coverage for large events. Hospitals WILL bill you for the difference, and they WILL sue you and take your house if you can't pay. There is no free healthcare, and it's rediculously expensive because of what now? Oh yes, providing a service for the common good by expecting a profit from it.
Now shut up and hope you don't get sick, because you'll lose everything you own in the process if that's your idea of an "idea."
"Things like Working for Outcome (in other words, don't blame people for bugs, find out how to fix them and fix the process that caused them) and Criticize Ideas, Not People. Or avoiding the pitfalls of making quick hacks without trying to understand why the hack was necessary (Quick Fixes Become Quicksand). They finish up the chapter with a key word I personally feel is absolutely necessary in software development -- courage. They put this in the context of Damn the Torpedoes, Go Ahead. In other words, if the code you are working on is stinky, and you'd like to throw it away, don't be afraid to bring that up. Or if code you are in the middle of building suddenly becomes the wrong direction, stand up and explain that (being sure that in both circumstances you have alternatives for getting it on the right track)."
I try to teach
a) help desk people
b) network engineers
c) operators
d) everyone I can...to do these very things. It's called "giving a shit about your work and how it affects other people." Also known as "doing a good job."
'nuff said.
..unless of course your competitor has a flame-thrower. And therein your logic dies. People are assholes. Making them act MORE selfish is sure going to fix the problem, yup, you betcha. "Free market?" Where? In a "free market," whoever gathers the most sticks and stones first gets to dominate. Not exactly "free" then, is it?
Unless you want a "market of one."
Slashdot Mirror
It's hard to create safeguards when we're not even sure of all the negatives.
I remember before there were consumer protection laws, and if you bought a defective car, too bad sucker. That was the way for years. Am I going to argue that all safeguards are an infringement? No. Am I going to argue that we're figuring it out? Yes.
Please don't apply simple "take personal responsibility for the fact the world sucks and hates you" rules. We can make it better, but we have to know what's wrong first.
It's nice once in a while to talk about what's right, but, yeah, that's not nearly as sexy and frightening.
Four tumblers of middle-quality scotch?
I dunno. Do the rules of punctuation apply?
"It's" is "It is"
"Its" is the posessive, as in "the thing belonging to it."
Why is that hard, but coding isn't? Because, frankly, you don't care.
1979: Hiding that Apple ][ with VisiCalc that the MIS staff has forbidden because users can't be trusted to produce accurate reports without someone with a Masters doing the coding. 1984: Sneaking PCs into an all-mainframe shop by having the customer buy them as parts, on seperate POs. 1985: Networking those PCs peer-to-peer over 1MB coax so they could share a "big" 40 MB hard drive and a "fast" 6PPM laser printer. That was the last generation of revolution. Now comes the software revolution, where disposable widgets take the place of $450 office "productivity" packages. It's a glorious dawn, and I'm laughing at all you young turks thinking you're going to control it. Embrace and control it, lads. Never forbid anything unless you have something better.
As someone who lived within glowing distance of Three Mile Island when it leaked, I say this with the best of intentions:
Fuck you.
Yes. Friggin' gun control nuts, going around, what, seizing guns from heavily armed coots using, um, what exactly? Stern looks? Crossed arms and tapping feet? Accidental gun death statistics?
Yeah. The unarmed, nice, kind gentle people are the most dangerous. Uhuh.
Gee. Take that much power out of a surface wind? Makes you kinda wonder what happens when you take that much energy out of a system that determines a lot of weather and water temperature and moves it inland to, say, make toast.
Doh.
It ain't the data, it's the LOCATION of the chip and the INTERPRETATION by persons unknown and unaccountable. In this age when travel can indicate evil intent when interpreted by paranoids in dark rooms, you can't imagine?
And if your passport is cloned, how hard would it to build a "case" that YOU cloned it in order to obfuscate your location? Of course, that won't be for long, as you'll disappear to an UNDISCLOSED location.
My God, are they this stupid?
I doubt it.
People want to hate Microsoft exactly the way they hated (and still hate) The Phone Company and The Guy Who Won't Turn Down His Freakin' Subwoofer When He's Sitting In His Car Because He Can't Smoke Inside and, yes, The Weather.
All things bigger than us, beyond any reasonable control, and ubiquitous. Let's face it, we're forced to use Microsoft products in a lot of environments, just like I used to have to deal with Jersey Bell. Both suck(ed), but they're there, you know what you're dealing with, and, yes, you can sit and complain about something other than The Weather.
What's really wrong is the general purpose model of computing has gotten so completely bloated and out of touch with real people that it's a culture on its own, with titanic momentum. Think human-scale.
How do you get .4 characters? What's 2/5 of 8 bits? 16/5?
That's so kewel. NO one will guess that.
Not all Christians are bible-thumping bigoted idiots bent on blah-blah-blahing their way into every nook and cranny until we're all like them, and then they can find another reason to hate us. The people you're thinking of would hate people no matter what the circumstances.
Many other Christians understand the Bible's metaphorical message, and try to live their lives in gentle kindness and generosity.
You, however, remain ignorant and in only tentative charge of a computer. The only difference between you and the people we're talking about is you dress less neatly.
1) We are the government. We're free to overthrow it one election at a time.
2) Police. That's what they're for. If your home is being invaded all the time? Maybe it's time to move.
Next we'll be discussing the sudden rash of flagburning that everyone has to be protected from and the very jolly way that privatizing highways will make them not turn to gravel.
Has it occured to anyone that whoever made this threat is a terrorist equivalent of a pointy-headed-boss/marketing exec who is exhorting unknown terrorist hacker-types to unleash one of those virus thingies that he's heard about? Like, they sat in a meeting in some coffee house and said "Yeah! We could release one of those virus thingies! We'd rule the world! Get one of those computer infidels on the internets!"
Isn't this the equivalent of a pathetic "release the hounds," only there are no hounds, and the "leadership" doesn't know that?
Oh, and to religious extremists, isn't technology part of the global, modernistic infidelity?
I mean, really. After 50 years of being immersed in computing, STILL NO NON-TECHNICAL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW COMPUTERS WORK and yet they STILL TELL geeks to do the IMPOSSIBLE.
What's next? A Koran that can fly and spits dates?
I, for one, am sick and tired of our moron overlords.
It's never that simple, and you've obviously never tried it. Most plans provide little coverage for everyday events and horrible coverage for large events. Hospitals WILL bill you for the difference, and they WILL sue you and take your house if you can't pay. There is no free healthcare, and it's rediculously expensive because of what now? Oh yes, providing a service for the common good by expecting a profit from it. Now shut up and hope you don't get sick, because you'll lose everything you own in the process if that's your idea of an "idea."
"Things like Working for Outcome (in other words, don't blame people for bugs, find out how to fix them and fix the process that caused them) and Criticize Ideas, Not People. Or avoiding the pitfalls of making quick hacks without trying to understand why the hack was necessary (Quick Fixes Become Quicksand). They finish up the chapter with a key word I personally feel is absolutely necessary in software development -- courage. They put this in the context of Damn the Torpedoes, Go Ahead. In other words, if the code you are working on is stinky, and you'd like to throw it away, don't be afraid to bring that up. Or if code you are in the middle of building suddenly becomes the wrong direction, stand up and explain that (being sure that in both circumstances you have alternatives for getting it on the right track)." I try to teach a) help desk people b) network engineers c) operators d) everyone I can ...to do these very things. It's called "giving a shit about your work and how it affects other people." Also known as "doing a good job."
'nuff said.
And if malware infests, then you have to burn the building down and reinstall it...
..unless of course your competitor has a flame-thrower. And therein your logic dies. People are assholes. Making them act MORE selfish is sure going to fix the problem, yup, you betcha. "Free market?" Where? In a "free market," whoever gathers the most sticks and stones first gets to dominate. Not exactly "free" then, is it? Unless you want a "market of one."
Strong stuff. Last long time. MYSQL and PHP. Yum. http://www.stonekeep.com/keystone.html Tell'em Neimon sent you.