The question "is the threat of cyberterror credible or overblown" can only be answered "yes" -- thus the qustion is invalid. Is cyberterror a credible threat? In that it is possible and, if it were to occur, threatening, the answer is yes. Is this threat overblown? Yes.
As any IBM, Microsoft (hardware), or APC rep could tell you, Biometric devices are not security devices. If you want more security, look somewhere else.
Ok, who had the bright idea of linking to a NASA server directly from the main page of slashdot--which is home, need I remind you, to a ravening hoard of space geeks? I mean, seriously, now they're going to have to blow their moon shot budget for the year on bandwidth, new servers, and cleaning up the slag that was once their servers!
I've heard the idea that we would want to bring a small-to-medium-sized asteroid in as a counterweight, to relieve the stress on the cables.
My question: Why not hit two birds with one stone and round up all the larger pieces of "space trash" (ie discarded rocket stages, irrepairably damaged satellites, etc.), tie it all in with a strong net, and use it as a preliminary counterweight until the asteroid (or whatnot) could be captured/moved in? I'm no physicist (far from it), but it seems to me that this might allow at least a materiels feasability test for one or two "strands" and a crawler.
As someone who currently works in IT sales, I have this to say: It varies based on the size of the company and what industry the company is in, but most of the time, the people who do the maintenance also make the purchasing decisions.
Also, I think the ads are targeted more towards the younger server administrators.
I've worked with Macs for 17 years, give or take. I've repaired Macs for about 9 years.
I've only once seen a virus that actually had an effect on a Mac, and the virus dictionary I had noted it was a leftover from a cold-war era "virus exchange." The infected machine was an old Performa running OS 6 (as I recall).
The damage? Normal boot from the internal HD stopped before completion and a dialog box with something about "crumpets and bluets" was displayed. The fix? Boot from CD, install (the by then free ("as in beer")) OS 7.6.
Back in 2003, I checked for Mac viruses, just for kicks. I found one for OS X, supposedly discovered/released in 2001. There have been no virus releases for the Mac since then.
The first, mentioned above, is that there is a problem with the single-player. The entire campaign story of Halo 2 is one giant build-up with to a climax that simply isn't there.
Second, the hype did play a big role--that the I Love Bees A.R.G. had such a large following (and with due cause!), but such a small amount of actual interaction or blending with the Halo 2 game is a shame and, in my opinion (be it humble or otherwise), a flaw in both marketing and gameplay... because it isn't just the A.R.G. that should have had some sort of impression on the story--it was the books, too.
Thirdly, the author might be having a bit of cognitive dissonance, in that he or she laments the loss of the three-shot-kill pistol (a single weapon), and then laments the so-called "n00b combo" of the plasma pistol and battle rifle. The truth is, the pistol of the first Halo could kill faster than the combo of the second, and while not everyone starts with that combo, those who utilize it forfeit carrying the "power weapons" that can counter them--namely the sniper, rocket launcher, sword, and shotgun. Yes, a.25 or.5 second "overheating" delay between switching weapons might help gameplay a bit, but not nearly so much as increasing the speed of, and damage caused by, the needles fired from the Needler. An increased needle speed would allow the needles to actually hit a moving target, and an increased damage per needle would mean that a whole half-clip wouldn't have to be emptied at a moving target just to take it down.
Except, in this case, the "truth" is completely irrelevant to the actual relative intelligences of the two "races."
The myths of black inferiority were created to justify the slavery of black people--after all, in a paternalistic slaveholding society (the US prior to 1860, for instance), it's easier to justify slavery if it is "well known" that those held in slavery are too stupid to take care of themselves.
I like the opinions, offered above, about the whole "more books" thing, but I don't know how well stocked the library in question is. I also kinda like the "safe & sane use of RFID" mentioned above, but think that it might be overwhelming if the library in question has, say, 100k books, audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, vinyl records, etc.
I also don't know if this particular library has microfiche or the like... but if it does, and since it hasn't been mentioned by the submitter, I'd say that the next thing that should be done, tech. wise, would be to digitize the entire collection and make it accessible through any terminal or computer connected through the LAN. I suggest this because, in the course of getting my History degree, I spent many a frustrating night paging through reel upon reel of microfilm. I also spent many an hour happily searching, finding, and printing old newspaper articles that had been digitized.
If your library is used by researchers, and/or has microfilm or microfiche... digitize it, please!
It looks like MS decided to get greedy (no surprise, there, really). While they could have implemented backwards compatibility through software emulation (of a hard drive, among other things), they decided to try and soak more cash out of gamers.
For me, this means that I will not be getting a new 360. I'll be picking up a used one, if I pick up a 360 at all.
I've been thinking about the latter--why not just re-use some of the now-abandoned missile silos? Inspect, seal any leaks, and they should be good for radioactive storage... seeing as how they were supposed to be fully shielded in that regard, anyway.
Keep the tether, or be prepared to include triple-redundancy on multiple systems. The last thing you want is a technical failure to result in the complete loss of your ROV.
Though he wrote of something far more atrocious, the words of Martin Niemoller might yet fit your particular comment: "First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me."
Those who refuse to help their fellow human beings against infringements of their rights, be those infringements drastic and overt or small and subtle, often find that, when their rights become infringed, none can or will help them.
I write this response, not so much to demonize you or call you lazy, as to point out that your comment might be the kind of thing to set you down a path you may regret at some future date.
My question to you all is: Now that you know, what are you going to do?
Will you snipe from the sidelines, or will you take action? Will you communicate your true thoughts and feelings to your representatives, or will you find it adequate to post those thoughts and feelings here, preaching to the choir, but doing little more? (Those of you who are not US citizens, let not this fact stop you from contacting your own government officials--after all, can they not learn from example, or take warning from your (preemptive?) voice?)
Immediately after I post this, I intend to contact at least two of my representatives. It's the weekend, I have no envelopes (just now), and I know I might forget to write by the time I do, so I will be emailing them--but it is better than nothing, and it is action I can take now.
The ostensibly democratic city of Athens had a dictator by the name of Perikles in the fifth century, BCE. Demagogue, rich man, and, early in the Peloponnesian war, top General, Perikles held the city in his hand until he was deposed by a cabal who sought to take the offensive against the Peloponnesians.
Perikles was so rich, so influential, and so powerful that, at one point, the his mere suggestions would sometimes move the Athenian citizenry to move quickly against their own wishes. Case in point: The Athenian people wanted a temple, but did not want to raise the taxes necessary to fund its completion. Perikles offered to fund the construction, on the condition that he be allowed to put his name on the temple--something that the tyrants would do to show their power prior to the revolution that turned Athens into a democracy. The Athenians immediately voted the tax increase into law, rather than face the reality that their democracy had faded until it had ceased to exist in all but name.
My points, as I think you can see, are that political culture can change subtly and quickly, and that human nature can promote such changes against the will of the majority of the people who comprise that political culture. People everywhere should realize that a dictatorship or oligarchy, even if not apparently present, is always possible, with time; that time is ever fleeting; and that the combination of those two facts means that they should ever be alert for even a subtle tyranny, though never in fear of one. (As FDR once said, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself.")
You know, I've never used OS/2, but I would have signed that petition had it not been for the fact that I noticed three English mistakes in my first four seconds of skimming that petition. I don't know about anyone else, but that kind of shoddy editing makes me think that perhaps the petition isn't quite serious.
(And for the record, I intend the above as constructive criticism, not insult.)
(Note: The following is applicable only to the USA.)
I did some quick research with Google--not the best of research tools, but the best I had at hand (due to its ability to allow cross-checking of facts). Opium and Cocaine were indeed banned soon after the turn of the 20th Century, but Marijuana was banned about two decades later, and LSD wasn't even around until well after Marijuana was banned.
The reasons for the banning of each varied (and this part I am recalling from my memory of earlier research projects): Opium was banned because of it's drain on society, Cocaine because of the number of deaths it caused; Marijuana and LSD were banned for other reasons, which I will not expound upon here.
As for self-medication: 'Self-medicating' is an ambiguous phrase. The kind of self-medication that we find in over-the-counter pain relievers today was never really a major component of society until the middle of the 20th Century. By the time chemical compounds were being used to treat the sick and injured among civilians, in the 1800s, they were being prescribed by doctors and pharmacists--dosage amounts and timing were described and the chemicals themselves were (with the exception of those available in herbs and other plants) available only from a pharmacy.
All this being said, the Progressive movement undoubtedly influenced, if not motivated, the prohibition of Opium, Cocaine, and alcohol. Yet the focus of the Progressive movement's push on the prohibition of these drugs was only on the children in that the movement wanted to stop drug use in the then-current adult generations and prevent it in the next generation of adults (the children) and all future generations (the yet-to-be born). In other words, the Progressives focused more on stopping drug use in general than they did on preventing harm to children. (I should note here that the topic of Progressivism in the US is a topic of titanic proportions, and that my tiny summary here does it no justice whatsoever.)
As for the current push against video-game violence: I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if the radically conservative elements manage to pass a law banning violence in video games (or video games in general), the law cannot last long. If alcohol flowed in such great quantities during the Hoover years of the FBI, and if China is having such a hard time cracking down on the trade of certain kinds of unwanted bits and bytes--despite having a much more segregated internal network under a police state in a "closed" society--those in the US should have little to worry about.
And even aside from that, judging by the sheer amount of violence in pop culture as a whole, I would predict that violence in any virtual medium is a long, long way from being banned outright.
I was recently chatting with a psychology grad student, and somehow we got onto the subject of televisions and kids. She informed me that she had read a study, not long ago, that apparently linked a retardation of neuron development in the brain with children under six years of age having even average exposure to TVs and computer screens. The way she explained it to me, it has something to do with rapidly changing images.
I have not looked up the study myself, and would be grateful if some geek of the psychology flavor would clarify or correct my recollection. Still, I would recommend weaning the kid on technology at around age six, anyway--let his or her metabolism develop under activity, get him/her interested and familiar with nature (and not just the backyard kind!), and introduce technology at around age seven, is my advice. My memories of exploring the woods of my back yard and the badlands nearby are much more vivid and exciting to me today, fifteen plus years later, than any of my recollections of playing nintendo and computer games, or even watching Mr. Wizard or Mr. Rogers.
Balance is key, it is true, but it is often as important that you know how to balance these things as it is that you know what proportions by which to balance them.
Slashdot Mirror
The juxtaposition of your post and your .sig is entirely too amusing. :-)
~UP
The question "is the threat of cyberterror credible or overblown" can only be answered "yes" -- thus the qustion is invalid. Is cyberterror a credible threat? In that it is possible and, if it were to occur, threatening, the answer is yes. Is this threat overblown? Yes.
~UP
Either that or the greatest Beowulf cluster EVAR!!!11!
~UP
As any IBM, Microsoft (hardware), or APC rep could tell you, Biometric devices are not security devices. If you want more security, look somewhere else.
~UP
Are you kidding? By the time NASA puts another human on the moon, those shiny new servers won't be good for anything but very large paperweights.
~UP
Ok, who had the bright idea of linking to a NASA server directly from the main page of slashdot--which is home, need I remind you, to a ravening hoard of space geeks? I mean, seriously, now they're going to have to blow their moon shot budget for the year on bandwidth, new servers, and cleaning up the slag that was once their servers!
Yeesh.
~UP
It is when you navigate by dead reckoning!
~UP
I've heard the idea that we would want to bring a small-to-medium-sized asteroid in as a counterweight, to relieve the stress on the cables.
My question: Why not hit two birds with one stone and round up all the larger pieces of "space trash" (ie discarded rocket stages, irrepairably damaged satellites, etc.), tie it all in with a strong net, and use it as a preliminary counterweight until the asteroid (or whatnot) could be captured/moved in? I'm no physicist (far from it), but it seems to me that this might allow at least a materiels feasability test for one or two "strands" and a crawler.
Oh, and it'd help clear up LEO space, to boot!
~UP
As someone who currently works in IT sales, I have this to say: It varies based on the size of the company and what industry the company is in, but most of the time, the people who do the maintenance also make the purchasing decisions.
Also, I think the ads are targeted more towards the younger server administrators.
~UP
Pardon me, that should be "System 7.6" not "OS 7.6."
~UP
I've worked with Macs for 17 years, give or take. I've repaired Macs for about 9 years.
I've only once seen a virus that actually had an effect on a Mac, and the virus dictionary I had noted it was a leftover from a cold-war era "virus exchange." The infected machine was an old Performa running OS 6 (as I recall).
The damage? Normal boot from the internal HD stopped before completion and a dialog box with something about "crumpets and bluets" was displayed. The fix? Boot from CD, install (the by then free ("as in beer")) OS 7.6.
Back in 2003, I checked for Mac viruses, just for kicks. I found one for OS X, supposedly discovered/released in 2001. There have been no virus releases for the Mac since then.
~UP
The first, mentioned above, is that there is a problem with the single-player. The entire campaign story of Halo 2 is one giant build-up with to a climax that simply isn't there.
.25 or .5 second "overheating" delay between switching weapons might help gameplay a bit, but not nearly so much as increasing the speed of, and damage caused by, the needles fired from the Needler. An increased needle speed would allow the needles to actually hit a moving target, and an increased damage per needle would mean that a whole half-clip wouldn't have to be emptied at a moving target just to take it down.
Second, the hype did play a big role--that the I Love Bees A.R.G. had such a large following (and with due cause!), but such a small amount of actual interaction or blending with the Halo 2 game is a shame and, in my opinion (be it humble or otherwise), a flaw in both marketing and gameplay... because it isn't just the A.R.G. that should have had some sort of impression on the story--it was the books, too.
Thirdly, the author might be having a bit of cognitive dissonance, in that he or she laments the loss of the three-shot-kill pistol (a single weapon), and then laments the so-called "n00b combo" of the plasma pistol and battle rifle. The truth is, the pistol of the first Halo could kill faster than the combo of the second, and while not everyone starts with that combo, those who utilize it forfeit carrying the "power weapons" that can counter them--namely the sniper, rocket launcher, sword, and shotgun. Yes, a
~UP
Except, in this case, the "truth" is completely irrelevant to the actual relative intelligences of the two "races."
The myths of black inferiority were created to justify the slavery of black people--after all, in a paternalistic slaveholding society (the US prior to 1860, for instance), it's easier to justify slavery if it is "well known" that those held in slavery are too stupid to take care of themselves.
The reality, of course, is that we're all human.
~UP
I like the opinions, offered above, about the whole "more books" thing, but I don't know how well stocked the library in question is. I also kinda like the "safe & sane use of RFID" mentioned above, but think that it might be overwhelming if the library in question has, say, 100k books, audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, vinyl records, etc.
I also don't know if this particular library has microfiche or the like... but if it does, and since it hasn't been mentioned by the submitter, I'd say that the next thing that should be done, tech. wise, would be to digitize the entire collection and make it accessible through any terminal or computer connected through the LAN. I suggest this because, in the course of getting my History degree, I spent many a frustrating night paging through reel upon reel of microfilm. I also spent many an hour happily searching, finding, and printing old newspaper articles that had been digitized.
If your library is used by researchers, and/or has microfilm or microfiche... digitize it, please!
~UP
My thoughts on this, exactly.
It looks like MS decided to get greedy (no surprise, there, really). While they could have implemented backwards compatibility through software emulation (of a hard drive, among other things), they decided to try and soak more cash out of gamers.
For me, this means that I will not be getting a new 360. I'll be picking up a used one, if I pick up a 360 at all.
~UP
I've been thinking about the latter--why not just re-use some of the now-abandoned missile silos? Inspect, seal any leaks, and they should be good for radioactive storage... seeing as how they were supposed to be fully shielded in that regard, anyway.
~UP
Keep the tether, or be prepared to include triple-redundancy on multiple systems. The last thing you want is a technical failure to result in the complete loss of your ROV.
~UP
Though he wrote of something far more atrocious, the words of Martin Niemoller might yet fit your particular comment: "First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me."
Those who refuse to help their fellow human beings against infringements of their rights, be those infringements drastic and overt or small and subtle, often find that, when their rights become infringed, none can or will help them.
I write this response, not so much to demonize you or call you lazy, as to point out that your comment might be the kind of thing to set you down a path you may regret at some future date.
~UP
My question to you all is: Now that you know, what are you going to do?
Will you snipe from the sidelines, or will you take action? Will you communicate your true thoughts and feelings to your representatives, or will you find it adequate to post those thoughts and feelings here, preaching to the choir, but doing little more? (Those of you who are not US citizens, let not this fact stop you from contacting your own government officials--after all, can they not learn from example, or take warning from your (preemptive?) voice?)
Immediately after I post this, I intend to contact at least two of my representatives. It's the weekend, I have no envelopes (just now), and I know I might forget to write by the time I do, so I will be emailing them--but it is better than nothing, and it is action I can take now.
~UP
The ostensibly democratic city of Athens had a dictator by the name of Perikles in the fifth century, BCE. Demagogue, rich man, and, early in the Peloponnesian war, top General, Perikles held the city in his hand until he was deposed by a cabal who sought to take the offensive against the Peloponnesians.
Perikles was so rich, so influential, and so powerful that, at one point, the his mere suggestions would sometimes move the Athenian citizenry to move quickly against their own wishes. Case in point: The Athenian people wanted a temple, but did not want to raise the taxes necessary to fund its completion. Perikles offered to fund the construction, on the condition that he be allowed to put his name on the temple--something that the tyrants would do to show their power prior to the revolution that turned Athens into a democracy. The Athenians immediately voted the tax increase into law, rather than face the reality that their democracy had faded until it had ceased to exist in all but name.
My points, as I think you can see, are that political culture can change subtly and quickly, and that human nature can promote such changes against the will of the majority of the people who comprise that political culture. People everywhere should realize that a dictatorship or oligarchy, even if not apparently present, is always possible, with time; that time is ever fleeting; and that the combination of those two facts means that they should ever be alert for even a subtle tyranny, though never in fear of one. (As FDR once said, "there is nothing to fear but fear itself.")
~UP
You know, I've never used OS/2, but I would have signed that petition had it not been for the fact that I noticed three English mistakes in my first four seconds of skimming that petition. I don't know about anyone else, but that kind of shoddy editing makes me think that perhaps the petition isn't quite serious.
(And for the record, I intend the above as constructive criticism, not insult.)
~UP
(Note: The following is applicable only to the USA.)
I did some quick research with Google--not the best of research tools, but the best I had at hand (due to its ability to allow cross-checking of facts). Opium and Cocaine were indeed banned soon after the turn of the 20th Century, but Marijuana was banned about two decades later, and LSD wasn't even around until well after Marijuana was banned.
The reasons for the banning of each varied (and this part I am recalling from my memory of earlier research projects): Opium was banned because of it's drain on society, Cocaine because of the number of deaths it caused; Marijuana and LSD were banned for other reasons, which I will not expound upon here.
As for self-medication: 'Self-medicating' is an ambiguous phrase. The kind of self-medication that we find in over-the-counter pain relievers today was never really a major component of society until the middle of the 20th Century. By the time chemical compounds were being used to treat the sick and injured among civilians, in the 1800s, they were being prescribed by doctors and pharmacists--dosage amounts and timing were described and the chemicals themselves were (with the exception of those available in herbs and other plants) available only from a pharmacy.
All this being said, the Progressive movement undoubtedly influenced, if not motivated, the prohibition of Opium, Cocaine, and alcohol. Yet the focus of the Progressive movement's push on the prohibition of these drugs was only on the children in that the movement wanted to stop drug use in the then-current adult generations and prevent it in the next generation of adults (the children) and all future generations (the yet-to-be born). In other words, the Progressives focused more on stopping drug use in general than they did on preventing harm to children. (I should note here that the topic of Progressivism in the US is a topic of titanic proportions, and that my tiny summary here does it no justice whatsoever.)
As for the current push against video-game violence: I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even if the radically conservative elements manage to pass a law banning violence in video games (or video games in general), the law cannot last long. If alcohol flowed in such great quantities during the Hoover years of the FBI, and if China is having such a hard time cracking down on the trade of certain kinds of unwanted bits and bytes--despite having a much more segregated internal network under a police state in a "closed" society--those in the US should have little to worry about.
And even aside from that, judging by the sheer amount of violence in pop culture as a whole, I would predict that violence in any virtual medium is a long, long way from being banned outright.
~UP
A most insightful response from a most intelligent human being, good [sir/madam/miss].
~UP
I was recently chatting with a psychology grad student, and somehow we got onto the subject of televisions and kids. She informed me that she had read a study, not long ago, that apparently linked a retardation of neuron development in the brain with children under six years of age having even average exposure to TVs and computer screens. The way she explained it to me, it has something to do with rapidly changing images.
I have not looked up the study myself, and would be grateful if some geek of the psychology flavor would clarify or correct my recollection. Still, I would recommend weaning the kid on technology at around age six, anyway--let his or her metabolism develop under activity, get him/her interested and familiar with nature (and not just the backyard kind!), and introduce technology at around age seven, is my advice. My memories of exploring the woods of my back yard and the badlands nearby are much more vivid and exciting to me today, fifteen plus years later, than any of my recollections of playing nintendo and computer games, or even watching Mr. Wizard or Mr. Rogers.
Balance is key, it is true, but it is often as important that you know how to balance these things as it is that you know what proportions by which to balance them.
~UP
heh... Tachyon Eddy... sounds like some sort of 25th-century junk dealer.
... Or maybe I just need more sleep.
"Come on down to Tachyon Eddy's for the best deals on slightly-used warp drives this side of Borg space!"
~UP