Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see any mention in the article of what OS the comprimised machine was running. What makes you assume it's Windows?
Actually, according to the article, the copper "spike" is driven into the ground.
Lagadonis said tests have generated 0.8 volts to 1.2 volts by driving an aluminum roofing nail half an inch into a tree attached to a copper water pipe driven 7 inches into the ground.
Besides, nowhere in the article did I see any mention of current. You can run 2 volts through a transformer to make it any value you want, but if you don't have enough amps, it's pointless.
Microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables.......in seven cases, customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand.
Talking? Nobody ever said anything about that. If you want to add speech recognition, now you've got all kinds of new problems. Accents, dialects, slang, etc.
As for typing. Even if people chose not to use netspeak due to the limitations of a speech synthesizer, there are still a lot of people out there who just can't spell to save their lives. Same problem.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I just don't think that present-day technology is quite up to the task yet. I'm sure that'll change eventually.
Still, if I ran things they'd all be in programming classes during elementary school and could write their own damned OS by the time they graduated high school.
<rant>Yeah, who needs that whole "compatibility" thing anyway?
All joking aside, I understand what you're saying, but I think your views are a little extreme. I think that people as a whole should be better informed about security issues and whatnot, but most people couldn't care less about what goes on inside their computer. Personally, I can't say I blame them.
BTW, for the record, I've been writing computer programs as a hobby for the past 17 years, and I'm a Linux user myself, so don't take this as being anti-OSS/Linux.</rant>
Increasingly popular podcasts, which allow users to download audio programs from the Web and listen to them on portable music devices, have attracted interest from some of the biggest names in technology, including Apple Computer Inc..
I should hope podcasting's got Apple's attention. Rumour has it, they're the ones behind the iPod in the first place.:)
By the same logic, you're entitled to rub the label off of a DVD with some steel wool. Copyright is a different matter.
That's not the point I was trying to make, although, looking back on my post, I can understand why it may have been interpreted that way.
I was not saying that copyright law prevents you from disabling an RFID chip. Clearly it doesn't. I was pointing out the fact that the "I bought it, so I can do whatever I want with it" argument doesn't necessairily apply in all situations.
To my knowledge, it is presently legal to disable an RFID chip. The point I was making is that if it were to be proven that the disabling of an RFID chip were harmful to an industry (such as market research) a law might be passed to prevent it, in much the same way that copyright law was passed to prevent you from copying a book, when it was found to be harmful to the printing industry.
I was not trying to start a debate about copyright law. That's a whole other can of worms that I'd rather not open. Hopefully, I have communicated myself more effectively this time.
On another note, anyone have any idea as to why my original post was moderated as "Troll"?
If, as people seem to think, a CEO does nothing in a public company. There's a board of directors who would boot him/her out. Major companies don't make money by paying people obscene salaries to sit on their butts all day.
True, if you want to run a successful company, you have to delegate a lot of tasks to other people. This should be done, however, so that you can handle more imporant issues.
Bearing this in mind, I think that an open-inbox policy is a double-edged sword. Yes, it keeps the CEOs informed as to what's going on in the company, but I think it would be a wiser idea to have someone employed for the sole purpose of reading these e-mails, and forwarding the relevant ones to the appropriate recipients (including the CEO, if necessary).
Well, I don't have quite such a pessimistic outlook. It would probably be illegal to zap an RFID tag in a store, because until you buy it, it's not yours. Once you own it though, you're entitled to fry the RFID, rip off the tags that say "do not remove this tag", etc.
By the same logic, you should be able to pirate copyrighted material based on the fact that you purchased the media it's stored on. Doesn't fly. I can see them passing laws to prevent RFID tampering if it causes enough precieved damage to a major industry.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, because nobody would ever have any reason to lie to a recording industry about stealing from them.
Timbits is one word. :P
Damn right. :P
- Create a self-censored version of Google (while simultaneously maintining the original) to allow at least limited access to the Chinese users.
- Chose not to censor themselves and be firewalled, effectively cutting off an entire country.
Given a choice between the two, I'd personally take the second. Can anyone point out any alternatives I've missed?I'm not saying I doubt it. I was just wondering if ther was something I'd missed.
...Which is...?
Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see any mention in the article of what OS the comprimised machine was running. What makes you assume it's Windows?
Not to mention, look at what inflation's done over the past 20 years. Now consider what could happen over 100.
There's really no way to predict what the economy's going to look like that far down the road.
Actually, according to the article, the copper "spike" is driven into the ground.
Lagadonis said tests have generated 0.8 volts to 1.2 volts by driving an aluminum roofing nail half an inch into a tree attached to a copper water pipe driven 7 inches into the ground.
Besides, nowhere in the article did I see any mention of current. You can run 2 volts through a transformer to make it any value you want, but if you don't have enough amps, it's pointless.
Oh hey, this isn't the season to be a spelling Nazi.
I wasn't aware that there was a spelling Nazi season. When exactly is that?
You fool! Now we may never know if ants can be trained to sort tiny screws in space... now spiders, that's another story.
Not to mention the obvious DoS attack where one could deliberately inject current into the line to disrupt communication.
Who knows how many units are bad, but didn't actually burn someone, or damage something.
Exactly my point. I don't know how many are bad. Do you? I hear a lot of complaints, but with no verifiable numbers to back them up.
From the post I was replying to:
... ...in seven cases, customers reported sustaining a minor burn to their hand.
Microsoft said it had received 30 reports of minor injury or property damage due to faulty cables.
That's where.
30 defective uints out of 14 million?
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but if you sell that many units, the law of probability is going to catch up with you eventually.
Talking? Nobody ever said anything about that. If you want to add speech recognition, now you've got all kinds of new problems. Accents, dialects, slang, etc.
As for typing. Even if people chose not to use netspeak due to the limitations of a speech synthesizer, there are still a lot of people out there who just can't spell to save their lives. Same problem.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I just don't think that present-day technology is quite up to the task yet. I'm sure that'll change eventually.
Still, if I ran things they'd all be in programming classes during elementary school and could write their own damned OS by the time they graduated high school.
<rant>Yeah, who needs that whole "compatibility" thing anyway?
All joking aside, I understand what you're saying, but I think your views are a little extreme. I think that people as a whole should be better informed about security issues and whatnot, but most people couldn't care less about what goes on inside their computer. Personally, I can't say I blame them.
BTW, for the record, I've been writing computer programs as a hobby for the past 17 years, and I'm a Linux user myself, so don't take this as being anti-OSS/Linux.</rant>
True enough, but speech synthesizers have enough difficulty with proper English. Can you imagine the havoc that netspeak would wreak?
...and then you still need a userbase. :P
Increasingly popular podcasts, which allow users to download audio programs from the Web and listen to them on portable music devices, have attracted interest from some of the biggest names in technology, including Apple Computer Inc..
:)
I should hope podcasting's got Apple's attention. Rumour has it, they're the ones behind the iPod in the first place.
By the same logic, you're entitled to rub the label off of a DVD with some steel wool. Copyright is a different matter.
That's not the point I was trying to make, although, looking back on my post, I can understand why it may have been interpreted that way.
I was not saying that copyright law prevents you from disabling an RFID chip. Clearly it doesn't. I was pointing out the fact that the "I bought it, so I can do whatever I want with it" argument doesn't necessairily apply in all situations.
To my knowledge, it is presently legal to disable an RFID chip. The point I was making is that if it were to be proven that the disabling of an RFID chip were harmful to an industry (such as market research) a law might be passed to prevent it, in much the same way that copyright law was passed to prevent you from copying a book, when it was found to be harmful to the printing industry.
I was not trying to start a debate about copyright law. That's a whole other can of worms that I'd rather not open. Hopefully, I have communicated myself more effectively this time.
On another note, anyone have any idea as to why my original post was moderated as "Troll"?
I agree entirely. Let me add one more point.
If, as people seem to think, a CEO does nothing in a public company. There's a board of directors who would boot him/her out. Major companies don't make money by paying people obscene salaries to sit on their butts all day.
True, if you want to run a successful company, you have to delegate a lot of tasks to other people. This should be done, however, so that you can handle more imporant issues.
Bearing this in mind, I think that an open-inbox policy is a double-edged sword. Yes, it keeps the CEOs informed as to what's going on in the company, but I think it would be a wiser idea to have someone employed for the sole purpose of reading these e-mails, and forwarding the relevant ones to the appropriate recipients (including the CEO, if necessary).
... if it causes enough perceived damage ...
Wow my spelling sucks today. That's what I get for not proofreading.
Well, I don't have quite such a pessimistic outlook. It would probably be illegal to zap an RFID tag in a store, because until you buy it, it's not yours. Once you own it though, you're entitled to fry the RFID, rip off the tags that say "do not remove this tag", etc.
By the same logic, you should be able to pirate copyrighted material based on the fact that you purchased the media it's stored on. Doesn't fly. I can see them passing laws to prevent RFID tampering if it causes enough precieved damage to a major industry.
So put the RFID tags on the terrorists then. :P
Problem solved.