I've read many opinions on why we should destroy such information and never use it, and I disagree with them all. The bottom line is that this knowledge, however morally questionable its source, saves lives.
I believe that knowledge is intrinsically valuable. How we acquire it may make us morally culpable. Society can do whatever it chooses to do to those who deviate from moral standards, subject them to religious penalties, apply a legal framework, invoke tradition etc. However, our reaction to the behaviour of individuals should not inhibit our abilities to think rationally and use the knowledge if it becomes available, regardless of our moral objection to the methods used to obtain it.
In this case, to deliberately go out of our way to NOT use this information, we would have to alter many of our medical and safety procedures, such as coast guard rescue methods. If we expunge this information and adjust our methods such that they do not make use of it, they would certainly be less effective. Is it better to throw out morally questionable research for the purposes of discouraging it in the future and *maybe* saving lives as a result, or definitely saving lives *right now*. I'll go with the latter. There are other ways to prevent morally questionable acts in the future, but cutting off our own nose to prevent nosebleeds in the future, is silly.
Finally, I can't think of anything remotely comparable to the stupidity of taking a moral stand against the wanton disregard for the value of life by assuming a position that is likely to get people killed. No parent, spouse or child would be comforted by the taking of the moral high ground when faced with the preventable death of their loved one.
What's your position on the matter? Would you accept or reject this knowledge's use? I've discussed this with many people, and I do acknowledge that there are formidable arguments to the contrary.
You don't care about tech details? What on Earth are you doing reading Slashdot then? That's like reading BRW and then saying "Don't bore me with money stuff, I just want my liabilities to go away!"
I beg to differ. The Nazi's did some horrific research that nonetheless yeilded useful results. First Aid courses are vastly different today than they otherwise would have been without that information. Look up the research they did on hypothermia. Their methods will make you puke, but the information has saved many a sailor pulled from freezing waters.
I agree. Parent post to me illustrates one of the festering sores on the fundamental fabric of modern western society: The reduction of everything, including life itself, to monetary value.
Measuring life against a life's value of work is disgraceful, and indicative of the soulless nature of modern western society.
The fact that you think a person is only worth what they produce is saying a person's life can be reduced to monetary value. I.e., If I can afford to pay the replacement cost of your expected future production, I can buy the right to kill you.
Life itself has intrinsic value, immeasurably greater than anything that can result from any production process humans are able to create. Furthermore production processes and their output value are not static. 200 years ago the production of a single automobile would have been outside the capacity of the world economy, yet today we would not say that they are of greater value than a human life.
Lets stop thinking about everything in terms of production, money and utility and start seeing the wonder and intrinsic value in the World as it is, not what we can produce from it.
Brain plasticity decreases with disuse. I know over 60s who can out-think twenty somethings in their sleep. I also know twenty somethings who couldn't think their way out of a cardboard box if they had a boxcutter and a flashlight.
Welcome to the real world, where customers will send an email and by the time they realize you haven't responded, they've spent their money elsewhere.
Relying on senders to follow up emails is NOT acceptible for business users, and this acrimonious attitude that many people have "senders can wait or follow up their emails" will not fly unless you have a job of trivial importance where delayed and missed communications are irrelevant. Like, say, janitors.
Like the other smartass who replied with the same comeback, you obviously missed the point that while the fire will go out, you destroy anything in the immediate vicinity. Try it if your home ever catches fire, you'll see what I mean.
Blocklists with large numbers of false positives are the same. They largely remove the problem, but make it such that many legitimate mails are dropped, severely reducing email's reliability and hence usefulness.
You have one, and only one, natural "right" as a petulant means of depriving me of your ideas - Keep them to yourself. If you don't like those terms, don't create. Simple as that.
I haven't heard that point made in such a derisively eloquent manner before. Kudos:)
That'll work for desktops as well, provided you only touch the machine as often as you touch your servers, and install the same software set.
So feel free to install any OS you want on your desktop, but once its set up you're only allowed to touch it once a week to patch it. Other than that you must disconnect the keyboard and monitor and stare at the power LED.
There you have my recipe for a desktop with the same uptime as a server.
Ever since WWII, the USA has hardly been able to summon the will to prosecute a war.
Err... Korea, Vietnam, a dozen small skirmishes in Latin America not to mention many more covert actions, Nicaragua, Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2... and that's only from memory
Slashdot Mirror
I've read many opinions on why we should destroy such information and never use it, and I disagree with them all. The bottom line is that this knowledge, however morally questionable its source, saves lives.
I believe that knowledge is intrinsically valuable. How we acquire it may make us morally culpable. Society can do whatever it chooses to do to those who deviate from moral standards, subject them to religious penalties, apply a legal framework, invoke tradition etc. However, our reaction to the behaviour of individuals should not inhibit our abilities to think rationally and use the knowledge if it becomes available, regardless of our moral objection to the methods used to obtain it.
In this case, to deliberately go out of our way to NOT use this information, we would have to alter many of our medical and safety procedures, such as coast guard rescue methods. If we expunge this information and adjust our methods such that they do not make use of it, they would certainly be less effective. Is it better to throw out morally questionable research for the purposes of discouraging it in the future and *maybe* saving lives as a result, or definitely saving lives *right now*. I'll go with the latter. There are other ways to prevent morally questionable acts in the future, but cutting off our own nose to prevent nosebleeds in the future, is silly.
Finally, I can't think of anything remotely comparable to the stupidity of taking a moral stand against the wanton disregard for the value of life by assuming a position that is likely to get people killed. No parent, spouse or child would be comforted by the taking of the moral high ground when faced with the preventable death of their loved one.
What's your position on the matter? Would you accept or reject this knowledge's use? I've discussed this with many people, and I do acknowledge that there are formidable arguments to the contrary.
That's true, but only for extremely large values of 2.
Eh? nVidia have a well supported chipset for AMD CPUs which has been in use for several years now.
You don't care about tech details? What on Earth are you doing reading Slashdot then? That's like reading BRW and then saying "Don't bore me with money stuff, I just want my liabilities to go away!"
One twin? What have you done with the other you horrible man?!
I've always wondered how/why the FOSS community was so willing to acquiesce to the use of .PDF when .PS is a perfectly good open substitute.
Anyone able to illuminate me?
Just wanted to let you know your post was NOT deserving of a -1 mod. I hope that comes up for meta-moderation for me, twice.
I beg to differ. The Nazi's did some horrific research that nonetheless yeilded useful results. First Aid courses are vastly different today than they otherwise would have been without that information. Look up the research they did on hypothermia. Their methods will make you puke, but the information has saved many a sailor pulled from freezing waters.
I thought Google didn't release search data?
I agree. Parent post to me illustrates one of the festering sores on the fundamental fabric of modern western society: The reduction of everything, including life itself, to monetary value.
Measuring life against a life's value of work is disgraceful, and indicative of the soulless nature of modern western society. The fact that you think a person is only worth what they produce is saying a person's life can be reduced to monetary value. I.e., If I can afford to pay the replacement cost of your expected future production, I can buy the right to kill you. Life itself has intrinsic value, immeasurably greater than anything that can result from any production process humans are able to create. Furthermore production processes and their output value are not static. 200 years ago the production of a single automobile would have been outside the capacity of the world economy, yet today we would not say that they are of greater value than a human life. Lets stop thinking about everything in terms of production, money and utility and start seeing the wonder and intrinsic value in the World as it is, not what we can produce from it.
You obviously don't have any children.
Brain plasticity decreases with disuse. I know over 60s who can out-think twenty somethings in their sleep. I also know twenty somethings who couldn't think their way out of a cardboard box if they had a boxcutter and a flashlight.
Welcome to the real world, where customers will send an email and by the time they realize you haven't responded, they've spent their money elsewhere.
Relying on senders to follow up emails is NOT acceptible for business users, and this acrimonious attitude that many people have "senders can wait or follow up their emails" will not fly unless you have a job of trivial importance where delayed and missed communications are irrelevant. Like, say, janitors.
Like the other smartass who replied with the same comeback, you obviously missed the point that while the fire will go out, you destroy anything in the immediate vicinity. Try it if your home ever catches fire, you'll see what I mean.
Blocklists with large numbers of false positives are the same. They largely remove the problem, but make it such that many legitimate mails are dropped, severely reducing email's reliability and hence usefulness.
Buddy, I hope you don't show up if my home ever catches fire :P
Because of course, resolution and bandwidth are not going to improve. They're the same as they were 10 years ago.
I haven't heard that point made in such a derisively eloquent manner before. Kudos :)
The US has a constitution? I thought it was a colouring book for kids.
Dude, I'm on your boat. I don't understand why people think fighting fire with dynamite is a good idea.
If there were emails destined for you that were dropped, how would you know unless the sender followed it up?
Of course he hasn't heard of "innocent until proven otherwise". He's American.
That'll work for desktops as well, provided you only touch the machine as often as you touch your servers, and install the same software set.
So feel free to install any OS you want on your desktop, but once its set up you're only allowed to touch it once a week to patch it. Other than that you must disconnect the keyboard and monitor and stare at the power LED.
There you have my recipe for a desktop with the same uptime as a server.
Amen.
Err... Korea, Vietnam, a dozen small skirmishes in Latin America not to mention many more covert actions, Nicaragua, Iraq 1, Afghanistan, Iraq 2... and that's only from memory