Re:Question...
on
Melting Europa
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I guess my concern is that the article (biased though it may be) suggests that such efforts are aimed at Europa because it 'might' have life.
I'm very interested in discovering life elsewhere. But I cringe when someone suggests sending billions of dollars to damn near every planet or moon in the solar system just because it seems like it might have had life at some point.
If there's some evidence pointing at Europa as a good candidate (more than the article describes), I'm unaware of it. Hence, the concern.
I'm not trolling. I seriously would like to read someone's thoughts on this topic. Just because I'm challenging you to think about it doesn't mean that I'm trying to piss you off. That's your own decision.
(Now this one is much more troll than my original post)
In all seriousness, why does it matter? This sounds like a lot of money to spend on a "maybe." I've wondered this for a while now, and I'd like to hear someone explain why this search for life is so crucial. I feel there might be better ways to spend the money, and better ways or opportunities to discover life on other planets/celestial bodies.
I didn't realize you were joking for some of those... I deal with too many people that seriously believe in their anonymity online - even through Hotmail or AOL.
For most of the time, you can consider yourself anonymous. I mean, unless your tracker has a lot of money, cracking ability or legal means, you've got almost nothing to worry about.
So yeah, in all practicality, you have anonymity. But put the RIAA (with their financial backing) on your trail, and they can almost certainly find you.
I try not to take stuff like this too seriously, but sometimes I get carried away.
A. You're relying on stealing a laptop to gain anonymity? Not relevant to this discussion.
B. You're still easily traced back to the computer, and if you're in a public place then you're almost certainly on a surveillance camera (airport, every Internet cafe I've been in).
C. Wow, a proxy. That certainly can't be traced. Proxy server still knows your IP.
D. Friend's computer? How is that anonymity?
E. Neighbor's wireless network - shouldn't let you on in the first place, but it still logs your MAC address and can be traced to his location. And then to yours.
F. You'd be sending anyone looking for you to the cubicle behind you - real anonymous. Takes forever (minutes) for them to figure out what happened.
I'm glad you live in a dream world, but many of us realize that your fingerprints, your IP address, your emails, your transactions all leave a trail. You are not anonymous.
No. We're not losing our anonymity. We never had it. Your email shows up on mail servers everywhere. Your IP is logged. You can be found.
There's a big difference between actual anonymity and perceived anonymity. The public thinks they're anonymous. The realization that they are not (through education or through lawsuits of these sorts) will lead to increased awareness and eventually smarter users.
I need to sue my employer now. I've been exposed to DHM for many years now, and I fear that it may be taking its toll on me. I've noticed many more wrinkles after particularly long sessions, not to mention a slickness to my skin.
No kidding. I'm not trolling.. I'm very serious. Lobby, corporate and special interest groups are very persuasive when it comes to politicians. That means campaign contributions, "donations" or whatever. The RIAA and MPAA are behind legislation.
Drug companies are represented by some major players - some politicians listen to the money, not to the constituents.
So I'm not surprised by this. It's been happening for a long time - his pockets (and the pockets of many others) are probably lined with MPAA/RIAA green.
Never work with friends or family. There are, of course, some exceptions.
Will you have the guts to fire your girlfriend if it comes to that? Or will you simply keep paying her? How about your brother? Unless you're able to look your family or friends in the face as a boss/employee relationship, DON'T.
Think of all the bosses you've had. Remember the really bad ones? Do you want that position?
christboo, nicely done on breaking that. Quite amusing.
I really like the CAPTCHA idea, but we have a lot of crap to fight through to get it effective. To be truly effective, a machine can't possibly read it. By doing so, you prevent disabled readers from being able to read and interpret them. That sucks - can you ignore any such reader?
There are sound, image, color CAPTCHAs, but they all have the same kinds of problems.
Out of curiosity, what would you suggest as a solution to that problem?
Maybe Gateway will fix what's wrong at Gateway, too.
Over the last few years, I've been awfully disappointed with Gateway. Dell and HP have their problems too, but Gateway puts together overpriced crappy machines filled with cheap parts. You're paying for the 1-800...
At least with e-Machines, you get what you pay for. Gateway produces the same level of machine, but charges you a lot more for them.
I know this sounds trollish, but I'm all for making people learn how to do things themselves.
If you aren't willing to learn how to use a command prompt (in Windows, Mac or Linux) you probably aren't willing to learn how to use the normal features.
At best, these users turn into the ones that call me everytime their email "goes down" because AOL booted them.
Just take a hardline approach to computers - if you can't be bothered to learn, I can't be bothered to help you.
Yeah, some things just happen to be more easily misused. For example:
A fork can kill a person. A bomb can kill a person.
Don't you think that such concerns are more warranted when someone builds a new kind of bomb than when they build a new kind of fork?
This is a great little device that obviously has abuse written all over it. Even the good guys look at this and cringe. Such devices might look good on paper (or in a controlled lab) but I sure as hell don't want them anywhere else.
First - the experiment they used to "prove" this involves creating a mechanical device that will flip a coin for you. After some tweaking, they got it to flip and land consistently with heads up.
Of course you can flip a coin (or any other object) and get it to land the same way every time. All it means is that you've eliminated the random factors of human interaction, air, friction, etc. There's nothing inherently random about a coin - it's the random factor in the action.
I'm not involved in C on a professional level, so I've never been exposed to them. But I've been coding for eleven years now, so maybe we just never crossed paths.
I used the term civil disobedience because, in the unlikely event that SCO wins out, they would certainly be required to pay for licenses. Their refusal (and everyone else's) would be an act of civil disobedience.
I'm not entirely convinced that a judge will rule against SCO. They don't have a good enough case to convince us, but the judge (or jurors, even) might not have the same perspective and could be swayed.
I'm not trying to troll, or even play Devil's advocate. I'm just pointing out that the case hasn't been decided yet - and in their business, they're simply playing it safe.
He certainly has a point.
Civil disobedience is not a good business model. On the other hand, that's an awfully hefty fee to shell out. $1 Million? That could probably help to line some lawyers' pockets.
Consider this, though: They care enough about their customers and their own business that they're willing to take this "voluntary" hit of over a million bucks just to protect themselves and their customers. Even if SCO isn't right (preaching to the choir, I know) then they've still made a major step in the direction of "we'd take a bullet for you."
Slashdot Mirror
I guess my concern is that the article (biased though it may be) suggests that such efforts are aimed at Europa because it 'might' have life.
I'm very interested in discovering life elsewhere. But I cringe when someone suggests sending billions of dollars to damn near every planet or moon in the solar system just because it seems like it might have had life at some point.
If there's some evidence pointing at Europa as a good candidate (more than the article describes), I'm unaware of it. Hence, the concern.
I'm not trolling. I seriously would like to read someone's thoughts on this topic. Just because I'm challenging you to think about it doesn't mean that I'm trying to piss you off. That's your own decision.
(Now this one is much more troll than my original post)
In all seriousness, why does it matter? This sounds like a lot of money to spend on a "maybe." I've wondered this for a while now, and I'd like to hear someone explain why this search for life is so crucial. I feel there might be better ways to spend the money, and better ways or opportunities to discover life on other planets/celestial bodies.
I didn't realize you were joking for some of those... I deal with too many people that seriously believe in their anonymity online - even through Hotmail or AOL.
For most of the time, you can consider yourself anonymous. I mean, unless your tracker has a lot of money, cracking ability or legal means, you've got almost nothing to worry about.
So yeah, in all practicality, you have anonymity. But put the RIAA (with their financial backing) on your trail, and they can almost certainly find you.
I try not to take stuff like this too seriously, but sometimes I get carried away.
A. You're relying on stealing a laptop to gain anonymity? Not relevant to this discussion.
B. You're still easily traced back to the computer, and if you're in a public place then you're almost certainly on a surveillance camera (airport, every Internet cafe I've been in).
C. Wow, a proxy. That certainly can't be traced. Proxy server still knows your IP.
D. Friend's computer? How is that anonymity?
E. Neighbor's wireless network - shouldn't let you on in the first place, but it still logs your MAC address and can be traced to his location. And then to yours.
F. You'd be sending anyone looking for you to the cubicle behind you - real anonymous. Takes forever (minutes) for them to figure out what happened.
I'm glad you live in a dream world, but many of us realize that your fingerprints, your IP address, your emails, your transactions all leave a trail. You are not anonymous.
He's a 45-year old grandfather? Now I can see my fiancee's grandparents reading every spam, but they're 70+.
Loosing?! Oh..."losing"...
No. We're not losing our anonymity. We never had it. Your email shows up on mail servers everywhere. Your IP is logged. You can be found.
There's a big difference between actual anonymity and perceived anonymity. The public thinks they're anonymous. The realization that they are not (through education or through lawsuits of these sorts) will lead to increased awareness and eventually smarter users.
Maybe I'm just optimistic.
Not only was that posted in the article above, but if you actually read the Snopes writeup you'll see that it's true.
So... urban fact.
I need to sue my employer now. I've been exposed to DHM for many years now, and I fear that it may be taking its toll on me. I've noticed many more wrinkles after particularly long sessions, not to mention a slickness to my skin.
Ah, the perils of lifeguarding.
No kidding. I'm not trolling.. I'm very serious. Lobby, corporate and special interest groups are very persuasive when it comes to politicians. That means campaign contributions, "donations" or whatever. The RIAA and MPAA are behind legislation.
Drug companies are represented by some major players - some politicians listen to the money, not to the constituents.
So I'm not surprised by this. It's been happening for a long time - his pockets (and the pockets of many others) are probably lined with MPAA/RIAA green.
Never work with friends or family. There are, of course, some exceptions.
Will you have the guts to fire your girlfriend if it comes to that? Or will you simply keep paying her? How about your brother? Unless you're able to look your family or friends in the face as a boss/employee relationship, DON'T.
Think of all the bosses you've had. Remember the really bad ones? Do you want that position?
christboo, nicely done on breaking that. Quite amusing.
I really like the CAPTCHA idea, but we have a lot of crap to fight through to get it effective. To be truly effective, a machine can't possibly read it. By doing so, you prevent disabled readers from being able to read and interpret them. That sucks - can you ignore any such reader?
There are sound, image, color CAPTCHAs, but they all have the same kinds of problems.
Out of curiosity, what would you suggest as a solution to that problem?
Last time I saw an article like this on Slashdot, someone described the visa and immigration laws there...
I believe it was the other way around - without being hired, you can't get a visa.
Maybe Gateway will fix what's wrong at Gateway, too.
Over the last few years, I've been awfully disappointed with Gateway. Dell and HP have their problems too, but Gateway puts together overpriced crappy machines filled with cheap parts. You're paying for the 1-800...
At least with e-Machines, you get what you pay for. Gateway produces the same level of machine, but charges you a lot more for them.
No RealPlayer?
They link to a product called a USB watch...
Apparently the plug is on a cable that slides out of the watch. I can't imagine using a USB storage device that physically tethers me to the computer.
I prefer to psychologically tether myself.
Sounds a lot like this story...
Double your hard drive space, your bandwidth, data transfer, penis size...
I know this sounds trollish, but I'm all for making people learn how to do things themselves.
If you aren't willing to learn how to use a command prompt (in Windows, Mac or Linux) you probably aren't willing to learn how to use the normal features.
At best, these users turn into the ones that call me everytime their email "goes down" because AOL booted them.
Just take a hardline approach to computers - if you can't be bothered to learn, I can't be bothered to help you.
Yeah, some things just happen to be more easily misused. For example:
A fork can kill a person.
A bomb can kill a person.
Don't you think that such concerns are more warranted when someone builds a new kind of bomb than when they build a new kind of fork?
This is a great little device that obviously has abuse written all over it. Even the good guys look at this and cringe. Such devices might look good on paper (or in a controlled lab) but I sure as hell don't want them anywhere else.
First - the experiment they used to "prove" this involves creating a mechanical device that will flip a coin for you. After some tweaking, they got it to flip and land consistently with heads up.
Of course you can flip a coin (or any other object) and get it to land the same way every time. All it means is that you've eliminated the random factors of human interaction, air, friction, etc. There's nothing inherently random about a coin - it's the random factor in the action.
I'm not involved in C on a professional level, so I've never been exposed to them. But I've been coding for eleven years now, so maybe we just never crossed paths.
I used the term civil disobedience because, in the unlikely event that SCO wins out, they would certainly be required to pay for licenses. Their refusal (and everyone else's) would be an act of civil disobedience.
I'm not entirely convinced that a judge will rule against SCO. They don't have a good enough case to convince us, but the judge (or jurors, even) might not have the same perspective and could be swayed.
I'm not trying to troll, or even play Devil's advocate. I'm just pointing out that the case hasn't been decided yet - and in their business, they're simply playing it safe.
That is unbelievably obscure.
He certainly has a point.
Civil disobedience is not a good business model. On the other hand, that's an awfully hefty fee to shell out. $1 Million? That could probably help to line some lawyers' pockets.
Consider this, though: They care enough about their customers and their own business that they're willing to take this "voluntary" hit of over a million bucks just to protect themselves and their customers. Even if SCO isn't right (preaching to the choir, I know) then they've still made a major step in the direction of "we'd take a bullet for you."