"(because in the 20th and 21st centuries, the public's side always compromises, while the copyright holder's side always has remained relatively rigid. The result is less and less rights for a public that wishes to participate in culture and not simply consume)."
I'm a computer graphics artist, my short(which is never going to be finished the way i work) is something that I will give away for free. But at the same time what the EFF proposes is that the very laws that protect artists (and sadly large corrupt corperations) should be circumvented because of culture? I'm sorry to say but I just can't support the ransacking of someone's creative mind so that culture can use it as a parade float. I've become a productive internet user that hasn't had a file sharing program on my computer for 2 years now. I've grown up and realized that I don't need to run around seeing movies before they come out, or downloading someone's latest album purely for the "supposed" reason of try-before-you-buy...
I do agree the Copyright is an important law, but obviously we've seen the use of its non "moral black/white" nature in cases such as SCO...it's become the boon of the corperation, but it shouldn't be forgoten as the savior of the small business person and the very thing that created the equal business places of America.
PS: why the hell does everyone care about the RIAA and MPAA right now....their industries haven't released anything good (save LOTR) in almost 4 years.
PPS: Janet jackson, Eminem, 50 cent, and Britney Spears are not artists in the same way Matisse, Aguste Rodin, and Leonardo Davinci were artists. No matter how much P-diddy-combes claims white 11-17 year olds are steeling the hub caps off his new Cadellac SUV by downloading his music off the internet I just don't have compasion for artists of that nature....(yes i know it's a paradox to support one and not the other in this case....but i'm entitled to my paradox...or two)
" you're going to have to design a "smart version" and a "dumb version" for the effects you want to downgrade"
The main point I think the article is trying to make is, that rather then developers making the change, making it easier to do in the environment. (eg, DirectX knows it's going to flop performance so it opts for a different way to produce the effects). Which isn't built into current Graphic development environments.
But needless to say hardware and software manufacturers are happy to sell multiple systems to a single user inside of 5 years. And we all know it's the hardware industry that controls the software. We're not going to see the kind of "graceful degredation" like Half Life 2 promised and never will deliver, isntead we're going to see Half Life 2 bundled with new graphics cards to encourage you to buy 400 - 500 dollar upgrades.
While the industry specialists are worrying about compatability (which is a valid problem) Microsoft is selling single use machines such as the Xbox at a loss. Maybe it's time to produce similar architectures and even homoginize the processor/chipset platforms into something recognizable as one system. Unfortunately most people get linux for free, don't support open source projects, and then expect the world to cater to their minority preference of alternative environments.
As far as keeping in line with the article I do believe that instead of a diverse platform on which to design games, we are going to instead have more specialized products such as the Xbox and the TiVo that are going to destroy the computer's list of abilities one by one. In the end i see more and more Dell's and HP computers turning into conversation pieces instead of being diverse, which is in direct support of the premise of the article. Diversity in this field currently leads to an inability to produce games that sell well to an uninformed culture, instead you are developing games like GTA which was developed separately for 4 different systems instead of all at once like Sonic Heroes.
Power hugnry entities have been entrenched in the white house from the beginning. Your point is well made but your argument is clouded by your support of one power hungry individual (probably the democratic front runner) over another.
Votting will some day have to get past paper, i agree that there is too much to "worry about" right now to grant it a "failsafe" system. But i don't support one over the other. If my state enacted computer voting i will do everything in my power to make sure it works for me and my fellow statesmen, that every vote is counted. Right now very few people are secure with the electronic voting, but instead of taking a giant step permenently backwards (by mandating paper ballots) we should fix the system.
1.)The "people" (terrorists) are trying to kill all things that resemble western society, everything from capatilisim, to a free market....that's a fact...go ask them. The REASON we should take up arms against them or prevent them through non-violent means is because their premise is wrong, thereby we did nothing other than being ourselves to make them "angry"
2.)People do not like Christians, Jews, (and even muslims) because they are a peacful people by nature. The fact that most democratic nations (based on judeo-christain values) are successful at being themselves means they must destroy that in order to gain attention and to justify their own religion. Personally any religion, government, or belief, that has to justify itself through the destruction of inocent people is incorrect. (not saying that we havn't done so in the past)
3.)The history that these groups have (including christainity) that makes the Middle-Eastern third world countries dislike them, is linked back to the crusades, when the christain world was dedicated to wipping out heathens. Again i separate myself from this belief that heathens should be destroyed. The places in the world such as Isreal have been the forefront of "religious war" for the last 800 years or more. Provided that we understand that we have to PROTECT our allies while we win over the popular masses of the third world countries with logic and understanding, you can understand the need for the draft if we are running low on reserves.
" not any more immoral than removing a tumor or any other parasitic growth" remember to tell your wife she was a parasitic growth up until she remembered her first mental images....remember to tell your son you meant nothing to him until he came out of the womb. And up until he cried he was basically a tumor. The only thing that most people dont understand is that abortion is all fine and dandy on paper, because most people think it happens early early in the game of baby+mother hood. We are not a secular society, a secular society would say no to feelings, beliefs, religion, and the individual. Unfortunatly most people still don't understand that our forefathers weren't secular but infact the people that populated this country had MANY religions all of which did not support abortion.
quote me on this: "the day that you decide to put your life into the hands of people that want to kill you, then you can mandate wether or not a tumorus baby or parasitic wife lives or dies."
Besides this being a far cry from the original post, i still reitterate my original post, i believe that the draft is nothing to run from.
like i said any questions or questioning will be answered...swiftly. Abortion clinics are killing babies, no matter what way you look at it your taking two lives and making one. I in no way condone bombing or killing of doctors. Just the same I in NO WAY condone bombing of babies or stripping them from their mother's wombs (you can talk to me later on more controversial subjects such as rampage, but i think you should attack the problem not kill innocents).
Obviously you can go over and over again how the fringe of society attacking one person in a fit of rage. Usually they get harsher sentences than OJ Simpson did for mercilessly slaughtering two people in his own home. But these are separated subjects, in third world countries the masses are frenzied into terrorism by there local religions and frequently supported by the very figureheads that claim to be messengers of god.
If you want the facts straight; the average joe in American isn't running around killing 100's because he thinks their religion is perfect, instead tolerance has tempered that WAY down.. But when you see 100's or 1000's killed by one person you have to wonder if the system or even the beliefs are skewed.
I don't think it is the society itself but the people who control the religion, because frequently in these third world countries they are also the ones that lead the army, and have the money as well.....very bad connection if you ask me...if the pope as the richest man in Europe and controlled 3 world armies i think we would have a similar problem of misconstrued belief systems.
I'm not going to plug obviously biased web sites, or claim that my beliefs are superior to yours. But i must disagree with your psychosis. If our troops are being killed in a foreign country instead of being welcomed with open arms, that country doesn't like us (whether we're there or not). And personally if my country calls on me, feeds me, pays me, and allows me the chance to protect it's people, i wouldn't turn it down.
People in the world want to kill us.
People in the world don't like ANYTHING Jews and Christians do. In fact they teach their children that everything we do (including providing foreign aid) is a way to kill them.
Extremists will force or even kill their own Muslims and Islamic cohorts to make them go to war or sacrifice themselves for the Good of a handful of rich Extremists.
If you want to argue about any of these points, i can give you hard facts instead of pointing you to biased websites.
the problems stated are valid worries, and they did not show up in the first live tests of the system in both California and the other states who debuted the system. Like i said neither system is better obviously there are many flaws in both systems, (some of these flaws we have lived with for almost a century within our current voting system, displayed in the problems with Florida's process 4 years ago).
The problems with the current system have been traced to the human element running the polls, and lack of knowledge. btw i don't know why everyone is so paranoid about using computers to collect the votes, we've been using the poor machines to count them for almost 50 years. (eg punch cards).
I live in California, and have experienced this situation first hand. When i went to vote (luckily right down the street from my house) I was surprised to see how secure the system was. (besides seeing that it was manned by a bunch of old ladies who wouldn't know how to operate the machines themselves)
The machines use no internet connection, in fact the number of cards, steps, and the size of the voting system makes it "almost" impossible to hack.
Brief description for those of you who have not come into contact or heard of the system yet:
You walk in and provide them with your name, they hand you a card with a smart chip (flash memory) and you walk over to the tablet-computer-like voting machines to cast your vote. At this point your name is on the flash memory, and when you insert the card you can begin the voting process. the only cord leading away from the unit was a power cord and I didn't pick up any WiFi signals with my ears.
You continue your voting, and the selections you made on the screen are put onto the card when you finish. Then your card is ejected back into your sweaty little palms.
you hand said unmarked card to the attendant and she puts it safely with the others. I've also heard the cards are kept for a manual tally back at the voting offices.
What is so great about this you ask? Well considering that the machines are not biased and that the people who built or were contracted to build them did not tamper with them, there is very little chance for a misread vote, or a "purposefully changed" vote. On the other hand from the information I've gathered the system is also open to a more wide spread hack or foul play because of it's final form: mass data statistics. one file or even multiple files holding numbers...MUCH easier to change as opposed to 6 million ballots, but at the same time much harder unless you have the knowledge or skill set which is (I suppose) very steep, deep, and wide. Weighing all of the factors, I believe that the system is just about as secure as before, but it still needs a lot of work. (it could be ten times better, easily .
I do not run a financing business, merely making a reference to those people who have started them overnight in the wake of the past decade's financial frivolity. But at the same time I've also demonstrated that being a CGA doesn't require the propensity for spelling my mother had hoped it would.
I would have to agree with you...the problem seems to be the people making fun of others...It may sound totally geeky and weak but even bullies and popular people find out you can't resort to:
1.)forceful or mean tactics (because sooner or later your judge of character will lead you into situations you can not control.)
2.)good looks or vaporous social clicks (because neither build half as strong a ties as i've found most "geeky" people do)
Fortunately for most, there are very few people who stay truly geeky. They hit puberty late, and then change drastically over a matter of months (sometimes loosing the edge that would have called them gifted in the process).
But for those of us who don't have this puberty switch, i would suggest that they start from the outside and work their way in. senseless statistic I estimate about 40-60% of children to higher educations students are in nearly the same shoes (minus the gifted part). Not only is that an advantage to those who are gifted, but this provides people who will have no problem with associating with us geeks.
It is this acquired learning of social skills through experience which led me to be a socially adept geek...(plus when i hit college beer was a constant inhibition lowering buddy) thankfully a lot less of a buddy now
You bring up a good point, cable has become more and more expensive. As far as i have seen the main advantage to the big upgrade in our fiberoptic lines over the past few years (subsidised by the government) has been to peddle a more advanced version of the TV guide, or that channel with the scrolling boxes....
JESUS CHRIST, i can get buy using narrowband dialup and occasionally turning on the TV when a plane hits a building.
I showed my family what was accomplished monthly with the purchase of digital cable, and 5 dedicated IP's from pacbell (essentially almost 120-140 bucks a month on those alone). When you sepparate your self from the DAILY viewing of FRIENDS or spending 5-10 hours online playing Ever Quest, you finally realise you had all the time in the world to do something rewarding.
I shut down my cable for 6 months, bought a new snowboard, saved money for lift tickets and had a blast this winter, plus i stayed in shape.
People wonder where their money goes...wonder why the've doubled over the legitimate leans on their houses...
CABLE=$50-$70
INTERNET=$30-$70
PHONE=$20-$50
CELL=$30-$100
HOUSE=$1000-$4000
CAR=$100-$300
---TOTAL---
$1230 - $4590
America wonders where their money goes....they've got it tied up in so many 1 to 12 year contracts you could make a shit load of money running a financing business....ohhh wait i already am.
above numbers are my liberal middle class estimates. %rase_flame_shield
gladly i've almost moved completely to Linux, and it should save me lots of money in the long run. Instead of paying 400 dollars for a piece of software that will soon be spitting advertisements at me, I can donate my time and money to open source projects that have a helpful affect on people.
I just hope microsoft has no intention of diving into open source anytime soon. Truely i think this might be a delay to shore up on open source endevors... just try to imagine a partially open source windows. I can only think of that and cringe
Yes it is very much a lucky/not lucky thing with AMD, but personally the price difference doesn't warrant that gamble....ask industry professionals, most wouldn't mind running mission critical stations on intel, but to run critical tasks on a regular AMD processor is almost flinched at.
(dude who has only games on his computer has nothing to lose -except his saved games-) therefore why not pick a processor that has a flip of a coin chance of failing over time.
it does seem that the 2.6 kernel has a few problems, but most of them are performance issues at best. I've been testing it for a few weeks now on fedora, and personally it does a better job with hardware than 2.4. SATA hard drives get a big boost of support and functionality, although that could be the new drivers, but it does seem to be a 2.6 benefit.
I've also noticed a few flukes in the file system, it seems to take the etc/fstab and run amok with it, creating more drives, and mounting some i never wanted....although traditionally that wouldn't be for the kernel to decide.
One of the problems i've noticed, and i've compiled my own version of the kernel a few times already is that the kernel has some hangs in it, i'm sure the live version or final version will benefit from the bug reports, but i've NEVER seen hangs in linux, there were just plain unresponsive minutes and minutes before somethings would happen....i'm preatty sure the blame rests on some new added functions, but it could or couldn't be a part of the kernel in the end...i just haven't done enough looking into the changes.
I deffinately support your stance on keeping compatability across the board....especially to help 64 bit in to the mass market...but what hasn't been proven is 64 bit performance versus price. As many intelligent people have shown, it is going to be a few generations before 64 bit is useful to the singular computer user (processor generations, not human generations). Desktops will not benefit from this yet, the price it too high to warrant this over a faster regular processor.
As far as using AMD's in everything you build, that is purely your decision. I've built computers for a wide number/variaty of clients, business', and friends...Personally I find they are much happier to have a choice in the matter. If you explain the differences, the pro's and con's they are greatful.
From personal experience in using AMD's (without overclocking), they tend to die faster and have a higher rates of failure compared to Intel's chips, which i have never had to replace.
This kind of crime is not like hacking a computer, ripping music, or even defacing property. This hasn't happened to me yet but just hearing about it makes me want to beat the crap out of people who would do this. It's like stealing your work, taking what you sit in a cubicle for. Granted the bank will usually give you your money back if you complain early enough. I TRUTHFULY think people that attempt this should have their balls cut off, this is cowardly, and only takes a modicum of intelligence....instead go produce something instead of stealing what other's produce ((i understand the same could be said for any petty crime))
well i didn't mean to say that buffer overflows should be built into processors; that was a mistake in my typing, that occured because i was up early in the morning (for myself).
What you fail to understand that if it is up to AMD to lead the pack and offer it now....and it is so easy to impliment, then it's about time.
Personally i think if i can't make a broad statement/comment like that without being flamed or laughed at by cowards like you then we'd be a communist nation....especially when my sentiments were true.
As far as the coveted x86 backwards compatability it is slowly fading. I don't really hold any love for my old 386 other than it's ability to boot.....i don't need to run anything new on it, but it runs fine on it's old hardware and software...WFW 3.11 is preatty god damn stable.
Can anyone else say that it is ABOUT time that buffer overflow was built into a processor or motherboard? The only thing i worry about is the performance drag that making up for everyone's programming mistakes can do to a processor.
What the FCC sees is a market base....or more correctly the bureaucratic ass holes in charge of communication and entertainment companies see a market base. What they don't understand is that their saturation has already happened.
The average consumer is already bogged down with monthly payments on, cable, electricity, phone, cell-phone, internet, and water. The FCC's bureaucratic enforcers are going to target your 29 - 50 dollar phone and electricity bills and divide them into about 4 more and raise the price.
This can only be seen as a hinderence, nothing good can come of regulation of the internet any further. People need to educate themselves rather then the FCC making Electricity, Phone, and Internet more simple and stagnent to the end user.
If they end up curtailing our already limited ammount of freedom and mobility on the internet someone or rather all of us are going to get mad and just start using BBS's again, and go back to more antiquated ways.
Personally i would rather be disconnected from the internet, and just write correspondance to friends, than see it turn into something like Cell Phones or Cable service.
Being a level designer. Now, what your talking about is insanely specialized. The people that design levels currently are mixtures of a few fields..Computer art? no, infact computer art or the love of computers is not enough... Level Designers during these times, and most likely in the future, requires someone with avid math skills, drafting abilities, and programming skills. Unfortunately i saw a few friends run off to borders, pick up the "Super cool F/X and Game designers hand book", learn now to use world builder and then apply for jobs....let me just say i laughed in their faces.. A whim is just what it sounds like, a whispy fart of a dream, people can NOT specialize like this. Just like Howard Dean is SHITTING away millions of dollars he will NEVER become president. You have to decide what makes you like level design. When you find out "why" you have found your love not your whim. Continue to specialize in your "field" not your hopefully specific job.
To bad you developed so many assumptions as to my meaning when you rushed to flame my post.
I neither said that the votes should be weighted in a way that would give more points to the person who gave their time "helping" or volunteering on election day. Personally your saying it's my "idea of electoral politics is to have a war between all the different ideologies, that's fine."
All i have to say to that is that someone has to be wrong, you have to have some spirited debate, or as you put it ideological "war".
You can't make headway by forcing people into an ideology, they must make that change on their own by either "understanding" or being proved wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
"(because in the 20th and 21st centuries, the public's side always compromises, while the copyright holder's side always has remained relatively rigid. The result is less and less rights for a public that wishes to participate in culture and not simply consume)."
I'm a computer graphics artist, my short(which is never going to be finished the way i work) is something that I will give away for free. But at the same time what the EFF proposes is that the very laws that protect artists (and sadly large corrupt corperations) should be circumvented because of culture? I'm sorry to say but I just can't support the ransacking of someone's creative mind so that culture can use it as a parade float. I've become a productive internet user that hasn't had a file sharing program on my computer for 2 years now. I've grown up and realized that I don't need to run around seeing movies before they come out, or downloading someone's latest album purely for the "supposed" reason of try-before-you-buy...
I do agree the Copyright is an important law, but obviously we've seen the use of its non "moral black/white" nature in cases such as SCO...it's become the boon of the corperation, but it shouldn't be forgoten as the savior of the small business person and the very thing that created the equal business places of America.
PS: why the hell does everyone care about the RIAA and MPAA right now....their industries haven't released anything good (save LOTR) in almost 4 years.
PPS: Janet jackson, Eminem, 50 cent, and Britney Spears are not artists in the same way Matisse, Aguste Rodin, and Leonardo Davinci were artists. No matter how much P-diddy-combes claims white 11-17 year olds are steeling the hub caps off his new Cadellac SUV by downloading his music off the internet I just don't have compasion for artists of that nature....(yes i know it's a paradox to support one and not the other in this case....but i'm entitled to my paradox...or two)
" you're going to have to design a "smart version" and a "dumb version" for the effects you want to downgrade"
The main point I think the article is trying to make is, that rather then developers making the change, making it easier to do in the environment. (eg, DirectX knows it's going to flop performance so it opts for a different way to produce the effects). Which isn't built into current Graphic development environments.
But needless to say hardware and software manufacturers are happy to sell multiple systems to a single user inside of 5 years. And we all know it's the hardware industry that controls the software. We're not going to see the kind of "graceful degredation" like Half Life 2 promised and never will deliver, isntead we're going to see Half Life 2 bundled with new graphics cards to encourage you to buy 400 - 500 dollar upgrades.
While the industry specialists are worrying about compatability (which is a valid problem) Microsoft is selling single use machines such as the Xbox at a loss. Maybe it's time to produce similar architectures and even homoginize the processor/chipset platforms into something recognizable as one system. Unfortunately most people get linux for free, don't support open source projects, and then expect the world to cater to their minority preference of alternative environments.
As far as keeping in line with the article I do believe that instead of a diverse platform on which to design games, we are going to instead have more specialized products such as the Xbox and the TiVo that are going to destroy the computer's list of abilities one by one. In the end i see more and more Dell's and HP computers turning into conversation pieces instead of being diverse, which is in direct support of the premise of the article. Diversity in this field currently leads to an inability to produce games that sell well to an uninformed culture, instead you are developing games like GTA which was developed separately for 4 different systems instead of all at once like Sonic Heroes.
ummm....yes
Power hugnry entities have been entrenched in the white house from the beginning. Your point is well made but your argument is clouded by your support of one power hungry individual (probably the democratic front runner) over another. Votting will some day have to get past paper, i agree that there is too much to "worry about" right now to grant it a "failsafe" system. But i don't support one over the other. If my state enacted computer voting i will do everything in my power to make sure it works for me and my fellow statesmen, that every vote is counted. Right now very few people are secure with the electronic voting, but instead of taking a giant step permenently backwards (by mandating paper ballots) we should fix the system.
Answers to your very similar questions.
1.)The "people" (terrorists) are trying to kill all things that resemble western society, everything from capatilisim, to a free market....that's a fact...go ask them. The REASON we should take up arms against them or prevent them through non-violent means is because their premise is wrong, thereby we did nothing other than being ourselves to make them "angry"
2.)People do not like Christians, Jews, (and even muslims) because they are a peacful people by nature. The fact that most democratic nations (based on judeo-christain values) are successful at being themselves means they must destroy that in order to gain attention and to justify their own religion. Personally any religion, government, or belief, that has to justify itself through the destruction of inocent people is incorrect. (not saying that we havn't done so in the past)
3.)The history that these groups have (including christainity) that makes the Middle-Eastern third world countries dislike them, is linked back to the crusades, when the christain world was dedicated to wipping out heathens. Again i separate myself from this belief that heathens should be destroyed. The places in the world such as Isreal have been the forefront of "religious war" for the last 800 years or more. Provided that we understand that we have to PROTECT our allies while we win over the popular masses of the third world countries with logic and understanding, you can understand the need for the draft if we are running low on reserves.
" not any more immoral than removing a tumor or any other parasitic growth"
remember to tell your wife she was a parasitic growth up until she remembered her first mental images....remember to tell your son you meant nothing to him until he came out of the womb. And up until he cried he was basically a tumor. The only thing that most people dont understand is that abortion is all fine and dandy on paper, because most people think it happens early early in the game of baby+mother hood. We are not a secular society, a secular society would say no to feelings, beliefs, religion, and the individual. Unfortunatly most people still don't understand that our forefathers weren't secular but infact the people that populated this country had MANY religions all of which did not support abortion.
quote me on this: "the day that you decide to put your life into the hands of people that want to kill you, then you can mandate wether or not a tumorus baby or parasitic wife lives or dies."
Besides this being a far cry from the original post, i still reitterate my original post, i believe that the draft is nothing to run from.
like i said any questions or questioning will be answered...swiftly. Abortion clinics are killing babies, no matter what way you look at it your taking two lives and making one. I in no way condone bombing or killing of doctors. Just the same I in NO WAY condone bombing of babies or stripping them from their mother's wombs (you can talk to me later on more controversial subjects such as rampage, but i think you should attack the problem not kill innocents).
Obviously you can go over and over again how the fringe of society attacking one person in a fit of rage. Usually they get harsher sentences than OJ Simpson did for mercilessly slaughtering two people in his own home. But these are separated subjects, in third world countries the masses are frenzied into terrorism by there local religions and frequently supported by the very figureheads that claim to be messengers of god.
If you want the facts straight; the average joe in American isn't running around killing 100's because he thinks their religion is perfect, instead tolerance has tempered that WAY down.. But when you see 100's or 1000's killed by one person you have to wonder if the system or even the beliefs are skewed.
I don't think it is the society itself but the people who control the religion, because frequently in these third world countries they are also the ones that lead the army, and have the money as well.....very bad connection if you ask me...if the pope as the richest man in Europe and controlled 3 world armies i think we would have a similar problem of misconstrued belief systems.
I'm not going to plug obviously biased web sites, or claim that my beliefs are superior to yours. But i must disagree with your psychosis. If our troops are being killed in a foreign country instead of being welcomed with open arms, that country doesn't like us (whether we're there or not). And personally if my country calls on me, feeds me, pays me, and allows me the chance to protect it's people, i wouldn't turn it down.
People in the world want to kill us.
People in the world don't like ANYTHING Jews and Christians do. In fact they teach their children that everything we do (including providing foreign aid) is a way to kill them.
Extremists will force or even kill their own Muslims and Islamic cohorts to make them go to war or sacrifice themselves for the Good of a handful of rich Extremists.
If you want to argue about any of these points, i can give you hard facts instead of pointing you to biased websites.
the problems stated are valid worries, and they did not show up in the first live tests of the system in both California and the other states who debuted the system. Like i said neither system is better obviously there are many flaws in both systems, (some of these flaws we have lived with for almost a century within our current voting system, displayed in the problems with Florida's process 4 years ago).
The problems with the current system have been traced to the human element running the polls, and lack of knowledge.
btw i don't know why everyone is so paranoid about using computers to collect the votes, we've been using the poor machines to count them for almost 50 years. (eg punch cards).
I live in California, and have experienced this situation first hand. When i went to vote (luckily right down the street from my house) I was surprised to see how secure the system was.
(besides seeing that it was manned by a bunch of old ladies who wouldn't know how to operate the machines themselves)
The machines use no internet connection, in fact the number of cards, steps, and the size of the voting system makes it "almost" impossible to hack.
Brief description for those of you who have not come into contact or heard of the system yet:
You walk in and provide them with your name, they hand you a card with a smart chip (flash memory) and you walk over to the tablet-computer-like voting machines to cast your vote. At this point your name is on the flash memory, and when you insert the card you can begin the voting process. the only cord leading away from the unit was a power cord and I didn't pick up any WiFi signals with my ears.
You continue your voting, and the selections you made on the screen are put onto the card when you finish. Then your card is ejected back into your sweaty little palms.
you hand said unmarked card to the attendant and she puts it safely with the others. I've also heard the cards are kept for a manual tally back at the voting offices.
What is so great about this you ask? Well considering that the machines are not biased and that the people who built or were contracted to build them did not tamper with them, there is very little chance for a misread vote, or a "purposefully changed" vote. On the other hand from the information I've gathered the system is also open to a more wide spread hack or foul play because of it's final form: mass data statistics. one file or even multiple files holding numbers...MUCH easier to change as opposed to 6 million ballots, but at the same time much harder unless you have the knowledge or skill set which is (I suppose) very steep, deep, and wide.
Weighing all of the factors, I believe that the system is just about as secure as before, but it still needs a lot of work. (it could be ten times better, easily .
I do not run a financing business, merely making a reference to those people who have started them overnight in the wake of the past decade's financial frivolity. But at the same time I've also demonstrated that being a CGA doesn't require the propensity for spelling my mother had hoped it would.
I would have to agree with you...the problem seems to be the people making fun of others...It may sound totally geeky and weak but even bullies and popular people find out you can't resort to:
1.)forceful or mean tactics (because sooner or later your judge of character will lead you into situations you can not control.)
2.)good looks or vaporous social clicks (because neither build half as strong a ties as i've found most "geeky" people do)
Fortunately for most, there are very few people who stay truly geeky. They hit puberty late, and then change drastically over a matter of months (sometimes loosing the edge that would have called them gifted in the process).
But for those of us who don't have this puberty switch, i would suggest that they start from the outside and work their way in. senseless statistic I estimate about 40-60% of children to higher educations students are in nearly the same shoes (minus the gifted part). Not only is that an advantage to those who are gifted, but this provides people who will have no problem with associating with us geeks.
It is this acquired learning of social skills through experience which led me to be a socially adept geek...(plus when i hit college beer was a constant inhibition lowering buddy) thankfully a lot less of a buddy now
You bring up a good point, cable has become more and more expensive. As far as i have seen the main advantage to the big upgrade in our fiberoptic lines over the past few years (subsidised by the government) has been to peddle a more advanced version of the TV guide, or that channel with the scrolling boxes....
JESUS CHRIST, i can get buy using narrowband dialup and occasionally turning on the TV when a plane hits a building.
I showed my family what was accomplished monthly with the purchase of digital cable, and 5 dedicated IP's from pacbell (essentially almost 120-140 bucks a month on those alone). When you sepparate your self from the DAILY viewing of FRIENDS or spending 5-10 hours online playing Ever Quest, you finally realise you had all the time in the world to do something rewarding.
I shut down my cable for 6 months, bought a new snowboard, saved money for lift tickets and had a blast this winter, plus i stayed in shape.
People wonder where their money goes...wonder why the've doubled over the legitimate leans on their houses...
CABLE=$50-$70
INTERNET=$30-$70
PHONE=$20-$50
CELL=$30-$100
HOUSE=$1000-$4000
CAR=$100-$300
---TOTAL---
$1230 - $4590
America wonders where their money goes....they've got it tied up in so many 1 to 12 year contracts you could make a shit load of money running a financing business....ohhh wait i already am.
above numbers are my liberal middle class estimates. %rase_flame_shield
gladly i've almost moved completely to Linux, and it should save me lots of money in the long run. Instead of paying 400 dollars for a piece of software that will soon be spitting advertisements at me, I can donate my time and money to open source projects that have a helpful affect on people.
I just hope microsoft has no intention of diving into open source anytime soon. Truely i think this might be a delay to shore up on open source endevors... just try to imagine a partially open source windows. I can only think of that and cringe
Yes it is very much a lucky/not lucky thing with AMD, but personally the price difference doesn't warrant that gamble....ask industry professionals, most wouldn't mind running mission critical stations on intel, but to run critical tasks on a regular AMD processor is almost flinched at.
(dude who has only games on his computer has nothing to lose -except his saved games-) therefore why not pick a processor that has a flip of a coin chance of failing over time.
it does seem that the 2.6 kernel has a few problems, but most of them are performance issues at best. I've been testing it for a few weeks now on fedora, and personally it does a better job with hardware than 2.4. SATA hard drives get a big boost of support and functionality, although that could be the new drivers, but it does seem to be a 2.6 benefit.
I've also noticed a few flukes in the file system, it seems to take the etc/fstab and run amok with it, creating more drives, and mounting some i never wanted....although traditionally that wouldn't be for the kernel to decide.
One of the problems i've noticed, and i've compiled my own version of the kernel a few times already is that the kernel has some hangs in it, i'm sure the live version or final version will benefit from the bug reports, but i've NEVER seen hangs in linux, there were just plain unresponsive minutes and minutes before somethings would happen....i'm preatty sure the blame rests on some new added functions, but it could or couldn't be a part of the kernel in the end...i just haven't done enough looking into the changes.
I deffinately support your stance on keeping compatability across the board....especially to help 64 bit in to the mass market...but what hasn't been proven is 64 bit performance versus price. As many intelligent people have shown, it is going to be a few generations before 64 bit is useful to the singular computer user (processor generations, not human generations). Desktops will not benefit from this yet, the price it too high to warrant this over a faster regular processor.
As far as using AMD's in everything you build, that is purely your decision. I've built computers for a wide number/variaty of clients, business', and friends...Personally I find they are much happier to have a choice in the matter. If you explain the differences, the pro's and con's they are greatful.
From personal experience in using AMD's (without overclocking), they tend to die faster and have a higher rates of failure compared to Intel's chips, which i have never had to replace.
This kind of crime is not like hacking a computer, ripping music, or even defacing property. This hasn't happened to me yet but just hearing about it makes me want to beat the crap out of people who would do this. It's like stealing your work, taking what you sit in a cubicle for. Granted the bank will usually give you your money back if you complain early enough. I TRUTHFULY think people that attempt this should have their balls cut off, this is cowardly, and only takes a modicum of intelligence....instead go produce something instead of stealing what other's produce ((i understand the same could be said for any petty crime))
well i didn't mean to say that buffer overflows should be built into processors; that was a mistake in my typing, that occured because i was up early in the morning (for myself). What you fail to understand that if it is up to AMD to lead the pack and offer it now....and it is so easy to impliment, then it's about time. Personally i think if i can't make a broad statement/comment like that without being flamed or laughed at by cowards like you then we'd be a communist nation....especially when my sentiments were true. As far as the coveted x86 backwards compatability it is slowly fading. I don't really hold any love for my old 386 other than it's ability to boot.....i don't need to run anything new on it, but it runs fine on it's old hardware and software...WFW 3.11 is preatty god damn stable.
Can anyone else say that it is ABOUT time that buffer overflow was built into a processor or motherboard? The only thing i worry about is the performance drag that making up for everyone's programming mistakes can do to a processor.
What the FCC sees is a market base....or more correctly the bureaucratic ass holes in charge of communication and entertainment companies see a market base. What they don't understand is that their saturation has already happened. The average consumer is already bogged down with monthly payments on, cable, electricity, phone, cell-phone, internet, and water. The FCC's bureaucratic enforcers are going to target your 29 - 50 dollar phone and electricity bills and divide them into about 4 more and raise the price. This can only be seen as a hinderence, nothing good can come of regulation of the internet any further. People need to educate themselves rather then the FCC making Electricity, Phone, and Internet more simple and stagnent to the end user. If they end up curtailing our already limited ammount of freedom and mobility on the internet someone or rather all of us are going to get mad and just start using BBS's again, and go back to more antiquated ways. Personally i would rather be disconnected from the internet, and just write correspondance to friends, than see it turn into something like Cell Phones or Cable service.
Being a level designer. Now, what your talking about is insanely specialized. The people that design levels currently are mixtures of a few fields..Computer art? no, infact computer art or the love of computers is not enough...
Level Designers during these times, and most likely in the future, requires someone with avid math skills, drafting abilities, and programming skills. Unfortunately i saw a few friends run off to borders, pick up the "Super cool F/X and Game designers hand book", learn now to use world builder and then apply for jobs....let me just say i laughed in their faces..
A whim is just what it sounds like, a whispy fart of a dream, people can NOT specialize like this. Just like Howard Dean is SHITTING away millions of dollars he will NEVER become president. You have to decide what makes you like level design. When you find out "why" you have found your love not your whim. Continue to specialize in your "field" not your hopefully specific job.
Woohooo Great point, much better then your first post....I do believe i understand you and you made some very truthful and good points.
To bad you developed so many assumptions as to my meaning when you rushed to flame my post. I neither said that the votes should be weighted in a way that would give more points to the person who gave their time "helping" or volunteering on election day. Personally your saying it's my "idea of electoral politics is to have a war between all the different ideologies, that's fine." All i have to say to that is that someone has to be wrong, you have to have some spirited debate, or as you put it ideological "war". You can't make headway by forcing people into an ideology, they must make that change on their own by either "understanding" or being proved wrong.