All this shuttle garbage is a bunch of over emphasized crap, it's disgusting, the columbia incident is now being exploited as a series of anal media attention to what use to be the most insignificant information that could ever come from Nasa.
Plain and simple, the entire xp family of Microsoft operating systems, sucks and the 2000 family is superior in every way. (please note: I am aware that ALL MS os's suck)
Windows 2000 has far less overhead, runs faster and cleaner than windows xp, in every given situation.
Who cares if it affects PC sales? Jesus, it'll be a good thing! For once we can begin functional recycling of all the BILLIONS and BILLIONS of computer hardware components that silicon valley has managed to vomit out over the last 8 years in account of well written low overhead software.
"HemCon bandage becomes adhesive and sticks to the wet wound site, sealing and stabilizing it."...how the hell do you get it off after yer done with it, if it sticks more as it gets wet?
I think electronic voting is an incredibly stupid idea for this very reason. The voting system should stay the way it's always been, physically marked, physically counted, and recounted. To hell with using computers, or the internet, it's creating way too much of a possibility for error, miscalculation, manipulation.
It is already too late though. We, the American people are already stupid enough to believe that elections are no longer rigged, or will no longer be. Electronic voting has been developed so that vote rigging can be easy with fewer questions asked.
That should be the next slashdot poll: How many of you feel confident in the integrity of votes counted from electronic voting? I think the results would speak for themselves honestly. What makes this worse is the light hearted attitude that the entire country seems to be taking towards this. We're talking about a system that determines our countries political leaders, which is slowly having holes and flaws bled into it by the implimentation of these indiotc, flaw infested, unreliable methods of vote registration.
This just seems to be another classic case of politics trying to regulate a very technical field it has very little knowledge of, with very general applications, which in turn will obviously create thousands of complications and loopholes etc.
I'm sure many others have noticed, just how much work our dear senators seem to be putting into the RIAA groove and it's ripple effects, while making fools of themselves at the same time because of their lack of even the most basic concepts of internet architecture or networking. We have senators who are not keeping up with the digital age of our country, attempting to regulate and control the same. This, is ignorance. Total ignorance and will in future, begin to hamper and destroy the growth of the internet, turning it into yet another censored overused, advertisement infested medium much like t.v. and radio. Controlled by corporate sponsors and special interest group funding.
We need to vote in political leaders who are educated at least on how to research these kinds of things and truly understand them before regulation, instead of mindlessly spitting out paper legislation that will cause more damage than development. I'm not saying that they need to be programmers, no. I'm saying they should at least make an attempt to understand the issue from all perspectives and not just one.
This all seems to prompt for much more action from the technical community of the internet. With the kind of expansion that is taking place, and the role that the government is playing within the future development of the internet and the software written for it / on it / that it will utilize, defensive mechanisms should be put in place by those who hold much support in the technical community....could this be the beginning of the digital-law-enforcement age? Where we could vote in technically adapt individuals into political positions, enabling someone who truly understands what they're regulating...how much would that change the way technology and the internet develops in the next hundred years.
This would be an excellent idea, if no humans were involved in it?s implementation and daily handling, due to the nature of what being human is. Much like the justice system, it is perfect, and it?s ONLY flaw is the HUMAN factor. Individuals, who have their own agenda, and are in the right governmental positions, ARE going to abuse this. That?s a given, and the fact that this information will be stored in a digital fashion, makes it untraceable, because anyone who works near any of this stuff can make a copy of it and give it to whomever they feel deserves it, or for the right price, with no problem what so ever. Can you taste a new flavor of terrorism abound on the horizon? I?m sure they?re not going to spend a whole lot of effort keeping track of who has access to this information to begin with?
A lot of things about you, can be derived from looking at a copy of your genetic information. Re-read that sentence. We?re talking about the GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, having a copy of your genetic blue-print, to do whatever they wish with it. Felony or not, I think fingerprints are enough, or maybe an alternative being that for DNA to be sampled, a process somewhat similar to obtaining a warrant, should be carried out, only with much more intense stipulations and oversight from officials, as well as severe penalties and fines for misuse / negligent handling of the information obtained.
How is it that we come up with a plan and a budget to refit army uniforms over seven years, but we can't figure out a way to stop the loss of American lives in Iraq? I know one has nothing to do with the other, but let us not forgot that American soldiers are STILL dying almost every day in Iraq.
The implementation of software on soldiers creates a soft spot, I think. It only now allows one more area for autonomous failure, autonomous failure (software crash) would be something that only trained 'technical' personnel will know how to correct, and I'm sure that in the heat of war, to have something like this happen, would be detrimental to a mission or whatever the cause may be. Yeah, it could be as simple as a reset button, but doesn't this just create more problems as well as solutions?
The department of homeland security is an agency that was created, to provide an excuse for the American government to strengthen its' 'big brother' arm. Yes, it is important, no, it's the duty of a government to ensure that its' citizens are safe and protected, but this is an example of how that line is being over-stepped. What next, what other kind of records or information is the department of homeland security going to deem necessary to collect and analyze to prevent 'terrorism'? The wool is being pulled over our eyes, and the system is being setup right under our noses as we go about our daily lives and call it 'protection'. How much safer do any of you feel after September 11th? Or do you in fact, feel much more afraid for your lives every time you step onto a plane, walk onto a subway etc?
It starts with small things, and snow balls, this is only a sign of what is to come, now it?s airline records, tomorrow it will be medical records from private practice doctors to see if anyone?s been treated for anthrax related complications systematically?and god knows what else.
NEWSFLASH: New study shows that workers who play counterstrike for an average of 8+ hours a day work much better in corporate team situations and have a much firmer grasp of group dynamics...:D I wish...
This is a fad, anything to bring justification to playing video games more. *rolls eyes*
I feel you on this point. Yes, there is a 'sexy' appeal to the Metroid series seeing that you've got this beautiful girl in a futuristic space suit battling life sucking aliens on a planet off in some other galaxy, but the game was not popular because of that, at least this is my take...
Metroid was a very successful game because it was well thought out and designed. The levels actually took some brain power and logic skills to pass, as well as hand eye co-ordination, when most games at the time only required a high amount of skill in the latter. All of that, combined with a detailed sense of ambience, the game was very surreal, to me at least. The worlds you were in didn't feel that strange and far out, they were somewhat grounded in the way that they were represented, visually and through sonic ambience.
Look at how many pieces you had to put together, after you thought you had so much done / solved already in the game...this element made the games' length of playability much longer than most of the other games out during its time. I think, if they take their time, and develop a story line that is close to what the game presented, with the same kind of focus on cohesive background elements instead of flash useless monsters and visual effects, with a realistic flavor, and depth, then you won't end up with the same kind of souring effect that most game-hollywood-coversions have had. And of course, no one should find out that the main character is a female until the end, but it would be hard to mask the were she communicated throughout the movie, unless, they indeed stick super close to the game, and have her speak to no one, as she did in the game as well...I dunno, who knows!?
I wasn't trying to blame the Americans for anything...I was merely making an observation on how so much faith is put into these very fragile million dollar pieces of equiptment...
The spent fuel will burn up in the atmosphere, disintegrating into small particles. It will spread out and deliver a dose probably less than what you get in a doctor's office from an X-ray machine.
The posting of this article to Slashdot is FUD, pure and simple, as is most anti-nuclear propaganda. Radioactive material, like all other toxins, requires a certain concentration to be lethal. The danger is only to spacecraft, and that from collisions.
Ok, I can see all of the above as a very valid point, for not making this a bigger issue than it needs to be. On the other hand, the biggest changes, and also some of the most detrimental ones take place at a gradual rate. If things like this are being handled so sloppily now, what else is being irresponsibly handled? Where is the system of accountability in these kinds of situations? We?re shooting nuclear reactor fuel cores into orbit around are planet, not knowing when it will come back into the atmosphere, yeah it?s ?said? that it will take hundreds of years before it comes back, but the safety checks for the shuttle Columbia also said that everything was go and the shuttle was in tip top shape?
How much power are we going to give to ?research? and how vulnerable are we willing to make ourselves as a planet, to the ?hypothesis? of other individuals, who I?m sure some, have their own agenda, besides the benefit of mankind?? What happens if that reactor core falls back into the atmosphere, into a town and kills an entire city of people? Will the research community just say ?oops?, apologize and just call it a day? How much do we know about human-produced radioactive substance burning in our ozone, and it?s by-products and effects? Lots of questions, I know, but I have wonder about how out of control things are getting, right underneath our own noses?
These are just three stories, and yes, all extreme cases of what we're talking about here. Finding a scapegoat. It's a disease that is rampant, and further perpetuated by the media's constant abuse of their power of exposure.
I agree with you, it's senseless to look no further than the assumed 'influence' when it comes to cases like this, but unfortunately that is the surface stance that most individuals seem to jump on whenever things like this arise. Our actions somehow are no longer products of our decisions, but of our stated influences?
When are people going to be responsible for their own acts? Censoring the Internet, or anything else for that matter, is approaching the problems stated, from the wrong way around. Why isn't anyone interested in educating people about making choices and resulting consequences, but instead are some how obsessed with attacking the so-called 'influences'. Stating that anything is an influence causing people to commit crimes, is silly, and shows us just how insanely lost and disillusioned our current state of society, the global one, has become. I don't care if a website shows you how to professionally skin someone alive and cook their organs to make a gourmet meal, that site holds no responsibility if you actually go off and do it. You as an individual, must decide what you do, and do not do.
This is all tied up with the same moral problem that people seem to find with GTA III, and I feel that area reflects the same problem, individuals not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions. There always has to be some external influence to blame or point the finger at.
I'm actually proud of how much the internet has withstood this kind of social degradation over the years when it comes to free expression. Although things are slowly starting to change now, there is still time.
"Finally, it's just another symptom of the nanny-state mentality that is pervading modern society. I shouldn't have automated systems watching over my every move to make sure I'm not doing anything unfavourable."
I agree with you. This is communism, flat out. I mean of course, it's ridiculous to whine and cry and say that our rights as human beings are being taken away because I can't scan in a 20 dollar bill, but it's the tip of the iceberg. This is only a sign of what is to come, it starts here, but where does it end. If this much "big-brother" activity is taking place to curve counterfeiting, imagine how much more of it will take place in other areas of society that the government sees fit. What's next? Having a global module built into the next release of windows that collects all attempts to scan currency into photo-editing software and sends it to the proper authorities for warrant justifications for the use of carnivore for surveillance of the ?supposed? subjects involved?
I say we start filling the rabbit hole back in and suffocate the bastards...to hell with how deep it goes.
I think a deeper issue is how does all of this affect human development in the long run. There obviously has been a lot of research put into gene studies and modification but how much effort has been put into looking at the 'ripple effects' may possibly have as time goes on? A lot of the changes that our science is making to animals and the food that both we and those very animals eat, I think are creating a 'bunch up' in the carpet of evolution. Animals, plants, everything is connected within the chain of development, one change is never made on it's own, it's always because of many external factors. We're changing the course of many stages of development for many organisms, because of our growing isolated needs within an economy (which from a biological point of view, doesn't even exist). How is this going to affect our children's children? I'm not a tree hugging hippie, I'm just curious about the possible dangers this could present much further down the timeline...
I agree with you as well.
I wont go as far as saying that I was once an anti social person and the internet changed that, because that isn't my case, but I can say that interacting with people across the internet is much easier than in the real world, like someone said in a post above, you don't have to deal with all of the external social scrutiny that takes place in a first time physical meeting. On the web, the interaction is purely mental, it?s almost as if it's more of a direct connection between two minds, because only language is the medium of communication, words to be more specific (body language, voice tones, facial expressions can't be mis-interpreted, because they're not there in the first place)
On the other hand, this also creates a much larger problem, the issue of authenticity of the interaction from the ground up. In reality, we all use those conversational elements such as vocal tone, facial expressions and body language to judge the credibility of the communication, and how true it is, because this is the only character information you can gather from them at the time (apart from the actual conversation), coming from the individual. Of course, both of these scenarios would apply best to someone you're meeting for the first time, if it's someone you know, the process for calculating the credibility of what you're hearing becomes much more complicated; variables such as how long you've known the person, if they lie a lot etc, come into play.
While the internet has made it much easier to interact and meet new people by shedding the stigmas of the social world, it also provides a much better mental rock to hide behind when wanting to swindle or mislead individuals in any case.
I think this is a great thing, not even thinking about the details behind why they're doing it, or how accurate the report on how big the change is. Like so many people have posted about previously, it's a great support move for the open source community, especially since IBM has such a large position and influence in the computing industry and this is how change starts, in little steps. Hopefully, as time goes on, and if things go well, other companies will be able to see the benefits of moving away from products produced by monopolies such as Microsoft, to more flexible and less expensive open-source software, and make the same move. That will still take time.
Microsoft is eating themselves alive, I appreciate the value of what they've done, and what they're doing, but it obvious that their goals have changed over the years, I'm no M$ strategic planner or anything, but it seems as if they've concentrated less on created solid, reliable software, and more on keeping up with senseless design fads and functions that have caused nothing but sloppy code, and pretty looking OS's that are full of holes.
It will still take some time for open source OS's such as Linux etc to get up to speed with easier interfaces (because as we know, the average computer user has to be babied quite a bit when it comes to interface functionality) but that will all change with time.
This is great news, and I can only look forward to positive changes as a result of these kind of business moves within the industry
Wow. What next? Thanks Bush for all your wisdom. Well, people were stupid enough to put him in power, now this is what you have to deal with. Nobody has any rights anymore, and all in the name of this invisible 'war on terrorism' which is causing the American people more than they could ever dream, in tax dollars and civil rights.
Like someone said in a post somewhere else impeech Bush before it's too late!!!
Slashdot Mirror
All this shuttle garbage is a bunch of over emphasized crap, it's disgusting, the columbia incident is now being exploited as a series of anal media attention to what use to be the most insignificant information that could ever come from Nasa.
My two cents
...that somebody noticed this.
Plain and simple, the entire xp family of Microsoft operating systems, sucks and the 2000 family is superior in every way. (please note: I am aware that ALL MS os's suck)
Windows 2000 has far less overhead, runs faster and cleaner than windows xp, in every given situation.
Who cares if it affects PC sales? Jesus, it'll be a good thing! For once we can begin functional recycling of all the BILLIONS and BILLIONS of computer hardware components that silicon valley has managed to vomit out over the last 8 years in account of well written low overhead software.
"HemCon bandage becomes adhesive and sticks to the wet wound site, sealing and stabilizing it." ...how the hell do you get it off after yer done with it, if it sticks more as it gets wet?
I think electronic voting is an incredibly stupid idea for this very reason. The voting system should stay the way it's always been, physically marked, physically counted, and recounted. To hell with using computers, or the internet, it's creating way too much of a possibility for error, miscalculation, manipulation.
It is already too late though. We, the American people are already stupid enough to believe that elections are no longer rigged, or will no longer be. Electronic voting has been developed so that vote rigging can be easy with fewer questions asked.
That should be the next slashdot poll: How many of you feel confident in the integrity of votes counted from electronic voting? I think the results would speak for themselves honestly. What makes this worse is the light hearted attitude that the entire country seems to be taking towards this. We're talking about a system that determines our countries political leaders, which is slowly having holes and flaws bled into it by the implimentation of these indiotc, flaw infested, unreliable methods of vote registration.
end rant.
This just seems to be another classic case of politics trying to regulate a very technical field it has very little knowledge of, with very general applications, which in turn will obviously create thousands of complications and loopholes etc. I'm sure many others have noticed, just how much work our dear senators seem to be putting into the RIAA groove and it's ripple effects, while making fools of themselves at the same time because of their lack of even the most basic concepts of internet architecture or networking. We have senators who are not keeping up with the digital age of our country, attempting to regulate and control the same. This, is ignorance. Total ignorance and will in future, begin to hamper and destroy the growth of the internet, turning it into yet another censored overused, advertisement infested medium much like t.v. and radio. Controlled by corporate sponsors and special interest group funding. We need to vote in political leaders who are educated at least on how to research these kinds of things and truly understand them before regulation, instead of mindlessly spitting out paper legislation that will cause more damage than development. I'm not saying that they need to be programmers, no. I'm saying they should at least make an attempt to understand the issue from all perspectives and not just one. This all seems to prompt for much more action from the technical community of the internet. With the kind of expansion that is taking place, and the role that the government is playing within the future development of the internet and the software written for it / on it / that it will utilize, defensive mechanisms should be put in place by those who hold much support in the technical community....could this be the beginning of the digital-law-enforcement age? Where we could vote in technically adapt individuals into political positions, enabling someone who truly understands what they're regulating...how much would that change the way technology and the internet develops in the next hundred years.
This would be an excellent idea, if no humans were involved in it?s implementation and daily handling, due to the nature of what being human is. Much like the justice system, it is perfect, and it?s ONLY flaw is the HUMAN factor. Individuals, who have their own agenda, and are in the right governmental positions, ARE going to abuse this. That?s a given, and the fact that this information will be stored in a digital fashion, makes it untraceable, because anyone who works near any of this stuff can make a copy of it and give it to whomever they feel deserves it, or for the right price, with no problem what so ever. Can you taste a new flavor of terrorism abound on the horizon? I?m sure they?re not going to spend a whole lot of effort keeping track of who has access to this information to begin with?
A lot of things about you, can be derived from looking at a copy of your genetic information. Re-read that sentence. We?re talking about the GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, having a copy of your genetic blue-print, to do whatever they wish with it. Felony or not, I think fingerprints are enough, or maybe an alternative being that for DNA to be sampled, a process somewhat similar to obtaining a warrant, should be carried out, only with much more intense stipulations and oversight from officials, as well as severe penalties and fines for misuse / negligent handling of the information obtained.
How is it that we come up with a plan and a budget to refit army uniforms over seven years, but we can't figure out a way to stop the loss of American lives in Iraq? I know one has nothing to do with the other, but let us not forgot that American soldiers are STILL dying almost every day in Iraq.
The implementation of software on soldiers creates a soft spot, I think. It only now allows one more area for autonomous failure, autonomous failure (software crash) would be something that only trained 'technical' personnel will know how to correct, and I'm sure that in the heat of war, to have something like this happen, would be detrimental to a mission or whatever the cause may be. Yeah, it could be as simple as a reset button, but doesn't this just create more problems as well as solutions?
The department of homeland security is an agency that was created, to provide an excuse for the American government to strengthen its' 'big brother' arm. Yes, it is important, no, it's the duty of a government to ensure that its' citizens are safe and protected, but this is an example of how that line is being over-stepped. What next, what other kind of records or information is the department of homeland security going to deem necessary to collect and analyze to prevent 'terrorism'? The wool is being pulled over our eyes, and the system is being setup right under our noses as we go about our daily lives and call it 'protection'. How much safer do any of you feel after September 11th? Or do you in fact, feel much more afraid for your lives every time you step onto a plane, walk onto a subway etc? It starts with small things, and snow balls, this is only a sign of what is to come, now it?s airline records, tomorrow it will be medical records from private practice doctors to see if anyone?s been treated for anthrax related complications systematically?and god knows what else.
NEWSFLASH: New study shows that workers who play counterstrike for an average of 8+ hours a day work much better in corporate team situations and have a much firmer grasp of group dynamics...:D I wish... This is a fad, anything to bring justification to playing video games more. *rolls eyes*
I feel you on this point. Yes, there is a 'sexy' appeal to the Metroid series seeing that you've got this beautiful girl in a futuristic space suit battling life sucking aliens on a planet off in some other galaxy, but the game was not popular because of that, at least this is my take...
:)
Metroid was a very successful game because it was well thought out and designed. The levels actually took some brain power and logic skills to pass, as well as hand eye co-ordination, when most games at the time only required a high amount of skill in the latter. All of that, combined with a detailed sense of ambience, the game was very surreal, to me at least. The worlds you were in didn't feel that strange and far out, they were somewhat grounded in the way that they were represented, visually and through sonic ambience.
Look at how many pieces you had to put together, after you thought you had so much done / solved already in the game...this element made the games' length of playability much longer than most of the other games out during its time. I think, if they take their time, and develop a story line that is close to what the game presented, with the same kind of focus on cohesive background elements instead of flash useless monsters and visual effects, with a realistic flavor, and depth, then you won't end up with the same kind of souring effect that most game-hollywood-coversions have had. And of course, no one should find out that the main character is a female until the end, but it would be hard to mask the were she communicated throughout the movie, unless, they indeed stick super close to the game, and have her speak to no one, as she did in the game as well...I dunno, who knows!?
Go Metroid!, I'm hyped about this big time
oops...it's how I spell check...
I wasn't trying to blame the Americans for anything...I was merely making an observation on how so much faith is put into these very fragile million dollar pieces of equiptment...
The spent fuel will burn up in the atmosphere, disintegrating into small particles. It will spread out and deliver a dose probably less than what you get in a doctor's office from an X-ray machine.
The posting of this article to Slashdot is FUD, pure and simple, as is most anti-nuclear propaganda. Radioactive material, like all other toxins, requires a certain concentration to be lethal. The danger is only to spacecraft, and that from collisions.
Ok, I can see all of the above as a very valid point, for not making this a bigger issue than it needs to be. On the other hand, the biggest changes, and also some of the most detrimental ones take place at a gradual rate. If things like this are being handled so sloppily now, what else is being irresponsibly handled? Where is the system of accountability in these kinds of situations? We?re shooting nuclear reactor fuel cores into orbit around are planet, not knowing when it will come back into the atmosphere, yeah it?s ?said? that it will take hundreds of years before it comes back, but the safety checks for the shuttle Columbia also said that everything was go and the shuttle was in tip top shape?
How much power are we going to give to ?research? and how vulnerable are we willing to make ourselves as a planet, to the ?hypothesis? of other individuals, who I?m sure some, have their own agenda, besides the benefit of mankind?? What happens if that reactor core falls back into the atmosphere, into a town and kills an entire city of people? Will the research community just say ?oops?, apologize and just call it a day? How much do we know about human-produced radioactive substance burning in our ozone, and it?s by-products and effects? Lots of questions, I know, but I have wonder about how out of control things are getting, right underneath our own noses?
Wow. Technology at it's best :)
Go Sun!
"My Coffee was too hot"
"I'm too fat"
"You watch my kids for me..."
These are just three stories, and yes, all extreme cases of what we're talking about here. Finding a scapegoat. It's a disease that is rampant, and further perpetuated by the media's constant abuse of their power of exposure.
I agree with you, it's senseless to look no further than the assumed 'influence' when it comes to cases like this, but unfortunately that is the surface stance that most individuals seem to jump on whenever things like this arise. Our actions somehow are no longer products of our decisions, but of our stated influences?
When are people going to be responsible for their own acts? Censoring the Internet, or anything else for that matter, is approaching the problems stated, from the wrong way around. Why isn't anyone interested in educating people about making choices and resulting consequences, but instead are some how obsessed with attacking the so-called 'influences'. Stating that anything is an influence causing people to commit crimes, is silly, and shows us just how insanely lost and disillusioned our current state of society, the global one, has become. I don't care if a website shows you how to professionally skin someone alive and cook their organs to make a gourmet meal, that site holds no responsibility if you actually go off and do it. You as an individual, must decide what you do, and do not do.
This is all tied up with the same moral problem that people seem to find with GTA III, and I feel that area reflects the same problem, individuals not wanting to take responsibility for their own actions. There always has to be some external influence to blame or point the finger at.
I'm actually proud of how much the internet has withstood this kind of social degradation over the years when it comes to free expression. Although things are slowly starting to change now, there is still time.
Thank you for your detailed elaboration on your disagreement with my comment...
"Finally, it's just another symptom of the nanny-state mentality that is pervading modern society. I shouldn't have automated systems watching over my every move to make sure I'm not doing anything unfavourable." I agree with you. This is communism, flat out. I mean of course, it's ridiculous to whine and cry and say that our rights as human beings are being taken away because I can't scan in a 20 dollar bill, but it's the tip of the iceberg. This is only a sign of what is to come, it starts here, but where does it end. If this much "big-brother" activity is taking place to curve counterfeiting, imagine how much more of it will take place in other areas of society that the government sees fit. What's next? Having a global module built into the next release of windows that collects all attempts to scan currency into photo-editing software and sends it to the proper authorities for warrant justifications for the use of carnivore for surveillance of the ?supposed? subjects involved?
I say we start filling the rabbit hole back in and suffocate the bastards...to hell with how deep it goes.
I think a deeper issue is how does all of this affect human development in the long run. There obviously has been a lot of research put into gene studies and modification but how much effort has been put into looking at the 'ripple effects' may possibly have as time goes on? A lot of the changes that our science is making to animals and the food that both we and those very animals eat, I think are creating a 'bunch up' in the carpet of evolution. Animals, plants, everything is connected within the chain of development, one change is never made on it's own, it's always because of many external factors. We're changing the course of many stages of development for many organisms, because of our growing isolated needs within an economy (which from a biological point of view, doesn't even exist). How is this going to affect our children's children? I'm not a tree hugging hippie, I'm just curious about the possible dangers this could present much further down the timeline...
and it satisfied the governments (who really aren't good at grasping anti-anything circumvention techniques) Amen to that.
I agree with you as well. I wont go as far as saying that I was once an anti social person and the internet changed that, because that isn't my case, but I can say that interacting with people across the internet is much easier than in the real world, like someone said in a post above, you don't have to deal with all of the external social scrutiny that takes place in a first time physical meeting. On the web, the interaction is purely mental, it?s almost as if it's more of a direct connection between two minds, because only language is the medium of communication, words to be more specific (body language, voice tones, facial expressions can't be mis-interpreted, because they're not there in the first place)
On the other hand, this also creates a much larger problem, the issue of authenticity of the interaction from the ground up. In reality, we all use those conversational elements such as vocal tone, facial expressions and body language to judge the credibility of the communication, and how true it is, because this is the only character information you can gather from them at the time (apart from the actual conversation), coming from the individual. Of course, both of these scenarios would apply best to someone you're meeting for the first time, if it's someone you know, the process for calculating the credibility of what you're hearing becomes much more complicated; variables such as how long you've known the person, if they lie a lot etc, come into play.
While the internet has made it much easier to interact and meet new people by shedding the stigmas of the social world, it also provides a much better mental rock to hide behind when wanting to swindle or mislead individuals in any case.
Go Boilers! :-D
About time they did something with all that research money the new pres. raised...; )
I think this is a great thing, not even thinking about the details behind why they're doing it, or how accurate the report on how big the change is. Like so many people have posted about previously, it's a great support move for the open source community, especially since IBM has such a large position and influence in the computing industry and this is how change starts, in little steps. Hopefully, as time goes on, and if things go well, other companies will be able to see the benefits of moving away from products produced by monopolies such as Microsoft, to more flexible and less expensive open-source software, and make the same move. That will still take time.
Microsoft is eating themselves alive, I appreciate the value of what they've done, and what they're doing, but it obvious that their goals have changed over the years, I'm no M$ strategic planner or anything, but it seems as if they've concentrated less on created solid, reliable software, and more on keeping up with senseless design fads and functions that have caused nothing but sloppy code, and pretty looking OS's that are full of holes.
It will still take some time for open source OS's such as Linux etc to get up to speed with easier interfaces (because as we know, the average computer user has to be babied quite a bit when it comes to interface functionality) but that will all change with time.
This is great news, and I can only look forward to positive changes as a result of these kind of business moves within the industry
Wow. What next? Thanks Bush for all your wisdom. Well, people were stupid enough to put him in power, now this is what you have to deal with. Nobody has any rights anymore, and all in the name of this invisible 'war on terrorism' which is causing the American people more than they could ever dream, in tax dollars and civil rights.
Like someone said in a post somewhere else impeech Bush before it's too late!!!