They buy computers. They don't need to sell the idea to the Average Joe, they need to sell the idea to the people making computers for the Average Joe.
The question "And what good does the the ability to quickly identify massive ammounts of people at borders produce?" is loaded. "The ability to quickly identify massive amounts of people at the borders" is itself a description of one use of the technology, not of the technology itself.
The basic technology is simply a means of scanning an iris to uniquely identify an iris. This could be used to identify animals in wildlife observations, it could be used by a private company as an additional security device ("My eye is my passport"--wait...), it could be used at ATMs to verify the identity of the person using the card...
So yes, there are potential uses for this technology that are arguably good.
And whether or not I agree with you, that is a reasonable opinion. But since you stated a concern with the technology, not the people who would use it (or legislate its use), I felt it necessary to point out the general neutrality of most technology.
Of course, being that this is Slashdot, I can understand making a comment as quickly as possible (and thus not clarifying one's opinion) in order to try and make first post. I'll even admit to having done it before myself.:^|
I think that has probably been said by someone about pretty much every technology we use today. It isn't the technology that's scary, it's what people might do with it. Almost every new technology has the potential for good, as well as evil.
I was asking as more of a general question. I personally have no purpose to or interest in downloading Freenet from work. Note my addition of [or country] to the above quote from our web filter.
My point was simply, Freenet sounds like a great tool to "obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship," but how do you obtain Freenet in the first place, if you are under said censorship? My workplace was just a convenient example.
...when trying to pull up the freenet website results in something like this (what I see at work):
Request for URL http://66.35.250.209:80/ denied by WebBlocker (Status: denied Category: questionable/illegal/gambling). This site has been blocked per Company [or country] policy.
Are there alternate sources to get Freenet in the first place?
In our local shopping mall there is a shiny new car parked in the walkway. Next to it is a box with a pile of "entry forms" on the top of it, enticing people to enter to win a new car, or a pile of cash or whatever.
When you read the fine print on the back of the card, you find that by filling out the card, you are giving them and anyone they feel like sharing it with permission to contact you via phone or mail.
I just wonder what would happen if someone filled out one of these for me (being on the Do Not Call list) without my knowledge or permission, and they contacted me. Hmm...
Maybe this is a market with only enough room for one mainstream system?
I rather doubt that. Considering that the market is (arguably) supporting three home consoles, whose prices are all more than the GBA, I would say that the market is there for another great handheld. The problem is just that no company has released a great handheld to compete with Nintendo's GameBoy. I think it takes a number of factors for a handheld to be great. Long battery life, comfort, compactness, and great games are probably the most important. The problem with many of these other handhelds is that they have focused on flashy graphics and sound to the detriment of some of the more important factors. That's what I think, anyway.
It's probably by invitation only because it's still in beta. If you look at their homepage, next to the purpleish Orkut logo at the upper-right, it says "beta" in white letters.
The difference, the way I see it, between Google and the other so-called Internet "portals" out there is that Google develops useful technologies one at a time, tweaking them here and there, and then adds them to the main site when they think that is is a useful enough feature to have. Yahoo and the like just threw together as many features as they could think of, slapped it into a pretty (debatable) interface, and hoped the feature-bloat would attract people.
The hardcore digital photographers in the crowd will probably find the article to be only a teaser on the technical specs, but the rest of us in the unwashed masses should find it interesting.
What does having a six-digit Slashdot UID have to do with digital photography knowledge?
Slashdot Mirror
I hacked mercurynews.com's photo display window so that the only text it shows for the photo captions is "myText"
They buy computers. They don't need to sell the idea to the Average Joe, they need to sell the idea to the people making computers for the Average Joe.
The question "And what good does the the ability to quickly identify massive ammounts of people at borders produce?" is loaded. "The ability to quickly identify massive amounts of people at the borders" is itself a description of one use of the technology, not of the technology itself.
The basic technology is simply a means of scanning an iris to uniquely identify an iris. This could be used to identify animals in wildlife observations, it could be used by a private company as an additional security device ("My eye is my passport"--wait...), it could be used at ATMs to verify the identity of the person using the card...
So yes, there are potential uses for this technology that are arguably good.
And whether or not I agree with you, that is a reasonable opinion. But since you stated a concern with the technology, not the people who would use it (or legislate its use), I felt it necessary to point out the general neutrality of most technology.
:^|
Of course, being that this is Slashdot, I can understand making a comment as quickly as possible (and thus not clarifying one's opinion) in order to try and make first post. I'll even admit to having done it before myself.
Honestly, this technology is scary.
I think that has probably been said by someone about pretty much every technology we use today. It isn't the technology that's scary, it's what people might do with it. Almost every new technology has the potential for good, as well as evil.
So, I'll need to upgrade my tinfoil hat to a full tinfoil helmet?
I was asking as more of a general question. I personally have no purpose to or interest in downloading Freenet from work. Note my addition of [or country] to the above quote from our web filter.
My point was simply, Freenet sounds like a great tool to "obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship," but how do you obtain Freenet in the first place, if you are under said censorship? My workplace was just a convenient example.
...when trying to pull up the freenet website results in something like this (what I see at work):
Request for URL http://66.35.250.209:80/ denied by WebBlocker (Status: denied Category: questionable/illegal/gambling). This site has been blocked per Company [or country] policy.
Are there alternate sources to get Freenet in the first place?
One example of this already:
In our local shopping mall there is a shiny new car parked in the walkway. Next to it is a box with a pile of "entry forms" on the top of it, enticing people to enter to win a new car, or a pile of cash or whatever.
When you read the fine print on the back of the card, you find that by filling out the card, you are giving them and anyone they feel like sharing it with permission to contact you via phone or mail.
I just wonder what would happen if someone filled out one of these for me (being on the Do Not Call list) without my knowledge or permission, and they contacted me. Hmm...
In other eBay news...
Bids are currently at $65,000 for 867-5309 in NYC.
"Wicked Ultra X-Treme Graphics Array"...wow. How l33t.
WUXGA = Wide-Ultra Extended Graphics Array
Other, no-registration-required sources can be found here.
The linked article is actually a story about 9 different people with 9 different jobs, each leading to a separate article.
Actually, like the article says, they really do talk about 10 jobs. They just don't link to the last one in that summary page. Here's the index page:
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/contents/index.html
H2G2 = The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
But it's Disney, so what do you expect?
Umm... a happy ending?
That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3.
And we all know that being the first next-gen console to market virtually guarantees success.
Here are pics (courtesy of /.'s fav candidate, Jamie) of the three winning entries:
Aaron Sneary
Kristi Klein
Nathan Sawaya
P.S. (Nathan Sawaya's creations have been featured on Slashdot before.)
I rather doubt that. Considering that the market is (arguably) supporting three home consoles, whose prices are all more than the GBA, I would say that the market is there for another great handheld. The problem is just that no company has released a great handheld to compete with Nintendo's GameBoy. I think it takes a number of factors for a handheld to be great. Long battery life, comfort, compactness, and great games are probably the most important. The problem with many of these other handhelds is that they have focused on flashy graphics and sound to the detriment of some of the more important factors. That's what I think, anyway.
It's probably by invitation only because it's still in beta. If you look at their homepage, next to the purpleish Orkut logo at the upper-right, it says "beta" in white letters.
The difference, the way I see it, between Google and the other so-called Internet "portals" out there is that Google develops useful technologies one at a time, tweaking them here and there, and then adds them to the main site when they think that is is a useful enough feature to have. Yahoo and the like just threw together as many features as they could think of, slapped it into a pretty (debatable) interface, and hoped the feature-bloat would attract people.
The hardcore digital photographers in the crowd will probably find the article to be only a teaser on the technical specs, but the rest of us in the unwashed masses should find it interesting.
What does having a six-digit Slashdot UID have to do with digital photography knowledge?