In short: Insurance is useful for incidents that are both relatively rare AND relatively costly.
Should be nothing new to intelligent people, should it?
But I've seen college people - regular smokers, to be exact - skipping fire insurance for their home. But I'm no insurance salesman, so who am I to judge?
These are the goals of our programs and they try to attain them by the means discussed above.
Don't forget that we are one instance of the runtime state of a rather large biological program: those 3GB encoded in your amino acids.
Amino acids are a proven workable method for having an interactive program with the physical world. But who can tell if a binary algorithm shouldn't work on a digital substrate as well?
Surviving, reproducing and reaction to stimuli can all be found in a digital environment. Not on a virtual entity on its own, but a pre-programmed simulation of this behavior is quite common.
How many confirmed murders of young people by other young people do you want? 10? 20? How about 3 knife deaths per day just in Greater London?
For general people, the law gets tougher every day, try going 3km above the speed limit if you have doubts. But then again, people are shooting and stabbing each other in record numbers.
That's why the Police's job is to solve crimes and apprehend criminals. One policeperson per one thousand citizens is much too few to prevent crimes. Fear of efficient and effective prosecution is a strong point against criminals, but given our justice system here in Europe, armed self-defense is about to make a hell of a come-back soon.
Too bad we aren't allowed to own any weapons, but our police won't protect us - they're busy protecting themselves, from paperwork and increasingly from perpetrators themselves.
Nanny state and wimpy police breeds crazy youth. If you don't arm yourself soon - even IF it's illegal, well, prepare to be a good sheep.
I meant the human brain in general in comparison to all machines we've been able to construct so far. Einstein was my example, because he clearly surpassed his teachers and parents, therefore must have produced a lot of knowledge on his own.
I don't care how much he compares to all other geniuses of the world, Einstein is just *the* modern icon of smarts.
Of course it is a misleadingly simple abstraction when I condensed the entire work of Einstein into input, processing, output. That's the overall process and I wanted to make clear that this cycle can be repeated in a self-contained machine that may need external reference or guidance, but can easily surpass the level of sentience its ancestors had.
We do not know yet how a correlation engine and memory can artificially be made, well, we are only just now beginning to understand how the stacks of neurons in the human retina are actually preparing their input signals for the brain itself.
But just because we don't know how doesn't mean it's impossible.
The only question we have is, if we will be able to think of an algorithm that is smaller than the maybe 700mb of our own genome and faster to assemble and use.
Any biological intelligence does exactly the same as described: gather data (try to assess external universe model), find correlations (build internal universe model), act according to internal needs (act upon internal universe model) and repeat.
This chain of processing is done by all brains from the fruit fly to humans. Everything else is a consequential result from this process.
A human brain has very few hardwired constants and many of them they can be overridden.
Feedback loops are a natural result of action to fulfill internal needs according an internal model - that is always incomplete or wrong, see Goedel - upon the external universe. In the next step data is gathered, correlations found (which constitutes the feedback loop) and then acted out according to the adapted internal model.
A fruit fly has simple sensors, a very simple correlation engine and a tiny memory for its internal model. But that doesn't mean its following a different path than a newborn Einstein. Einstein has detailed sensors (easily surpassed by those of dogs and eagles, but still ok), a yet-unmatched correlation engine and a sufficient amount of internal model memory.
All other inputs come from the external universe and while some of them are absolutely neccessary and come from other organisms (parents, teachers), they do not impose a hard limit on Einstein: with enough correlation power, he can easily discover new facts, unknown to any of his inputs (teachers, parents).
Einsteins brain was never designed to do anything else than processing input signals, detecting correlations and contacting motor neurons to act upon its internal model. How did he discover Relativity then?
If you can afford to install loads of software on a deprecated computer and/or afford to run it for several hours, you can afford a newish ITX solution with up-to-date common OSS.
It's not worth thousands, but hundreds and that's enough for me. And while it's probably not the best solution to carry valuable data on a laptop, I've yet to see someone come up with a different solution.
A solution that allows an instant start when arriving at the client site, that has little to none drawbacks compared to a stationary machine and with everything under my control including admin rights and network access.
Carrying around an industrial workstation is not feasible, I don't like using a client's machine and connect over VPN because of security and control reasons. And USB sticks can hold my data, but not the entire work environment including a configured OS and several ready-to-launch applications.
You could argue to store everything on a large USB stick, but these things tend to get lost and of course need a host computer to work. If I carry the host computer around, I'm prone to mechanical HDD failures - and if I use a client's machine as a host, I'm bound to have security concerns and at least some minor hassles getting access to the network, as some companies even deactivate the USB ports with no chance to enable them.
All that is unpredictable and doesn't allow me to send a few emails while back at the hotel in the evening. I like to be independent and I like to work on a known computer with the same keyboard layout every time. When you've had to switch to/from a Toshiba keyboard layout once in a while, you know what I mean.
Many people will value their data more than the monetary value of damaged equipment. That's one of the main reason that data rescue companies continue to thrive.
Especially for people that have important data for work on their laptops can have a greater loss from a single damaged cluster than from the entire hardware.
Disclaimer: I live in Europe. Oh dude, I tell you, we have lunatics here, you'd never believe it.
Our police is a joke, our security weak and The Youth(tm) have noticed.
You can use public transportation here, but if you do it after 8pm, you better not look anyone in the eye, not look weak and muggable, not have any valuables on person, not take trains or buses that run through certain neighborhoods - and above all, not be a white woman with blonde hair. If you can fulfill these simple requirements, you're free to go ride the bus or metro after dark in large cities of Europe.
Oh, and NEVER visibly show that you're Jewish, support Jews or support Israel. That can get you killed - again - and I'm not kidding. And no, this time it's not the Nazis but our friendly, peaceful immigrants from the Middle East...
Poor people exist, but the sane poor people drive a poor car as well.
I don't avoid public transportation because of poor people, but mostly because of dangerous, violent lunatics, who threaten people just because they're bored. Also because of stupid kids that have nothing better to do than scream and wave their mobile phones around.
I am one person, and I absolutely love to have some dignity. I can not cure all evil in the world and I am oblivious to undereducation and whatever reason there may be that kids and youth these days just behave like wild animals.
That's why I ride by car. Doors locked and concealed-carrying, to be exact.
Compared to being in a cage with several dozen jerks, idiots and other obnoxious humans, even traffic jams are an oasis of pure harmony in the middle of the storm.
Get the public space safe and clean and I will consider riding the public transportation again.
Signed, A white male sick of paying taxes for people that hate me.
The usual analogy collision between cars and the digital world.
Your car is a costly, potentially lethal piece of machinery. That's why you lock the doors and have a anti-theft device installed. If it gets stolen it is gone and you probably know that it's missing within a few days.
Your Internet connection is a cheap commodity and you may never knew if someone used your connection without your consent. Sure it may "kill music!!!11eleven" and you gotta "think of the children" but it's not terribly dangerous to leave the router open. That's why many people do.
Most cheap routers have a fixed log size or don't keep the logs when powered off. You have no chance at all to prove it was someone else using your connection just as the court has no chance at all to prove it was you. As long as the courts honor "In dubio pro reo", you're pretty much safe unless of course you have plenty of knowledge of networks or a PhD in computer science. Then you're hosed because you surely knew what you were doing...
People that kill their wife when they caught her in the act are not reasonable people. Not at all.
I'd wager to include all people who get angry when disappointed in that definition, but I'd leave that to a PhD in psychology.
First and foremost, because the statistical odds are against your idea of monogamy. Heavily, I might add. The odds that your wife - and YOU! - remain absolutely faithful through the course of fourty long years are slim to none.
Half the population has had an extramarital incident and that includes millions of people who would swear to God, Steve Jobs and anyone who dares to listen that they would never cheat their partners. Most people love sex and they have all "the tools" available so they do it sometimes.
Just get over it. It's not worth breaking your marriage, losing your sanity or risking a felony because your partner has had some fun without you. Sheesh, I'm no polyamorist or hippie, but I'm still pretty sad when people blow their lifelong marriage because of two drunken hours...
I didn't advocate killing people for doing something, except for killing.
The irony here is easily resolved when you stop pretending crime and punishment are one and the same. Both actions end the life of a human being, but they are not equal.
You may advocate that the death penalty is wrong and I understand you, even if I disagree. But you may not advocate that the death penalty is the same as a cold-blooded murder of someone whose shoes you didn't like.
If it was, every prisoner would be a hostage, every act of self-defense ironic and the whole world a cartoon.
They are not, obviously. They are rather grouped by a youth-weighted bodycount, if you want the grim details.
Just because they all qualified for The Chair, they aren't equal any more than you and me.
I'm no native English speaker, so let me correct the term "child molester": touching a child surely does NOT, rape MAY but raping AND killing surely qualifies for death row. Just showing your wee to a kid is sick and wrong, but the kid will survive and so should the sicko.
You mean, just because I have no objections when a known mass murderer has a terrible "accident" while police custody, I am morally worse than a mass murderer myself?
You say, agreeing at the death of a very guilty man is worse than actively murdering 20 people?
Are you posting from prison or just from the other side the moon?
And I support the death penalty even more for barbarians who murder people that don't follow their will.
Yes, I advocate killing tyrants, now you know.
And if you cannot differentiate between murder and capital punishment, cause and effect, please avoid jury duty. A broken heart heals faster than a broken skull, every time, so spare me the pity for old Mr. Reiser.
Maybe in the Theocratic Federation of North American Homesteads but not in the US of A I used to know. Last time I checked the Holy Bible was an important book there but no valid grounds for a lawful execution. And you purposely left out *THAT OTHER COMMANDMENT* that specifically prohibits killing.
I was tempted to include a side note to the Bible and other Holy Books when I wrote the first reply, but I thought someone else will play the Bible Thumper. And someone did...
Anyway, you just repeated the old "do what I say or be killed" meme (or "do what MY God says or be killed") that is incompatible with the rule of law, democracy, freedom and pursuit of happiness in general. In other words, against the core values of the USA. I know that Christianity and faith in God is an important value, too, but I always thought personal freedom and the rule of law was much much more important. After all, that's what the Founding Fathers sought when they came there, didn't they?
We are not in Teheran, so let Man be concerned with the law on earth and God govern law in Heaven, how about it? If anyone violates the rules of Heaven, let God decide and act upon the punishment.
If you violate important rules here on Earth, such as killing people for nonsense like doing things in private with their private things, you may visit God pretty soon.
Have a good excuse ready, just in case. You may have prayed to the wrong God or followed the wrong Holy Book for your whole life, who knows?
If you think, another human being is your personal property who has to bow to your will even after friendship or partnership has come to an end, I wouldn't want to be your friend or partner.
And if you then think, you are morally justified in killing them when they don't comply, I'm glad that capital punishment is still available.
"Follow my will or I'll kill you" is not something I would expect from civilized people under the rule of law.
I admit there may be some moral leeway concerning the constitutional rights of child molesters, dicators and mass murderers, but that's not the case here.
You are not talking about killing people with heavy guilt and a huge bodycount, but about killing humans for lawfully and consensually having sex. That is morally depraved, shameful and if carried out highly against the law. And no, that wouldn't be manslaughter but pre-meditated first degree murder. And they'll fry you for that.
This is a terrible development, as I get similar personalized email, though not spambot death threats, thank god.
But I'm predicting we will see personalized emails that demand ransom money to an account in the Cayman's or the spammers will set up search-optimized websites in your name, where they pretend to be you telling the world about your closet pedophilia or something like that.
Virtual blackmail with a randomly generated but existing given name / surname combination. We will see that soon, mark my words:(
Looks like that doesn't cut it anymore if you've got a common name. Or any name that can be generated by combining a baby name book and a phone book.
I've got a common surname and I signed up for two accounts on a popular webmailer, one with a real name and the other with a nickname. The real name mailadress got spammed within two hours without me telling anyone or anything about any of these two.
Getting spam is no matter of protecting your identity anymore and it seems as we're now only a short time before cyber-blackmailing of anyone with a common-enough name.
Samizdat (Russian: ÑÐмÐÐÐÐÑ) was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries.
We are now on the brink of having government-suppressed media. With millions of uneasy immigrants in all our cities here in Europe come strong tensions, if you excuse this heavy euphemism.
And people are increasingly writing material critic of the problems with immigrants and that is increasingly met with government resistance. We are now at a point where free blogging about the situation in your town MAY get you a short jail sentence. Some years down the road, we may as well build a Great European Firewall, if this trend is not stopped soon.
Given the current trend in total identification of who-said-what-when-and-where, yes, that analogy is more than reasonable.
Politicians are making it more and more into a criminal case to say or write what you think. Given the various hate speech laws and the obvious expansion and creeping of what exactly hate speech should be, we are now pretty much at the beginning of a new Soviet era, with the motherland deciding what's good for you and everyone around you.
The friendly slap in the face for using bad words included.
So the crackdown on P2P is a win-win for politicians and the mafiaa-industries. More nanny-state for one and more profits for the other.
Slashdot Mirror
In short: Insurance is useful for incidents that are both relatively rare AND relatively costly.
Should be nothing new to intelligent people, should it?
But I've seen college people - regular smokers, to be exact - skipping fire insurance for their home. But I'm no insurance salesman, so who am I to judge?
These are the goals of our programs and they try to attain them by the means discussed above.
Don't forget that we are one instance of the runtime state of a rather large biological program: those 3GB encoded in your amino acids.
Amino acids are a proven workable method for having an interactive program with the physical world. But who can tell if a binary algorithm shouldn't work on a digital substrate as well?
Surviving, reproducing and reaction to stimuli can all be found in a digital environment. Not on a virtual entity on its own, but a pre-programmed simulation of this behavior is quite common.
How many confirmed murders of young people by other young people do you want? 10? 20? How about 3 knife deaths per day just in Greater London?
For general people, the law gets tougher every day, try going 3km above the speed limit if you have doubts. But then again, people are shooting and stabbing each other in record numbers.
That's why the Police's job is to solve crimes and apprehend criminals. One policeperson per one thousand citizens is much too few to prevent crimes. Fear of efficient and effective prosecution is a strong point against criminals, but given our justice system here in Europe, armed self-defense is about to make a hell of a come-back soon.
Too bad we aren't allowed to own any weapons, but our police won't protect us - they're busy protecting themselves, from paperwork and increasingly from perpetrators themselves.
Nanny state and wimpy police breeds crazy youth. If you don't arm yourself soon - even IF it's illegal, well, prepare to be a good sheep.
I meant the human brain in general in comparison to all machines we've been able to construct so far. Einstein was my example, because he clearly surpassed his teachers and parents, therefore must have produced a lot of knowledge on his own.
I don't care how much he compares to all other geniuses of the world, Einstein is just *the* modern icon of smarts.
Of course it is a misleadingly simple abstraction when I condensed the entire work of Einstein into input, processing, output. That's the overall process and I wanted to make clear that this cycle can be repeated in a self-contained machine that may need external reference or guidance, but can easily surpass the level of sentience its ancestors had.
We do not know yet how a correlation engine and memory can artificially be made, well, we are only just now beginning to understand how the stacks of neurons in the human retina are actually preparing their input signals for the brain itself.
But just because we don't know how doesn't mean it's impossible.
The only question we have is, if we will be able to think of an algorithm that is smaller than the maybe 700mb of our own genome and faster to assemble and use.
Any biological intelligence does exactly the same as described: gather data (try to assess external universe model), find correlations (build internal universe model), act according to internal needs (act upon internal universe model) and repeat.
This chain of processing is done by all brains from the fruit fly to humans. Everything else is a consequential result from this process.
A human brain has very few hardwired constants and many of them they can be overridden.
Feedback loops are a natural result of action to fulfill internal needs according an internal model - that is always incomplete or wrong, see Goedel - upon the external universe. In the next step data is gathered, correlations found (which constitutes the feedback loop) and then acted out according to the adapted internal model.
A fruit fly has simple sensors, a very simple correlation engine and a tiny memory for its internal model. But that doesn't mean its following a different path than a newborn Einstein. Einstein has detailed sensors (easily surpassed by those of dogs and eagles, but still ok), a yet-unmatched correlation engine and a sufficient amount of internal model memory.
All other inputs come from the external universe and while some of them are absolutely neccessary and come from other organisms (parents, teachers), they do not impose a hard limit on Einstein: with enough correlation power, he can easily discover new facts, unknown to any of his inputs (teachers, parents).
Einsteins brain was never designed to do anything else than processing input signals, detecting correlations and contacting motor neurons to act upon its internal model. How did he discover Relativity then?
If you can afford to install loads of software on a deprecated computer and/or afford to run it for several hours, you can afford a newish ITX solution with up-to-date common OSS.
It's not worth thousands, but hundreds and that's enough for me. And while it's probably not the best solution to carry valuable data on a laptop, I've yet to see someone come up with a different solution.
A solution that allows an instant start when arriving at the client site, that has little to none drawbacks compared to a stationary machine and with everything under my control including admin rights and network access.
Carrying around an industrial workstation is not feasible, I don't like using a client's machine and connect over VPN because of security and control reasons. And USB sticks can hold my data, but not the entire work environment including a configured OS and several ready-to-launch applications.
You could argue to store everything on a large USB stick, but these things tend to get lost and of course need a host computer to work. If I carry the host computer around, I'm prone to mechanical HDD failures - and if I use a client's machine as a host, I'm bound to have security concerns and at least some minor hassles getting access to the network, as some companies even deactivate the USB ports with no chance to enable them.
All that is unpredictable and doesn't allow me to send a few emails while back at the hotel in the evening. I like to be independent and I like to work on a known computer with the same keyboard layout every time. When you've had to switch to/from a Toshiba keyboard layout once in a while, you know what I mean.
Many people will value their data more than the monetary value of damaged equipment. That's one of the main reason that data rescue companies continue to thrive.
Especially for people that have important data for work on their laptops can have a greater loss from a single damaged cluster than from the entire hardware.
Disclaimer: I live in Europe. Oh dude, I tell you, we have lunatics here, you'd never believe it.
Our police is a joke, our security weak and The Youth(tm) have noticed.
You can use public transportation here, but if you do it after 8pm, you better not look anyone in the eye, not look weak and muggable, not have any valuables on person, not take trains or buses that run through certain neighborhoods - and above all, not be a white woman with blonde hair. If you can fulfill these simple requirements, you're free to go ride the bus or metro after dark in large cities of Europe.
Oh, and NEVER visibly show that you're Jewish, support Jews or support Israel. That can get you killed - again - and I'm not kidding. And no, this time it's not the Nazis but our friendly, peaceful immigrants from the Middle East...
Poor people exist, but the sane poor people drive a poor car as well.
I don't avoid public transportation because of poor people, but mostly because of dangerous, violent lunatics, who threaten people just because they're bored. Also because of stupid kids that have nothing better to do than scream and wave their mobile phones around.
I am one person, and I absolutely love to have some dignity. I can not cure all evil in the world and I am oblivious to undereducation and whatever reason there may be that kids and youth these days just behave like wild animals.
That's why I ride by car. Doors locked and concealed-carrying, to be exact.
Compared to being in a cage with several dozen jerks, idiots and other obnoxious humans, even traffic jams are an oasis of pure harmony in the middle of the storm.
Get the public space safe and clean and I will consider riding the public transportation again.
Signed,
A white male sick of paying taxes for people that hate me.
The usual analogy collision between cars and the digital world.
Your car is a costly, potentially lethal piece of machinery. That's why you lock the doors and have a anti-theft device installed. If it gets stolen it is gone and you probably know that it's missing within a few days.
Your Internet connection is a cheap commodity and you may never knew if someone used your connection without your consent. Sure it may "kill music!!!11eleven" and you gotta "think of the children" but it's not terribly dangerous to leave the router open. That's why many people do.
Most cheap routers have a fixed log size or don't keep the logs when powered off. You have no chance at all to prove it was someone else using your connection just as the court has no chance at all to prove it was you. As long as the courts honor "In dubio pro reo", you're pretty much safe unless of course you have plenty of knowledge of networks or a PhD in computer science. Then you're hosed because you surely knew what you were doing...
People that kill their wife when they caught her in the act are not reasonable people. Not at all.
I'd wager to include all people who get angry when disappointed in that definition, but I'd leave that to a PhD in psychology.
First and foremost, because the statistical odds are against your idea of monogamy. Heavily, I might add. The odds that your wife - and YOU! - remain absolutely faithful through the course of fourty long years are slim to none.
Half the population has had an extramarital incident and that includes millions of people who would swear to God, Steve Jobs and anyone who dares to listen that they would never cheat their partners. Most people love sex and they have all "the tools" available so they do it sometimes.
Just get over it. It's not worth breaking your marriage, losing your sanity or risking a felony because your partner has had some fun without you. Sheesh, I'm no polyamorist or hippie, but I'm still pretty sad when people blow their lifelong marriage because of two drunken hours...
I didn't advocate killing people for doing something, except for killing.
The irony here is easily resolved when you stop pretending crime and punishment are one and the same. Both actions end the life of a human being, but they are not equal.
You may advocate that the death penalty is wrong and I understand you, even if I disagree. But you may not advocate that the death penalty is the same as a cold-blooded murder of someone whose shoes you didn't like.
If it was, every prisoner would be a hostage, every act of self-defense ironic and the whole world a cartoon.
They are not, obviously. They are rather grouped by a youth-weighted bodycount, if you want the grim details.
Just because they all qualified for The Chair, they aren't equal any more than you and me.
I'm no native English speaker, so let me correct the term "child molester": touching a child surely does NOT, rape MAY but raping AND killing surely qualifies for death row. Just showing your wee to a kid is sick and wrong, but the kid will survive and so should the sicko.
You mean, just because I have no objections when a known mass murderer has a terrible "accident" while police custody, I am morally worse than a mass murderer myself?
You say, agreeing at the death of a very guilty man is worse than actively murdering 20 people?
Are you posting from prison or just from the other side the moon?
I support the death penalty. For murderers only.
And I support the death penalty even more for barbarians who murder people that don't follow their will.
Yes, I advocate killing tyrants, now you know.
And if you cannot differentiate between murder and capital punishment, cause and effect, please avoid jury duty. A broken heart heals faster than a broken skull, every time, so spare me the pity for old Mr. Reiser.
That's a pretty handsome abstraction ad absurdum you made here, but after all it is untrue.
Matter of fact is, don't kill unlawfully or be killed by law.
The GP advocated killing other people for having consensual sex without his explicit approval, which is rather obscene.
You could be right when you tried to say "an eye for an eye makes the world blind", but then you should make that statement more precise.
The way you phrased it, we could very well assume you advocate free will for everyone, consequences and severe bodily harm be damned.
Your right to swing your fist ends right before my nose, if you think that's oppression by society then get off my lawn.
Maybe in the Theocratic Federation of North American Homesteads but not in the US of A I used to know. Last time I checked the Holy Bible was an important book there but no valid grounds for a lawful execution. And you purposely left out *THAT OTHER COMMANDMENT* that specifically prohibits killing.
I was tempted to include a side note to the Bible and other Holy Books when I wrote the first reply, but I thought someone else will play the Bible Thumper. And someone did...
Anyway, you just repeated the old "do what I say or be killed" meme (or "do what MY God says or be killed") that is incompatible with the rule of law, democracy, freedom and pursuit of happiness in general. In other words, against the core values of the USA. I know that Christianity and faith in God is an important value, too, but I always thought personal freedom and the rule of law was much much more important. After all, that's what the Founding Fathers sought when they came there, didn't they?
We are not in Teheran, so let Man be concerned with the law on earth and God govern law in Heaven, how about it? If anyone violates the rules of Heaven, let God decide and act upon the punishment.
If you violate important rules here on Earth, such as killing people for nonsense like doing things in private with their private things, you may visit God pretty soon.
Have a good excuse ready, just in case. You may have prayed to the wrong God or followed the wrong Holy Book for your whole life, who knows?
If you think, another human being is your personal property who has to bow to your will even after friendship or partnership has come to an end, I wouldn't want to be your friend or partner.
And if you then think, you are morally justified in killing them when they don't comply, I'm glad that capital punishment is still available.
"Follow my will or I'll kill you" is not something I would expect from civilized people under the rule of law.
I admit there may be some moral leeway concerning the constitutional rights of child molesters, dicators and mass murderers, but that's not the case here.
You are not talking about killing people with heavy guilt and a huge bodycount, but about killing humans for lawfully and consensually having sex. That is morally depraved, shameful and if carried out highly against the law. And no, that wouldn't be manslaughter but pre-meditated first degree murder. And they'll fry you for that.
This is a terrible development, as I get similar personalized email, though not spambot death threats, thank god.
But I'm predicting we will see personalized emails that demand ransom money to an account in the Cayman's or the spammers will set up search-optimized websites in your name, where they pretend to be you telling the world about your closet pedophilia or something like that.
Virtual blackmail with a randomly generated but existing given name / surname combination. We will see that soon, mark my words :(
Looks like that doesn't cut it anymore if you've got a common name. Or any name that can be generated by combining a baby name book and a phone book.
I've got a common surname and I signed up for two accounts on a popular webmailer, one with a real name and the other with a nickname. The real name mailadress got spammed within two hours without me telling anyone or anything about any of these two.
Getting spam is no matter of protecting your identity anymore and it seems as we're now only a short time before cyber-blackmailing of anyone with a common-enough name.
One more thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat
Samizdat (Russian: ÑÐмÐÐÐÐÑ) was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries.
We are now on the brink of having government-suppressed media. With millions of uneasy immigrants in all our cities here in Europe come strong tensions, if you excuse this heavy euphemism.
And people are increasingly writing material critic of the problems with immigrants and that is increasingly met with government resistance. We are now at a point where free blogging about the situation in your town MAY get you a short jail sentence. Some years down the road, we may as well build a Great European Firewall, if this trend is not stopped soon.
Given the current trend in total identification of who-said-what-when-and-where, yes, that analogy is more than reasonable.
Politicians are making it more and more into a criminal case to say or write what you think. Given the various hate speech laws and the obvious expansion and creeping of what exactly hate speech should be, we are now pretty much at the beginning of a new Soviet era, with the motherland deciding what's good for you and everyone around you.
The friendly slap in the face for using bad words included.
So the crackdown on P2P is a win-win for politicians and the mafiaa-industries. More nanny-state for one and more profits for the other.