Yes, it was joke. I'm in a rut where I can't just say something straight; I have to be tongue-in-cheek. Must be the new prescription. (See, there I go again).
... If this technology is useful, the military will grab it for themselves first and foremost - just look at nuclear submarines - and that is why it won't get anywhere near benefitting scientific or public interests.
Be careful: they monitor this site. You know, them.
Many of the nuclear power plants in the U.S. are commercially run. There is a nuclear power facility about a mile from where I am right now, run by a university. There is no one in black riot gear posted to keep out the interested public. They do lock the place at night to keep people from stealing the fuel rods or the office supplies.
If you learn about it and file the right paperwork, you can operate your own nuclear power plant. Just think, you won't have to pay your light bill any more, so no more taking envelopes of cash to the power company office (so they won't know where to find you).
>public fear of anything with the word 'nuclear' in it
We can't start polluting space with all of that radiation. It'll kill all the trees!
(For those of you who went to American public schools, a) space is a big place and b) it's pretty well irradiated already by all those pesky stars. There are no trees in space.)
Maybe English isn't his first language? Seeing as he's from "the world"?
irony, n: (1) A method of expression in which the intended meaning of the words contradicts their usual sense. (2) A combination of circumstances or a result that is the opposite of what might be expected or considered appropriate.
Congress' intent when creating the DMCA was two-fold:
Prevent "piracy"
Plug holes in the Copyright Act regarding copyright managment information
They envisioned making it easier for legitimate, white-hat-wearing businesses to stop the violation of their copyrights. What they actually provided, of course, was "takedown", a sledgehammer a lawyer can use to swat a fly.
The "copyright managment information" Congress was most concerned about were things like holograms on jewel cases, but the wording of the law also include the text of copyright notices in programs, EULA wrappers, and so on.
Courts are becoming increasing sophisticated in how they interpret the DMCA in cases where it's invoked. I think as more and more people, including judges, get their information online instead of from the mainscam media, attitudes will change about what is "fair use" allowed by the DMCA and what falls under (what you'd think is the capital crime of) "piracy".
There is real tension that cuts across the lines between the Left and Right. On the left you have Hollywood wanting protection ("for the artists"), while civil libertarians want anarchy. On the right there is the limited government crowd, but also the capitalists. Probably it would be overstating it to say the tension within the two sides is greater than that between them, but I can't decide.
At any rate, I don't think either Bush or Kerry would do anything about it, but the courts probably will settle on good rules to curb the abuses of the takedown mess.
The point remains: if you see the incredible, wonderful complication that is our DNA structure and say, "This is from a natural process", how in the name of tinker toys will you find a pattern in radio waves that is there by someone's design?
Rejection of intelligence in the design of DNA sets the bar way too high.
I think searching for alien intelligence is overrated, but as long as you're doing it, using radio frequencies is not that bad.
Advanced civilizations would realize that the ability to generate magnetic waves of a particular spectrum would be pretty universal, at least among alien groups with which we'd be able to communicate at all.
I'm usually not the one to worry about the erosion of civil liberties, being somewhere to the right of Newt Gingrich, but the idea of monitoring foreign visitors is just plain stupid. My reasons may not fit with the way a typical knee-jerk slashdotter would think about it, but in no particular order, here they are.
First, there's the manpower problem. Who does the monitoring?
Second, how do you know who to monitor, or does everyone get checked around important places? From a practical point of view, that places undue burden on society. After all, these are supposedly the most important places, and will usually be very busy already.
Finally, you can't monitor everyplace. What if someone starts buying tankfuls of diesel fuel and dumping them in major rivers? Or, a simple underwater mine could distrupt shipping on the Mississippi River. A concerted attack at all of the locks would be very effective, and the attacker could just drive away from most of them.
What about the miles and miles of unprotected railways in the U.S.? Most of the time, the geniuses in charge of railroad routing put all the tank cars in a train together. Since they're all going to the same place, usually, this is an obvious thing to do. The trouble is, you have tank cars full of sulphur trioxide (or even sulfuric acid) and hydrochloric acid right next to tank cars full of anhydrous ammonia. Ever mix a liter of HCl with a liter of ammonia and take a whiff? (No, because you're still alive.) A relatively small charge can derail a train; well-placed bomb would be disastrous.
Since it's impossible to defend against specific acts of terror, the only sensible alternative is to find and preemptively attack the organizations that sponsor and use terrorist tactics.
As soon as there is a method in the infrastructure to know who is spamming, we will be able to make spam go away.
Blacklists, etc, don't work now because of address forgery. Take away the forgery and you can implement blacklists, address blocking, punitive mail bombs based on blacklist history, or whatever method is decided.
Do try to RTFA before posting. At least RTF/. story.
It's a generic wheelbase for robots. It's intended that researchers (at this list of institutions who got them) will be able to work more efficiently if they are freed from the mechanical details of moving their robot around.
The subtler point is that Segway and others can then work on competing mobility platforms that outperform Segway's current model - giving Segway a leg up, er, or something like that.
(That's Read The Fine Article for the hypersensitive out there).
Bottom line, they took the bridge and the airport. Something must have worked.
So, rather than saying that American forces overcame an ambush by an overwhelming force, the magazine spins this as the failure of the vaunted U.S. technology.
But that's not the point - there is an implication that it is instability, i.e. uncontrolled downtime, when in reality it is controlled downtime [....]
You perform semantic gymnastics to avoid understanding the obvious.
You are trying to draw a distinction between unscheduled downtime and scheduled downtime that is forced on you by random events. Remember: it's always 10AM somewhere.
Have you ever wondered why there needs to be downtime at all?
What people forget to mention is that MS security patches seem to like reboots, [due to] the way filelocking works on Windows. Thus, whenever a "critical" flaw is released, they have to either patch it with a workaround (firewall rules, etc.) or they need to reboot the server.
That's sort of the point. You have to reboot a Windows server more often. If rebooting once a month or so is acceptable (see Murphy's Law for schedule), then that's fine.
If you want it to stay up, doing its job, then don't run Windows on it.
I used to wonder at the blinders-on group think of the hidden source folks. The elaborate unreality of their arguments was a puzzle, until I figured it out. Now I understand; it's all about the dream.
While some might dismiss the article because he is a Linux advocate, that's missing the point. His piece is geared toward Linux advocacy, but avoids the usual rhetoric. I kept looking for the usual Gates bashing, but didn't find any.
What I found instead were hard facts, distilled from public data. He didn't say, "I performed some tests which prove Linux is better." He took the publicly available information, analyzed it, and reported the results.
The response by the Microsoft marketing droids and vassal fudmeisters will be instructive to anyone who really thinks about it. Don't take away their dreams of a gold mine, at least not until they've got a Ferrari just like the guy in the next cube.
The EC has the effect of giving power to the people in less populated areas. It's a hedge against the tyranny of the majority, or government by populism, in which demagogues use hot-button issues to sweep their way into power. A way is needed to separate the power among the regions of the country.
Not to attack on Jesse Jackson, Jr., nor suggest that he is a demagogue, but he comes from Chicago. His desire is to empower the cities and more densely populated states such as his own. Disclaimer: I'm from Illinois, too.
The whole point of the EC is that the States, and not the People, elect the President. Each state is free to decide how it will proportion its electoral votes. They all do it by popular vote, and all but ME and NE have winner-take-all. But they could do it:
winner-take-all
proportionally within the state
aggregated by district (Gerrymander!)
by vote of the legislature
by electing individual electors who say 'I'll vote for X' (ie, do away with the primaries)
I'm against any system which takes influence away from the State government, since the net effect is to empower the Federal government.
But in the record business, that's the playing field. The law is the law - abide by it, or bribe^H^H^H^H^Hget Congress to change it.
The law is there for the same reason antitrust laws are there: to keep MCA and friends from crowding out the smaller labels the same as they crowd out indy musicians. The laws should be enforced or taken off the books so that everyone knows what the playing field is.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it was joke. I'm in a rut where I can't just say something straight; I have to be tongue-in-cheek. Must be the new prescription. (See, there I go again).
Oh, that Big Lie?
Be careful: they monitor this site. You know, them.
Many of the nuclear power plants in the U.S. are commercially run. There is a nuclear power facility about a mile from where I am right now, run by a university. There is no one in black riot gear posted to keep out the interested public. They do lock the place at night to keep people from stealing the fuel rods or the office supplies.
If you learn about it and file the right paperwork, you can operate your own nuclear power plant. Just think, you won't have to pay your light bill any more, so no more taking envelopes of cash to the power company office (so they won't know where to find you).
>public fear of anything with the word 'nuclear' in it
We can't start polluting space with all of that radiation. It'll kill all the trees!
(For those of you who went to American public schools, a) space is a big place and b) it's pretty well irradiated already by all those pesky stars. There are no trees in space.)
With that in mind, reread the grandparent, ok?
Congress' intent when creating the DMCA was two-fold:
They envisioned making it easier for legitimate, white-hat-wearing businesses to stop the violation of their copyrights. What they actually provided, of course, was "takedown", a sledgehammer a lawyer can use to swat a fly.
The "copyright managment information" Congress was most concerned about were things like holograms on jewel cases, but the wording of the law also include the text of copyright notices in programs, EULA wrappers, and so on.
Courts are becoming increasing sophisticated in how they interpret the DMCA in cases where it's invoked. I think as more and more people, including judges, get their information online instead of from the mainscam media, attitudes will change about what is "fair use" allowed by the DMCA and what falls under (what you'd think is the capital crime of) "piracy".
There is real tension that cuts across the lines between the Left and Right. On the left you have Hollywood wanting protection ("for the artists"), while civil libertarians want anarchy. On the right there is the limited government crowd, but also the capitalists. Probably it would be overstating it to say the tension within the two sides is greater than that between them, but I can't decide.
At any rate, I don't think either Bush or Kerry would do anything about it, but the courts probably will settle on good rules to curb the abuses of the takedown mess.
The point remains: if you see the incredible, wonderful complication that is our DNA structure and say, "This is from a natural process", how in the name of tinker toys will you find a pattern in radio waves that is there by someone's design?
Rejection of intelligence in the design of DNA sets the bar way too high.
I think searching for alien intelligence is overrated, but as long as you're doing it, using radio frequencies is not that bad.
Advanced civilizations would realize that the ability to generate magnetic waves of a particular spectrum would be pretty universal, at least among alien groups with which we'd be able to communicate at all.
Of course! Now that the best wines come from Australia and California, the French need something on which to build their self-esteem.
("Perhaps a bit more butter on the arthropod, Francois! ")
We search for a pattern in radio signals to find proof of intelligence, yet we look at a strand of DNA and not see it.
You speak as "The World", but are obviously an American public high school student. No one else would have such a poor grasp of the English language.
But to play your game: if you're so fond of the world, why don't you just move there!
Er, um, never mind.
I'm usually not the one to worry about the erosion of civil liberties, being somewhere to the right of Newt Gingrich, but the idea of monitoring foreign visitors is just plain stupid. My reasons may not fit with the way a typical knee-jerk slashdotter would think about it, but in no particular order, here they are.
First, there's the manpower problem. Who does the monitoring?
Second, how do you know who to monitor, or does everyone get checked around important places? From a practical point of view, that places undue burden on society. After all, these are supposedly the most important places, and will usually be very busy already.
Finally, you can't monitor everyplace. What if someone starts buying tankfuls of diesel fuel and dumping them in major rivers? Or, a simple underwater mine could distrupt shipping on the Mississippi River. A concerted attack at all of the locks would be very effective, and the attacker could just drive away from most of them.
What about the miles and miles of unprotected railways in the U.S.? Most of the time, the geniuses in charge of railroad routing put all the tank cars in a train together. Since they're all going to the same place, usually, this is an obvious thing to do. The trouble is, you have tank cars full of sulphur trioxide (or even sulfuric acid) and hydrochloric acid right next to tank cars full of anhydrous ammonia. Ever mix a liter of HCl with a liter of ammonia and take a whiff? (No, because you're still alive.) A relatively small charge can derail a train; well-placed bomb would be disastrous.
Since it's impossible to defend against specific acts of terror, the only sensible alternative is to find and preemptively attack the organizations that sponsor and use terrorist tactics.
As soon as there is a method in the infrastructure to know who is spamming, we will be able to make spam go away.
Blacklists, etc, don't work now because of address forgery. Take away the forgery and you can implement blacklists, address blocking, punitive mail bombs based on blacklist history, or whatever method is decided.
>thin people
/. story.
Do try to RTFA before posting. At least RTF
It's a generic wheelbase for robots. It's intended that researchers (at this list of institutions who got them) will be able to work more efficiently if they are freed from the mechanical details of moving their robot around.
The subtler point is that Segway and others can then work on competing mobility platforms that outperform Segway's current model - giving Segway a leg up, er, or something like that.
(That's Read The Fine Article for the hypersensitive out there).
Bottom line, they took the bridge and the airport. Something must have worked.
So, rather than saying that American forces overcame an ambush by an overwhelming force, the magazine spins this as the failure of the vaunted U.S. technology.
It's a load of crap.
...all patented. For $699 I'll tell you which patents.
You perform semantic gymnastics to avoid understanding the obvious.
You are trying to draw a distinction between unscheduled downtime and scheduled downtime that is forced on you by random events. Remember: it's always 10AM somewhere.
Have you ever wondered why there needs to be downtime at all?
>does the name mean "NEW Water" or "Any Water"?
It's obviously pronounce "Ni!"
("Ahhhhh! Please stop!")
That's sort of the point. You have to reboot a Windows server more often. If rebooting once a month or so is acceptable (see Murphy's Law for schedule), then that's fine.
If you want it to stay up, doing its job, then don't run Windows on it.
I used to wonder at the blinders-on group think of the hidden source folks. The elaborate unreality of their arguments was a puzzle, until I figured it out. Now I understand; it's all about the dream.
While some might dismiss the article because he is a Linux advocate, that's missing the point. His piece is geared toward Linux advocacy, but avoids the usual rhetoric. I kept looking for the usual Gates bashing, but didn't find any.
What I found instead were hard facts, distilled from public data. He didn't say, "I performed some tests which prove Linux is better." He took the publicly available information, analyzed it, and reported the results.
The response by the Microsoft marketing droids and vassal fudmeisters will be instructive to anyone who really thinks about it. Don't take away their dreams of a gold mine, at least not until they've got a Ferrari just like the guy in the next cube.
Not to attack on Jesse Jackson, Jr., nor suggest that he is a demagogue, but he comes from Chicago. His desire is to empower the cities and more densely populated states such as his own. Disclaimer: I'm from Illinois, too.
The whole point of the EC is that the States, and not the People, elect the President. Each state is free to decide how it will proportion its electoral votes. They all do it by popular vote, and all but ME and NE have winner-take-all. But they could do it:
I'm against any system which takes influence away from the State government, since the net effect is to empower the Federal government.
..please report to the disintegration chamber. Your former city has been destroyed.
>normal business practice
But in the record business, that's the playing field. The law is the law - abide by it, or bribe^H^H^H^H^Hget Congress to change it.
The law is there for the same reason antitrust laws are there: to keep MCA and friends from crowding out the smaller labels the same as they crowd out indy musicians. The laws should be enforced or taken off the books so that everyone knows what the playing field is.
Instant taser.
Probably Carbon (6) would be thicker than Beryllium (4) fabric, but it all depends on the structure of the crystal lattice.
... uh, we're splitting hairs ... uh, umm, it's really a fine point.
Really, we're talking about how many angels can dance