I bet the CIA gets a small collective panic attack every time they lose track of what the Israelis are upto.
I think you have that the wrong way around...
Play America's Army if you don't mind the mind control/subliminal messaging part and if you can resist the urge to run over to the nearest recruitment office after playing a couple of hours. (or don't resist at all, I don't really care...)
Am I the only one that doesn't keep any relevant personal information on a PC (Because I consider it to be an open book, despite all the measures I take to make it secure) ? How are they going to bill me automatically if there isn't any billng information to be found on my box ?
This could only be done if your ISP is in on the conspiracy, in which case I would change ISP immediately...
Every time you think about this as a good idea, just repeat the phrase "My eye impaled on a pencil" over and over again until you reconsider
Actually this wouldn't work in real life because when an eye is severed from the nerve or when death occurs it "breaks" within seconds, rendering it useless for biometric ID.
Off course it could take a while before Joe and Jane Crackhead realize that their collection of "eyes on a stick" are quite useless:)
If you didn't have that nagging feeling in the back of your head that there might be some truth in that prediction you wouldn't consider this flamebait to begin with...
Tolkien spent such a huge portion of his life designing one of the best fantasy books ever created, and it's only right that he be rewarded with the respect that a movie created in his books name will be the best ever.
While Tolkiens' work isn't bad, the fanboys of the books should really try to expand their literary horizons. I find that the orignal Tolkien novels read as fluently as an off road drive in a Ford T. They are not the "greatest fantasy ever written". I find that the work of a contemporary of Tolkien, Fritz Leiber (Books of Lankhmar) have aged much more gracefully and are still enjoyable today... (waves book at Peter Jackson)
The LOTR films however are without a doubt the greatest fantasy movies made... only to be rivaled by Dino De Laurentius' Conan the Barbarian trilogy;)
I think it's naive to think that there's any commercial encryption technology available that can't be compromised by at least the US intelligence and military services. If it would be near unbreakable by them it would be unavailable to the general public and/or illegal in the US.
Let's assume biometrics have become reliable (combination of retina - thumbprint and maybe even DNA sampling). If this were the case then a biometric profile could be used as an ID instead of a name and address...
You want to open a new bankaccount, you don't give your name and address but your biometric profile as ID. This should satisfy the banks' need
for verifying that it's the account holder that is approving a particular transaction since the biometric profiles match.
In such a system the only thing you have to safeguard is the link between your biometric profile and your name and address. As long as there isn't a Big Brother database that can link both sets of information you could safeguard your anonymity pretty well...
Reality check :
Reliable biometrics as I described above would probably get us into a Gattaca-esque society in no time... Oh well, in a perfect world...
What if a virus infects my PC whose goal is to drain the bank accounts of random people, and what if one of those random people dies because they no longer had the ability to pay for a life-saving operation? Sure, it's an extreme case, but there are such virii out there
[sarcasm]
Can you get me a link for the source of those virii ? I urgently need to make some transfers from random bankaccounts to a not so random account in the Caymans... Who cares about the moral implications ? Free money baby !!!
...seeing as this is a program which can (potentially) be used in malignant ways.
if potential malignant use is really going to become a legal liability RIAA, MPAA and other copyright nazis are going to have to sue everyone that has ever written a FTP server
Fuck your inbox; try sparing a thought for the (admittedly silly) people who got suckered by these scams.
Whenever I hear that there are people out there that actually fall for this kind of crap I spare many, many thoughts for them...
Thoughts like "people should have to pass a basic intelligence test before being allowed to procreate" and "could they genetically engineer a virus so it just kills stupid people" but also "Damn what am I doing wasting my time here I really should set up my my own Nigerian email scam"....
... that it's a very bad idea to mix anything "genetically modified" and "cockroach"... Mimic anyone ? Am I the only one that envisions frothing swarms of sentient, mansized, flesh eating, multiplying-at-the-rate-of-yeast-bacteriae cockroaches surging out of Manhattans' manholes ?
On a brighter note, it could also spawn a new breed of crunchy luxury beer called "Skuttlebrau"
Re:What's wrong with national IDs?
on
Beyond Fear
·
· Score: 1
It's really symptomatic of something else: American's don't trust their government
Too bad that when it comes to foreign policy that mistrust is swatted by the "America uber alles" knne-jerk reflex... Weapons of Mass Deception Anyone ?
...for your average Joe and Jane Computeruser. Tech nerds like us can debate endlessly about CISC vs RISC, bus speeds, etc... but face it people, we are a minority. Average Joe and Jane Computeruser just want machines that allow them to read mail, game, surf the web and publish documents.
I feel that it's not the small segment of hardcore Macintosh users and the edge Apple used to have in professional graphics applications that has allowed them to hang on to and even expand their niche. Macs have become cool all over again since the first iMac because of their looks and sleek design. Owning a Mac has become a fashion statement and the reason Joe and Jane shell out more cash on a Mac then they would on a PC with comparable techspecs is the fact that it is "hipper" and goes better with the furniture.
Since the advent of OS X I would love to see a x86 compatible Mac OS but if I were an Apple CEO I'd worry about a company like Dell hiring a couple of Italian designers to create a new look for their top of the line machines...
Slashdot Mirror
The answer to this is simple : most law enforcers aren't exactly rocket scientists either...
is redundant ? Well, I guess there are other words for them... "Patriotic Reporter" and "Propaganda Mouthpiece" come to mind....
I bet the CIA gets a small collective panic attack every time they lose track of what the Israelis are upto. I think you have that the wrong way around...
Play America's Army if you don't mind the mind control/subliminal messaging part and if you can resist the urge to run over to the nearest recruitment office after playing a couple of hours. (or don't resist at all, I don't really care...)
I'd like to form my own opnion...
Am I the only one that doesn't keep any relevant personal information on a PC (Because I consider it to be an open book, despite all the measures I take to make it secure) ? How are they going to bill me automatically if there isn't any billng information to be found on my box ? This could only be done if your ISP is in on the conspiracy, in which case I would change ISP immediately...
Actually this wouldn't work in real life because when an eye is severed from the nerve or when death occurs it "breaks" within seconds, rendering it useless for biometric ID.
Off course it could take a while before Joe and Jane Crackhead realize that their collection of "eyes on a stick" are quite useless :)
AL Queda IS the NSA you insensitive clod !
If you didn't have that nagging feeling in the back of your head that there might be some truth in that prediction you wouldn't consider this flamebait to begin with...
Must have been space debris intentionally put on a collision course with the ISS by terrorists !!!
I gues he never heard about Everquest ;)
While Tolkiens' work isn't bad, the fanboys of the books should really try to expand their literary horizons. I find that the orignal Tolkien novels read as fluently as an off road drive in a Ford T. They are not the "greatest fantasy ever written". I find that the work of a contemporary of Tolkien, Fritz Leiber (Books of Lankhmar) have aged much more gracefully and are still enjoyable today... (waves book at Peter Jackson)
The LOTR films however are without a doubt the greatest fantasy movies made... only to be rivaled by Dino De Laurentius' Conan the Barbarian trilogy ;)
Who wants to watch raped versions anyway ? Just stick to the original DVD's for the true anime experience.
I think it's naive to think that there's any commercial encryption technology available that can't be compromised by at least the US intelligence and military services. If it would be near unbreakable by them it would be unavailable to the general public and/or illegal in the US.
[sarcasm]Looks like Apple is just another greedy corporation and not the puppy-eyed consumers' best friend[/sarcasm]
Corporations prey on human stupidity on a daily basis and that is tolerated so why not Nigerian email scams ?
Let's assume biometrics have become reliable (combination of retina - thumbprint and maybe even DNA sampling). If this were the case then a biometric profile could be used as an ID instead of a name and address...
You want to open a new bankaccount, you don't give your name and address but your biometric profile as ID. This should satisfy the banks' need for verifying that it's the account holder that is approving a particular transaction since the biometric profiles match.
In such a system the only thing you have to safeguard is the link between your biometric profile and your name and address. As long as there isn't a Big Brother database that can link both sets of information you could safeguard your anonymity pretty well...
Reality check : Reliable biometrics as I described above would probably get us into a Gattaca-esque society in no time... Oh well, in a perfect world...
[sarcasm] Can you get me a link for the source of those virii ? I urgently need to make some transfers from random bankaccounts to a not so random account in the Caymans... Who cares about the moral implications ? Free money baby !!!
if potential malignant use is really going to become a legal liability RIAA, MPAA and other copyright nazis are going to have to sue everyone that has ever written a FTP server
It exists, it's called televangelism....
Oh legal AND ethical... well one out of two isn't so bad, is it ?
Fuck your inbox; try sparing a thought for the (admittedly silly) people who got suckered by these scams. Whenever I hear that there are people out there that actually fall for this kind of crap I spare many, many thoughts for them... Thoughts like "people should have to pass a basic intelligence test before being allowed to procreate" and "could they genetically engineer a virus so it just kills stupid people" but also "Damn what am I doing wasting my time here I really should set up my my own Nigerian email scam"....
... that it's a very bad idea to mix anything "genetically modified" and "cockroach"... Mimic anyone ? Am I the only one that envisions frothing swarms of sentient, mansized, flesh eating, multiplying-at-the-rate-of-yeast-bacteriae cockroaches surging out of Manhattans' manholes ?
On a brighter note, it could also spawn a new breed of crunchy luxury beer called "Skuttlebrau"
...for your average Joe and Jane Computeruser. Tech nerds like us can debate endlessly about CISC vs RISC, bus speeds, etc... but face it people, we are a minority. Average Joe and Jane Computeruser just want machines that allow them to read mail, game, surf the web and publish documents. I feel that it's not the small segment of hardcore Macintosh users and the edge Apple used to have in professional graphics applications that has allowed them to hang on to and even expand their niche. Macs have become cool all over again since the first iMac because of their looks and sleek design. Owning a Mac has become a fashion statement and the reason Joe and Jane shell out more cash on a Mac then they would on a PC with comparable techspecs is the fact that it is "hipper" and goes better with the furniture. Since the advent of OS X I would love to see a x86 compatible Mac OS but if I were an Apple CEO I'd worry about a company like Dell hiring a couple of Italian designers to create a new look for their top of the line machines...