The article says that OddJob targets both Internet Explorer and Firefox, so apparently just switching to Firefox would not be enough.
As a Linux user, I noticed that the article does not mention anything one way or the other about other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS. The article also does not mention other less common browsers such as Opera. If there were enough Linux users to be worth targeting, I wonder if they could come up with a Linux version of OddJob, or not?
I was also hopping for some discussion of more substance, than just arguing about hat colors. Below are several things from article that I would have liked to have seen discussed:
1. Near the end of the article, it mentioned that HBGary had been hacked by Anonymous. If experts like HBGary can not protect themselves from hackers, how can the rest of us mere mortals ever defend ourselves? There was also another recent article on the Ars Technia website that focused on the hacking of HBGary by Anonymous.
2. The article also mentioned the revolving door of employment between the highest levels of government and corporate offices. That makes me wonder if there any large corporations might possibly secretly be using that type of software to spy on competitors.
3. Have they also targeted various other operating systems such as Mac OS, Linux, FreeBSD (or not)?
Those are the kinds of things that I would have liked to have seen discussed instead of the stupid argument about hat colors
Are there really that many Slashdot readers wanting to argue about hat colors? Perhaps the government or HBGary might have created many of vacuous posts, through fake accounts, and then tried to keep the discussion focused on hat colors instead of anything of more substance. If the government has hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, perhaps they also might have hundreds of fake Slashdot accounts. I assume that is what mug funky meant when he said that "HBGary sockpuppets are all over/.
The Startpage search engine allows encrypted SSL connections and also the option of viewing the results through a proxy. For an encryped SSL connection to the Startpage search engine, type HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URL for Startpage. For example, either of the following will give an encrypted connection to their webpage:
Then, after searching for what you are looking for, click on the word “Proxy” after the most likely looking search result. By clicking on the word “Proxy,” you get to view the website with Startpage acting as a proxy.
Presumably, the Internet providers logs would then not show what the user had been searching for and viewing. Startpage also does not record IP addresses or use cookies. Startpage is known as Ixquick outside of the United States. Below are two links that talk about the proxy feature of Startpage.
Just for example, if I were searching for some information about some conspiracy theory I had recently heard about, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage, and the proxy option for viewing the results. Not wanting the government think that I might be one of those wacko conspiracy theorists, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage and choose the proxy option for viewing the results.
Startpage is the only privacy oriented search engine that I know of. It does not retain your personal data, does not record your IP address, or use identifying cookies. Startpage.com also offers a proxy service. The word proxy is listed after each search result, and if you click on that you get to view the web page through a proxy.
If you type https: instead of http: in front of Startpage.com, an encrypted connection will be used.
By the way, I have never seen Glen Beck on TV because I do not have cable or satellite. Is he on FOX News? FOX News is not one of the 6 channels that I get with my rabbit ears antenna.
Startpage.com is a privacy oriented alternative to Google. It does not retain your personal data and does not record your IP address or use identifying cookies. It also does not share your personal information with third parties.
Startpage also has a proxy service. According to the article below, “With each Startpage search, the word "proxy" appears under each result. If a user clicks "proxy," they may view the result privately.”
It is also possible to use secure encrypted connections with startpage by using the https://startpage.com/ version of their URL instead of the http://startpage.com/ version. That option would also be good for when using an open WiFi hotspot, where someone with a laptop with packet sniffing software on his laptop might be capturing your unencrypted packets. Google also offers that some option too, by typing https instead of http.
The search results for Startpage do not seem quite as good as when using Google, so perhaps it might be best to just use Startpage when you want more privacy and Google at other times.
I had visualized it being a toggle switch with a flip up safety cover (instead of having to break glass). The safety cover would be there to prevent someone like a janitor from accidentally mistaking it for a light switch.
In addition to the "Internet" label, a warning sign for visitors would say something like "Please do not flip this switch to see what it does."
I live in Arizona, and always bring a map and put some water in the back of my truck before traveling in an unfamiliar route in the desert or the mountains. I do that even if I am not planning to go 4-wheeling on dirt roads. I usually put one or two plastic 5-gallon water cans in the back, just in case. During the winter, up in the mountains here, I keep gloves, a jacket, and other warm clothing behind the seat. That way, if I break down or get stuck, I can still survive.
People who try to use their GPS to find where I live, have complained that my address is not in their GPS. One GPS that did have my address, was off by about 1/4 of a mile.
Last time I checked, a couple of well known on-line mapping websites were off by over a mile, for where I live. They both indicate that my address is among the cattails in the marshy area at the end of a small lake, next to the garbage transfer station and near the city sewage treatment plant. I would hate to see anyone actually try to drive into that marshy area.
About 12 years ago, I bought a newly published book about ghost towns directly in person from the author. The author neglected to mention that the maps and photos in his new book were over 30 years old. I took off into the mountains, in my 4 wheel drive truck, looking for several ghost towns. I was puzzled that the maps in his book did not mention forest road numbers.
The route to one ghost town was described as being a little rough. That was really understating things, I was carefully continuously crawling over rocks in low range, until I finally gave up and turned around. I later noticed that his maps were so old and out of date, that there were no Interstate freeways shown, because they did not exist back then. Local old timers, later told me that most of the buildings in his photos had been torn down, for safety reasons, back in the 1970s.
As I am typing this, it says there have only been 92 comments, so far. I have been wondering where all the comments and replies went. Do I just did not know how properly use the new version of their website to see all of the comments that might possibly really be hidden somewhere there?
Even when I click on various comments, I am not usually not finding many additional replies hidden beneath that comment. I am only seeing a tiny fraction of the amount of comments and replies that I had normally been seeing on Slashdot.
I had also been thinking that my computer was somehow blocking most of the comments. So, I had the NoScript extension for Firefox enable scripting for Slashdot under Firefox, to try to see what I was missing. But, that did make any obvious difference. Clinking on the "Get More Comments" button also did not not seem to help.
Earlier today, I tried viewing Slashdot with a Windows computer instead of my Linux computer to see if more posts would appear there, but they did not. Am I somehow not seeing most of the comments? Are there really so few people using Slashdot today?
I have a 1.5 Mbps Qwest DSL connection. I have been seeing those constant Qwest "Heavy Duty Internet" commercials on TV advertising speeds up to 40 Mbps. But, the only speed available where I live is 1.5 Mbps for $39.99 per month. I confirmed that by going to the Qwest webpage and typing in my telephone number to see what speeds are available for where I live.
The comparison chart in the article, shows Qwest having a typical Netflix performance speed of somewhere around 1800 Kbps.
According to my DSL modem, I am currently connected at a downstream rate of 1536 Kbps and an upstream rate of 576 Kbps. At least my download speeds are consistently close to that speed.
I am not actually complaining, because I am happy that I am no longer stuck on dial-up. They finally made DSL available here several years ago, shortly after digging a 3 mile long ditch and putting in a couple of new underground conduits, and adding another new small windowless building for the DSL stuff. I live in a city of about 50,000 people, about 1/4 of a mile from the nearest small windowless Qwest building that has a DSL switch in it. Since I am so close to their nearest DSL switch, I am surprised that faster speeds are not available here.
I do not have satellite or cable and am planning to sign up for Netflix. I plan to use the one at a time DVDs by mail plan for $9.99 per month. I do not know if the slowest Netflix steaming method would work here or not.
I have a 1.5 Mbps downsteam / 576 Kbps upsteam DSL connection from Qwest, for $39.99 per month. That is the fastest speed that they offer where I live, but it is good enough for my needs. I wish that I could get Internet for what little you are paying.
My 1.5 Mbps DSL connection is good enough for surfing the Internet, or for quickly downloading the latest security updates for either my Linux computer or my Windows computer. At least DSL did finally become available a few years ago, where I live. Up until then, the local telephone lines were only good for 26.4 Kbps dial-up (not 56k dial-up).
I live only about 1/4 mile from the small windowless building where Qwest has their nearest DSL switch, so I am surprised that faster speeds are not available here. I am not in a rural area, I live in a small city of about 50,000 people in Arizona. I don't think this is what Qwest is describing in their "Qwest heavy duty Internet" TV ads.
It is interesting that you mention being able to stream Netflix. I had been planning to try the Netflix DVDs by mail option. I do not have cable or satellite, but do not watch much TV anyway. I use an old mid-1990s 13-inch TV set without a converter box. The mountaintop translator between here and Phoenix was not required to make the digital transition, so I am still watching analog TV on an old TV set with a rabbit ears antenna. I will probably just choose the Netflix DVDs by mail instead of streaming over the Internet.
My Qwest DSL connection is 1.5 Mbps downstream and 576 Kbps upsteam. I live in a small city of about 50,000 people in Arizona.
I have been seeing the Qwest TV commercials lately about Qwest "Heavy Duty Internet." Their web page mentions Internet speeds up to 40 Mbps for $19.99 for 6 months. That is about half of that I pay, per month, for a small fraction of that speed.
So I clicked the availability button on the Qwest web page, and typed in my telephone number. Their web page then said that I could get "Connection speeds up to 1.5 Mbps downstream/ up to 896 Kbps upstream," for $39.99 per month.
I live about 1/4 of a mile from a small windowless building where Qwest has their nearest DSL switch. I am surprised that faster connection speeds are not available this close to their DSL switch. A few years ago, Qwest added that small windowless building and buried a new 3 mile long conduit in a ditch to another similar small windowless Qwest building. It was only after those upgrades that DSL became available. Before that, the local telephone lines were only good enough for 26.4 Kbps dial-up (not 56K dial-up).
I do not have cable or satellite, and am not sure if would be possible for to get cable here or not.
On Star Trek they always used a view screen and other displays, instead of windows. Presumably, that would protect their eyes during their fictional space battles. With the power of the science fiction weapons shown on TV, I would assume that injury to eyes would occur if they were just looking through ordinary windows.
With an aircraft that had windows, perhaps they could somehow selectively block lasers, without totally blocking the view. Perhaps, special goggles could be designed that would quickly detect the color of the laser used and then almost instantly have the goggles block just that color. If it is a color that the pilot would normally need to be able to see during a landing, perhaps the goggles could projected an image containing the essential missing visual information directly into the pilots eyes or onto a small LCD display.
Another alternative might be for the goggles to somehow automatically detect the direction that the laser light is coming from, and then just block the light of that color coming just from that direction. I do not know what physics, chemistry and electronics might be involved in somehow doing that.
Yet another possibility might be for the goggles to suddenly block everything to the sides, but still allow the pilot to see forwards towards the gauges and displays. If perhaps the pilot could not land safely that way, I would assume that he could abort the landing and safely fly away, flying on instruments.
When disposing of my old computer, I used Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) to erase all the data from my old hard drive. I do not recall how long it took to complete that task, although it is possible that it might have taken a while. In that program, I was able to choose which method to use for overwriting everything. I probably chose one of the methods that involved making numerous passes over everything.The choices involved choosing a method based on one of about five different industry guidelines for overwriting everything.
Perhaps in Iceland, they saved time by putting all the important information on a very small separate partition, and only had to repeatedly overwrite just that small partition. Of course, it is quite likely that everything was on an encrypted disk or partition anyway (as the article vaguely mentioned).
When disposing of my old computer, I was only trying to keep average or better than average hackers from accessing my data, after I scrapped my old computer. I was not thinking in terms of the possible capabilities of government agencies such as the NSA in the U.S., or the GRU in Russia, or the Mossad in Israel. I am not an expert, and have no idea what they might or might not be capable of doing. For that purpose, I suspect that just overwriting everything once would have been adequate, although I chose a more thorough method.
This sounds like the same strategy as what I use. Have two external USB hard drives and keep one in my safety deposit box at the bank and the other at home. They are both wallet sized external hard drives, so either will easily fit into my safety deposit box. Once every several months after I have lots of new photos, I swap hard drives in the safety deposit box and take the other one home. Swapping the two external hard drives saves me from having to make a return trip back to the back with the updated backups.
With the one that is at home, I backup everything from my computer more often, about once every week or so. So in addition to what is on my computer, I keep one of the external hard drives off site in my safety deposit box, just in case my home ever burns down, or burglars steal all of my computer equipment.
If everything were encrypted, I could keep one of the external hard drives at a relative or friends house instead, if I wanted to. But, I am using my safety deposit box instead and do not feel the need to encrypt my photos and other stuff before putting it in the safety deposit box.
What advertisement? I did not see any advertisement when I went to their website. What was I supposed to see?
I use both the "Ad-Block and "No Script" extensions under Firefox. I also use the MVPS ad blocking hosts file. Perhaps, that is why I did not see the intrusive ad. I use Linux as the operating system for my computer, by the way.
As for the article itself, I was interested in the part where they said that users of Macs or computers running Linux are at risk as well. Are they talking about actual viruses for Linux and Macs, or some other type of malware? The last time I had checked a few years ago, everything I read said that there have not yet been any Linux viruses actually circulating in the wild.
If malware (or viruses or whatever) are actually becoming somewhat of a danger for Linux, I wonder if there is some additional security measures that I could take to reduce that danger. There are actually several anti-viruses programs available for Linux, but I don't know of anyone with a Linux home computer, who actually bothers to use anti-virus software. My understanding, is that running an anti-virus program on a Linux computer, is only done if the computer is a mail server or something like that. Even then, my understanding, is that it is only done to protect the Windows computers who download their mail from that mail server. Is that correct?
I have a user configured firewall on both my computer and my DSL modem with all incoming ports closed and only a few outgoing ports open. Would something like SE Linux or AppArmor reduce the danger that the article claims supposedly exists for Linux? Is the article overstating the danger that malware presents to Linux (or to a Mac)? Does using the "No Script" add-on for Firefox on most websites, greatly reduce the danger?
I am not a professional computer person (or that much of an expert), but I have my doubts about what the article briefly said about Linux or Macs.
In the early 1960s, there were two green 1957 Chevy station wagons, with the same mechanical type key, parked a few spaces away at a city park. I was in grade school at the time. My mother and I got into wrong green 1957 Chevy station wagon, started it up, and she backed it half way out of the parking space, before realizing it was not our car. Then, she suddenly noticed that several items on the seat were not ours. So, we quickly got into our car instead and drove off.
That was not the only such coincidence I encountered. Many years later, I discovered that the ignition key for my dad's 1971 Jeepster Commando, would also start our old 1959 R-185 International Harvester dump truck. But, the Jeep key would only work in the dump truck, if the key was not quite inserted all the way. That same key would also open the door to a 1965 Volvo, which I drove at the time, although the longer Jeep key would only fit part way into the lock.
Of course these examples were all with plain old mechanical keys.
I have much better rear visibility in my 1992 GMC pickup than when driving an older relatives SUV. In my pickup, there is very little sheet metal in the cab to block my view. When backing up, the tailgate is the only thing that might just barely prevent me from seeing like a dog or small child standing behind my rear bumper.
When driving the relatives SUV, I can't see very well in the rear view mirror when backing up or when changing lanes. But, her SUV does have an electronic sonar device which beeps if I get to close to something as I am backing up. Her SUV needs such a device much more than my pickup truck does. It does not have a camera on the dash.
Some large motor homes already have rear view cameras, which they use when backing into trailer spaces while they are traveling. The rear view mirror is almost useless in a motor home, so the side mirrors are what is mostly used when backing up, unless they have a camera or someone directing them.
The 1959 dump truck that I occasionally drove, several decades ago, had very poor visibility behind it. The dump bed make the rear view mirror totally useless. I once got out of the truck for a minute or so and then got in and tried to back up but only got about two feet before it felt like I had a rock behind the tires. I could not see anything visible behind me, so I walked around behind the truck and discovered that a backhoe had parked behind me. It's front bucket was up against my truck's rear bumper. Fortunately, neither vehicle was damaged.
For some tall people, there is also a large blind spot ahead of the vehicle in many cars. I have a tall person's upper body and short legs, so for me that is a problem. In many cars, I need to bend down to look under the rear view mirror to see what is on the road ahead of me. Fortunately, the rear view mirror on my pickup truck is up higher, where it does not block my view. But, when renting a car or when driving the older relatives SUV, I am usually stuck with having to drive such a vehicle. In most of those cars, if a child were standing the right side of the road ahead of me, I would need to bend over to look under the rear view mirror to be able to see them.
When driving through a construction zone, I once saw a white helmet sticking over the top of the rear view mirror and a pair of work boots just barely visible under the rear view mirror. I then looked over the top of the rear view mirror and then saw that it was a short construction worker hold a stop sign, ahead of me. His stop sign and orange vest and most of his body, were hidden behind my rear view mirror. It would have been possible for me to run him over without being able to see him, while I was sober, wide awake and not distracted, while driving forwards at 35 MPH. Do most other tall drivers have that same problem?
Fortunately, my pickup truck has the rear view mirror up high enough to not block my forward view like that.
I keep a small external hard drive in my safety deposit box at the bank. I also keep an extra external hard drive at home. About once every other month, when I happen to be at the bank anyway, I open my safety deposit box and switch hard drives and bring the other one home. Only the smaller size external hard drives with fit in my safety deposit box. By switching the external hard drives in the safety deposit box, I avoid having to make an extra trip back to the bank to return the backed up hard drive.
With the other external drive at home, I back everything up much more often (usually about once a week). I do not leave the external hard drive mounted all the time.
If burglars stole my computer equipment, or everything was destroyed in a fire or flood, I would still have the off-site copy of everything. I typically exchange the external hard drive in my safety deposit box shortly after I have new photos from something like a family reunion or a fall color hike through the red rocks of Oak Creek canyon.
I still have a pencil mark from where I accidentally poked myself when I was in the 2nd grade. I was getting up from my chair to sharpen the pencil, when the pencil became stuck between the desk and my thigh. There is still a small gray spot from the graphite.
I could just imagine some school only allowing crayons, but not pens or pencils.
Back in the 1960s, when I was in school, it was OK for boys to have a small pocket knife in their pocket. While having lunch in high school, I remember the other guys each once pulling out their pocket knives and comparing them. One guy had a swiss army knife.
At home, when I was 12 years old, me and two olders boys once made a 20 foot wide slingshot out of rubber bands tied together. It would send small objects flying for several hundred feet. Me and one of the other boys each had a newspaper route, so we had access to plenty of rubber bands.
I tried to tell the two older boys not to keep shooting bent nails into the neighbors back yards, but they ignored my and kept shooting the nails. I was concerned that someone might get an eye poked out or a window broken. Fortunately, no one was hit.
The Olympus E-P1 is another example of a non-SLR digital camera with interchangeable lenses. I do not know much about cameras or photography, but near the bottom of the page below, it shows a huge lens attached with the help of an adapter. If I am not mistaken, I believe that camera supports the Micro 4/3 standard that you mentioned.
I have been looking for a digital camera to replace my old beat up pocket sized 35mm Olympus Stylus Epic compact point-and-shoot camera. I bought my old pocket sized 35mm camera about 10 or 15 years ago, for $70. It has always taken amazingly good photos which look much better than the photos from many other 35mm or digital cameras. The lack of a zoom or telephoto lens, might be one reason that it has survived a decades worth of exposure to sand and dirt, while hiking and backpacking in Arizona. It survived much better than my previous 35mm camera which had to be repaired twice, due to sand making the zoom lens jam.
Despite knowing almost nothing about photography, and not having fancy lenses or a tripod, several photos from my old pocket sized 35mm camera ended up being used in a small calendar. They look just as good as the photos that a professional photographer took with his superior skills and fancier equipment.
My old pocket sized 35mm camera still works, but I would like try using a digital camera instead. I want something that would take photos that are at least as good, but perhaps with interchangeable lenses and the option of using manual settings. Most of my photos are taken while hiking, so being compact would be an advantage (although not absolutely essential). I wonder if the above camera would be rugged enough or not? The Olympus E-P1 was one of about 14 cameras recently mentioned in an Audubon magazine article.
Another alternative, would be possibly buying a DSLR camera instead. Perhaps I might get something like the Canon EOS Rebel T1i or a Pentax K-x instead. I saw both mentioned in this month's Consumer Reports review of digital cameras. But again, I do not know how either does around dirt and sand when hiking. I do not plan on ever traveling to Kuwait, so I do not care about their DSLR camera ban.
Before I go shopping, I plan to read "The Compete Idiot's Guide to Photography Essentials." That way, I hope to know enough about the basics of photography, to shop intelligently.
I was a juror on a one day trail earlier this year, here in Arizona. As the jury selection process was starting, we were all very relieved to hear that this was expected to be just a one day trial. Because of that, no one felt the need to try to get out of jury duty.
If any of us had really wanted to get out of being on the jury, there was a certain answer to one of the jury screening questions which would have most likely caused us to not be selected. There was the question of whether or not we thought that bicycles should be allowed to share the road with cars. However, we all truthfully said that we thought that bicycles should be allowed to share the road with cars.
Just ahead of that, they had asked if any of us had never ridden a bicycle. They also asked if any of us had never driven a car. Presumably, they wanted jurors who both knew how to ride a bicycle and drive a car.
It was a 6 person jury, with one alternate juror. About half of us had either a 2-year or 4-year college degree. All of the jurors seemed intelligent enough and took their duties seriously. Despite a few minor contradictions in the testimony, the basic facts seemed clear enough to us to find the driver of the car guilty of reckless endangerment and also guilty of a similar charge.
The next day, at work, one of my co-workers and her husband criticized the fact that we had found the driver of the car guilty. They made it clear that they thought that bicyclists on the road were an annoying hazard, and that they thought that the bicyclist should have been the one that was found guilty. The driver of the car would been revving his engine while tailgating the bicyclist from about 6 inches behind, while refusing to go around the bicyclist. The driver of the car felt that the bicyclist should have pulled off of the narrow lane instead of trying to wave at him to him to pass.
I do not carry my reading glasses with me on my daily, one hour per day, walk for exercise. When outdoors hiking or working, I am in bright sunlight, without my reading glasses and unable to see the faint display or read the labels on the buttons. I only make about one call per week, so I do not get enough practice to be able to remember what button does what.
When working outdoors or hiking, I have occasionally tried to just dial the number, but I then have to guess which button to push to actually get it to dial out. It is then several seconds latter before I actually hear any indication that it is dialing out. I also can not see the visual confirmation that it is dialing out.
My reading glasses just fall out of my shirt pocket whenever I lean over to tie my shoes when hiking, so I don't bring them along. I bring along my cell phone, just in case I ever break a leg while climbing over the logs and boulders along my usual daily hiking route.
I do not want a telephone which has any exterior buttons on the outside of the telephone. I frequently bump those buttons, and then when receiving or making a call I suddenly discover that the volume has been turned off. I have also frequently bumped some exterior button which turned off the ringer. I would then latter discover that someone had been trying to call me about something important, but that my my phone did not ring.
I do not need an address book or speed dialing capability, because I have already memorized the several telephone numbers which I normally call. I also keep some other telephone numbers written down on a card in my wallet.
Does the cell phone you describe meet all of the above requirements? The local cell phone store has never once offered me a simpler cell phone, despite my repeatedly asking for one over the years. Is it too much to ask for a cell phone that is just as simple as the telephones that I used back in the 1960s and 1970s when growing up?
My technical capabilities are limited to simpler tasks such as being able build my own home computer and installing Linux on it, and then connecting it to a DSL line. But, remembering how to operate a complicated cell phone without my reading glasses, is beyond my capabilities.
Future vending machines might detect that I am a somewhat overweight, mid-50s male, wearing loose over sized pants, with athletically muscular arms and shoulders. That should tell it that I have lost some weight and work out regularly, but that I have not quite yet reached my weight loss goals. That should suggest that I would prefer something healthy and low calorie. The obvious choices would be green tea, a mixture of green and black tea, black coffee, vegetable juice, or bottled water.
The vending machine might also detect that my glowing good skin color is due to all the fruits and vegetables that I eat. That would tell it to include vegetable juice or a vegetable / fruit juice combination, as an option. Noticing that I am in my mid-50s, the machine might suspect that I am watching my salt intake and would not add any salt.
It might also detect the looseness in my pants, which are only being held up by a belt which has been tightened down to the last remaining hole. That should tell it that I have lost a significant amount of weight and that I would not even consider buying an ordinary soft drink or anything sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. If it were to offer me some food, in addition to a beverage, an apple or a mango would be a much better choice than some type of junk food.
The slightest hint of jowls along my jawline and on my throat, should tell the machine that I am in my mid-50s. The lack of wrinkles around my lips would tell the machine that I am not a smoker. Examining my skin, it might realize that I have always used sunscreen and/or worn a broad rimed hat, or possibly just stayed inside. All of the above, should strongly suggest that I am an exceptionally heath conscious person.
Seeing what a health conscious person I am, the only obvious beverage choices would be tea, black coffee, vegetable juice, or bottled water.
I have been on only one jury in my life and did not see a good way to avoid the jury duty. When filling out the questioner, I did not see any exemptions which would apply to me. I was not a small business owner, was not over 70 years old, was not an ex-convict, was not insane, and did not have any serious medical problems.
We were all relieved to discover that it was just going to be a short a one day trial.
During the jury screening questions, they asked if any of us did not know how to ride a bicycle or drive a car. They also they asked if any of us thought that bicycles should not be allowed to share the road with cars. If any of us still really wanted to get out of jury duty, we could have lied and said "no," and been quickly excused. None of us said "no," just get out of jury duty. I suppose someone could have also said that they had never learned to ride a bicycle, and probably been excused.
It was a 6 person jury of half men and half women, plus an alternate juror. We all paid careful attention and took our one day job seriously. We did not have any bias towards one side or the other. All 6 of the jurors seemed intelligent enough and several of us had a 2 or 4 year college degree. The basic facts seemed clear enough, so we found the driver of the car, guilty of both reckless endangerment and one other similar charge.
While I do not approve of illegal file sharing, if I had been a juror on that trial, I would have definitely thought the penalty was far out of proportion to the crime.
Slashdot Mirror
The article says that OddJob targets both Internet Explorer and Firefox, so apparently just switching to Firefox would not be enough.
As a Linux user, I noticed that the article does not mention anything one way or the other about other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS. The article also does not mention other less common browsers such as Opera. If there were enough Linux users to be worth targeting, I wonder if they could come up with a Linux version of OddJob, or not?
I was also hopping for some discussion of more substance, than just arguing about hat colors. Below are several things from article that I would have liked to have seen discussed:
1. Near the end of the article, it mentioned that HBGary had been hacked by Anonymous. If experts like HBGary can not protect themselves from hackers, how can the rest of us mere mortals ever defend ourselves? There was also another recent article on the Ars Technia website that focused on the hacking of HBGary by Anonymous.
2. The article also mentioned the revolving door of employment between the highest levels of government and corporate offices. That makes me wonder if there any large corporations might possibly secretly be using that type of software to spy on competitors.
3. Have they also targeted various other operating systems such as Mac OS, Linux, FreeBSD (or not)?
Those are the kinds of things that I would have liked to have seen discussed instead of the stupid argument about hat colors
Are there really that many Slashdot readers wanting to argue about hat colors? Perhaps the government or HBGary might have created many of vacuous posts, through fake accounts, and then tried to keep the discussion focused on hat colors instead of anything of more substance. If the government has hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, perhaps they also might have hundreds of fake Slashdot accounts. I assume that is what mug funky meant when he said that "HBGary sockpuppets are all over /.
The Startpage search engine allows encrypted SSL connections and also the option of viewing the results through a proxy. For an encryped SSL connection to the Startpage search engine, type HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URL for Startpage. For example, either of the following will give an encrypted connection to their webpage:
https://startpage.com/
https://ixquick.com/
Then, after searching for what you are looking for, click on the word “Proxy” after the most likely looking search result. By clicking on the word “Proxy,” you get to view the website with Startpage acting as a proxy.
Presumably, the Internet providers logs would then not show what the user had been searching for and viewing. Startpage also does not record IP addresses or use cookies. Startpage is known as Ixquick outside of the United States. Below are two links that talk about the proxy feature of Startpage.
http://ixquick.com/proxy/eng/help.html
Katherine vs Google
Just for example, if I were searching for some information about some conspiracy theory I had recently heard about, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage, and the proxy option for viewing the results. Not wanting the government think that I might be one of those wacko conspiracy theorists, I might use an SSL connection to Startpage and choose the proxy option for viewing the results.
Startpage is the only privacy oriented search engine that I know of. It does not retain your personal data, does not record your IP address, or use identifying cookies. Startpage.com also offers a proxy service. The word proxy is listed after each search result, and if you click on that you get to view the web page through a proxy.
If you type https: instead of http: in front of Startpage.com, an encrypted connection will be used.
Katherine versus Google
By the way, I have never seen Glen Beck on TV because I do not have cable or satellite. Is he on FOX News? FOX News is not one of the 6 channels that I get with my rabbit ears antenna.
Startpage.com is a privacy oriented alternative to Google. It does not retain your personal data and does not record your IP address or use identifying cookies. It also does not share your personal information with third parties.
Startpage also has a proxy service. According to the article below, “With each Startpage search, the word "proxy" appears under each result. If a user clicks "proxy," they may view the result privately.”
Killer way to slay the Google beast
It is also possible to use secure encrypted connections with startpage by using the https://startpage.com/ version of their URL instead of the http://startpage.com/ version. That option would also be good for when using an open WiFi hotspot, where someone with a laptop with packet sniffing software on his laptop might be capturing your unencrypted packets. Google also offers that some option too, by typing https instead of http.
The search results for Startpage do not seem quite as good as when using Google, so perhaps it might be best to just use Startpage when you want more privacy and Google at other times.
I had visualized it being a toggle switch with a flip up safety cover (instead of having to break glass). The safety cover would be there to prevent someone like a janitor from accidentally mistaking it for a light switch.
In addition to the "Internet" label, a warning sign for visitors would say something like "Please do not flip this switch to see what it does."
I live in Arizona, and always bring a map and put some water in the back of my truck before traveling in an unfamiliar route in the desert or the mountains. I do that even if I am not planning to go 4-wheeling on dirt roads. I usually put one or two plastic 5-gallon water cans in the back, just in case. During the winter, up in the mountains here, I keep gloves, a jacket, and other warm clothing behind the seat. That way, if I break down or get stuck, I can still survive.
People who try to use their GPS to find where I live, have complained that my address is not in their GPS. One GPS that did have my address, was off by about 1/4 of a mile.
Last time I checked, a couple of well known on-line mapping websites were off by over a mile, for where I live. They both indicate that my address is among the cattails in the marshy area at the end of a small lake, next to the garbage transfer station and near the city sewage treatment plant. I would hate to see anyone actually try to drive into that marshy area.
About 12 years ago, I bought a newly published book about ghost towns directly in person from the author. The author neglected to mention that the maps and photos in his new book were over 30 years old. I took off into the mountains, in my 4 wheel drive truck, looking for several ghost towns. I was puzzled that the maps in his book did not mention forest road numbers.
The route to one ghost town was described as being a little rough. That was really understating things, I was carefully continuously crawling over rocks in low range, until I finally gave up and turned around. I later noticed that his maps were so old and out of date, that there were no Interstate freeways shown, because they did not exist back then. Local old timers, later told me that most of the buildings in his photos had been torn down, for safety reasons, back in the 1970s.
As I am typing this, it says there have only been 92 comments, so far. I have been wondering where all the comments and replies went. Do I just did not know how properly use the new version of their website to see all of the comments that might possibly really be hidden somewhere there?
Even when I click on various comments, I am not usually not finding many additional replies hidden beneath that comment. I am only seeing a tiny fraction of the amount of comments and replies that I had normally been seeing on Slashdot.
I had also been thinking that my computer was somehow blocking most of the comments. So, I had the NoScript extension for Firefox enable scripting for Slashdot under Firefox, to try to see what I was missing. But, that did make any obvious difference. Clinking on the "Get More Comments" button also did not not seem to help.
Earlier today, I tried viewing Slashdot with a Windows computer instead of my Linux computer to see if more posts would appear there, but they did not. Am I somehow not seeing most of the comments? Are there really so few people using Slashdot today?
I have a 1.5 Mbps Qwest DSL connection. I have been seeing those constant Qwest "Heavy Duty Internet" commercials on TV advertising speeds up to 40 Mbps. But, the only speed available where I live is 1.5 Mbps for $39.99 per month. I confirmed that by going to the Qwest webpage and typing in my telephone number to see what speeds are available for where I live.
The comparison chart in the article, shows Qwest having a typical Netflix performance speed of somewhere around 1800 Kbps.
According to my DSL modem, I am currently connected at a downstream rate of 1536 Kbps and an upstream rate of 576 Kbps. At least my download speeds are consistently close to that speed.
I am not actually complaining, because I am happy that I am no longer stuck on dial-up. They finally made DSL available here several years ago, shortly after digging a 3 mile long ditch and putting in a couple of new underground conduits, and adding another new small windowless building for the DSL stuff. I live in a city of about 50,000 people, about 1/4 of a mile from the nearest small windowless Qwest building that has a DSL switch in it. Since I am so close to their nearest DSL switch, I am surprised that faster speeds are not available here.
I do not have satellite or cable and am planning to sign up for Netflix. I plan to use the one at a time DVDs by mail plan for $9.99 per month. I do not know if the slowest Netflix steaming method would work here or not.
I have a 1.5 Mbps downsteam / 576 Kbps upsteam DSL connection from Qwest, for $39.99 per month. That is the fastest speed that they offer where I live, but it is good enough for my needs. I wish that I could get Internet for what little you are paying.
My 1.5 Mbps DSL connection is good enough for surfing the Internet, or for quickly downloading the latest security updates for either my Linux computer or my Windows computer. At least DSL did finally become available a few years ago, where I live. Up until then, the local telephone lines were only good for 26.4 Kbps dial-up (not 56k dial-up).
I live only about 1/4 mile from the small windowless building where Qwest has their nearest DSL switch, so I am surprised that faster speeds are not available here. I am not in a rural area, I live in a small city of about 50,000 people in Arizona. I don't think this is what Qwest is describing in their "Qwest heavy duty Internet" TV ads.
It is interesting that you mention being able to stream Netflix. I had been planning to try the Netflix DVDs by mail option. I do not have cable or satellite, but do not watch much TV anyway. I use an old mid-1990s 13-inch TV set without a converter box. The mountaintop translator between here and Phoenix was not required to make the digital transition, so I am still watching analog TV on an old TV set with a rabbit ears antenna. I will probably just choose the Netflix DVDs by mail instead of streaming over the Internet.
My Qwest DSL connection is 1.5 Mbps downstream and 576 Kbps upsteam. I live in a small city of about 50,000 people in Arizona.
I have been seeing the Qwest TV commercials lately about Qwest "Heavy Duty Internet." Their web page mentions Internet speeds up to 40 Mbps for $19.99 for 6 months. That is about half of that I pay, per month, for a small fraction of that speed.
So I clicked the availability button on the Qwest web page, and typed in my telephone number. Their web page then said that I could get "Connection speeds up to 1.5 Mbps downstream/ up to 896 Kbps upstream," for $39.99 per month.
I live about 1/4 of a mile from a small windowless building where Qwest has their nearest DSL switch. I am surprised that faster connection speeds are not available this close to their DSL switch. A few years ago, Qwest added that small windowless building and buried a new 3 mile long conduit in a ditch to another similar small windowless Qwest building. It was only after those upgrades that DSL became available. Before that, the local telephone lines were only good enough for 26.4 Kbps dial-up (not 56K dial-up).
I do not have cable or satellite, and am not sure if would be possible for to get cable here or not.
On Star Trek they always used a view screen and other displays, instead of windows. Presumably, that would protect their eyes during their fictional space battles. With the power of the science fiction weapons shown on TV, I would assume that injury to eyes would occur if they were just looking through ordinary windows.
With an aircraft that had windows, perhaps they could somehow selectively block lasers, without totally blocking the view. Perhaps, special goggles could be designed that would quickly detect the color of the laser used and then almost instantly have the goggles block just that color. If it is a color that the pilot would normally need to be able to see during a landing, perhaps the goggles could projected an image containing the essential missing visual information directly into the pilots eyes or onto a small LCD display.
Another alternative might be for the goggles to somehow automatically detect the direction that the laser light is coming from, and then just block the light of that color coming just from that direction. I do not know what physics, chemistry and electronics might be involved in somehow doing that.
Yet another possibility might be for the goggles to suddenly block everything to the sides, but still allow the pilot to see forwards towards the gauges and displays. If perhaps the pilot could not land safely that way, I would assume that he could abort the landing and safely fly away, flying on instruments.
When disposing of my old computer, I used Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) to erase all the data from my old hard drive. I do not recall how long it took to complete that task, although it is possible that it might have taken a while. In that program, I was able to choose which method to use for overwriting everything. I probably chose one of the methods that involved making numerous passes over everything.The choices involved choosing a method based on one of about five different industry guidelines for overwriting everything.
Perhaps in Iceland, they saved time by putting all the important information on a very small separate partition, and only had to repeatedly overwrite just that small partition. Of course, it is quite likely that everything was on an encrypted disk or partition anyway (as the article vaguely mentioned).
When disposing of my old computer, I was only trying to keep average or better than average hackers from accessing my data, after I scrapped my old computer. I was not thinking in terms of the possible capabilities of government agencies such as the NSA in the U.S., or the GRU in Russia, or the Mossad in Israel. I am not an expert, and have no idea what they might or might not be capable of doing. For that purpose, I suspect that just overwriting everything once would have been adequate, although I chose a more thorough method.
This sounds like the same strategy as what I use. Have two external USB hard drives and keep one in my safety deposit box at the bank and the other at home. They are both wallet sized external hard drives, so either will easily fit into my safety deposit box. Once every several months after I have lots of new photos, I swap hard drives in the safety deposit box and take the other one home. Swapping the two external hard drives saves me from having to make a return trip back to the back with the updated backups.
With the one that is at home, I backup everything from my computer more often, about once every week or so. So in addition to what is on my computer, I keep one of the external hard drives off site in my safety deposit box, just in case my home ever burns down, or burglars steal all of my computer equipment.
If everything were encrypted, I could keep one of the external hard drives at a relative or friends house instead, if I wanted to. But, I am using my safety deposit box instead and do not feel the need to encrypt my photos and other stuff before putting it in the safety deposit box.
What advertisement? I did not see any advertisement when I went to their website. What was I supposed to see?
I use both the "Ad-Block and "No Script" extensions under Firefox. I also use the MVPS ad blocking hosts file. Perhaps, that is why I did not see the intrusive ad. I use Linux as the operating system for my computer, by the way.
As for the article itself, I was interested in the part where they said that users of Macs or computers running Linux are at risk as well. Are they talking about actual viruses for Linux and Macs, or some other type of malware? The last time I had checked a few years ago, everything I read said that there have not yet been any Linux viruses actually circulating in the wild.
If malware (or viruses or whatever) are actually becoming somewhat of a danger for Linux, I wonder if there is some additional security measures that I could take to reduce that danger. There are actually several anti-viruses programs available for Linux, but I don't know of anyone with a Linux home computer, who actually bothers to use anti-virus software. My understanding, is that running an anti-virus program on a Linux computer, is only done if the computer is a mail server or something like that. Even then, my understanding, is that it is only done to protect the Windows computers who download their mail from that mail server. Is that correct?
I have a user configured firewall on both my computer and my DSL modem with all incoming ports closed and only a few outgoing ports open. Would something like SE Linux or AppArmor reduce the danger that the article claims supposedly exists for Linux? Is the article overstating the danger that malware presents to Linux (or to a Mac)? Does using the "No Script" add-on for Firefox on most websites, greatly reduce the danger?
I am not a professional computer person (or that much of an expert), but I have my doubts about what the article briefly said about Linux or Macs.
In the early 1960s, there were two green 1957 Chevy station wagons, with the same mechanical type key, parked a few spaces away at a city park. I was in grade school at the time. My mother and I got into wrong green 1957 Chevy station wagon, started it up, and she backed it half way out of the parking space, before realizing it was not our car. Then, she suddenly noticed that several items on the seat were not ours. So, we quickly got into our car instead and drove off.
That was not the only such coincidence I encountered. Many years later, I discovered that the ignition key for my dad's 1971 Jeepster Commando, would also start our old 1959 R-185 International Harvester dump truck. But, the Jeep key would only work in the dump truck, if the key was not quite inserted all the way. That same key would also open the door to a 1965 Volvo, which I drove at the time, although the longer Jeep key would only fit part way into the lock.
Of course these examples were all with plain old mechanical keys.
I have much better rear visibility in my 1992 GMC pickup than when driving an older relatives SUV. In my pickup, there is very little sheet metal in the cab to block my view. When backing up, the tailgate is the only thing that might just barely prevent me from seeing like a dog or small child standing behind my rear bumper.
When driving the relatives SUV, I can't see very well in the rear view mirror when backing up or when changing lanes. But, her SUV does have an electronic sonar device which beeps if I get to close to something as I am backing up. Her SUV needs such a device much more than my pickup truck does. It does not have a camera on the dash.
Some large motor homes already have rear view cameras, which they use when backing into trailer spaces while they are traveling. The rear view mirror is almost useless in a motor home, so the side mirrors are what is mostly used when backing up, unless they have a camera or someone directing them.
The 1959 dump truck that I occasionally drove, several decades ago, had very poor visibility behind it. The dump bed make the rear view mirror totally useless. I once got out of the truck for a minute or so and then got in and tried to back up but only got about two feet before it felt like I had a rock behind the tires. I could not see anything visible behind me, so I walked around behind the truck and discovered that a backhoe had parked behind me. It's front bucket was up against my truck's rear bumper. Fortunately, neither vehicle was damaged.
For some tall people, there is also a large blind spot ahead of the vehicle in many cars. I have a tall person's upper body and short legs, so for me that is a problem. In many cars, I need to bend down to look under the rear view mirror to see what is on the road ahead of me. Fortunately, the rear view mirror on my pickup truck is up higher, where it does not block my view. But, when renting a car or when driving the older relatives SUV, I am usually stuck with having to drive such a vehicle. In most of those cars, if a child were standing the right side of the road ahead of me, I would need to bend over to look under the rear view mirror to be able to see them.
When driving through a construction zone, I once saw a white helmet sticking over the top of the rear view mirror and a pair of work boots just barely visible under the rear view mirror. I then looked over the top of the rear view mirror and then saw that it was a short construction worker hold a stop sign, ahead of me. His stop sign and orange vest and most of his body, were hidden behind my rear view mirror. It would have been possible for me to run him over without being able to see him, while I was sober, wide awake and not distracted, while driving forwards at 35 MPH. Do most other tall drivers have that same problem?
Fortunately, my pickup truck has the rear view mirror up high enough to not block my forward view like that.
I keep a small external hard drive in my safety deposit box at the bank. I also keep an extra external hard drive at home. About once every other month, when I happen to be at the bank anyway, I open my safety deposit box and switch hard drives and bring the other one home. Only the smaller size external hard drives with fit in my safety deposit box. By switching the external hard drives in the safety deposit box, I avoid having to make an extra trip back to the bank to return the backed up hard drive.
With the other external drive at home, I back everything up much more often (usually about once a week). I do not leave the external hard drive mounted all the time.
If burglars stole my computer equipment, or everything was destroyed in a fire or flood, I would still have the off-site copy of everything. I typically exchange the external hard drive in my safety deposit box shortly after I have new photos from something like a family reunion or a fall color hike through the red rocks of Oak Creek canyon.
I still have a pencil mark from where I accidentally poked myself when I was in the 2nd grade. I was getting up from my chair to sharpen the pencil, when the pencil became stuck between the desk and my thigh. There is still a small gray spot from the graphite.
I could just imagine some school only allowing crayons, but not pens or pencils.
Back in the 1960s, when I was in school, it was OK for boys to have a small pocket knife in their pocket. While having lunch in high school, I remember the other guys each once pulling out their pocket knives and comparing them. One guy had a swiss army knife.
At home, when I was 12 years old, me and two olders boys once made a 20 foot wide slingshot out of rubber bands tied together. It would send small objects flying for several hundred feet. Me and one of the other boys each had a newspaper route, so we had access to plenty of rubber bands.
I tried to tell the two older boys not to keep shooting bent nails into the neighbors back yards, but they ignored my and kept shooting the nails. I was concerned that someone might get an eye poked out or a window broken. Fortunately, no one was hit.
The Olympus E-P1 is another example of a non-SLR digital camera with interchangeable lenses. I do not know much about cameras or photography, but near the bottom of the page below, it shows a huge lens attached with the help of an adapter. If I am not mistaken, I believe that camera supports the Micro 4/3 standard that you mentioned.
Lenses for Olympus E-P1
I have been looking for a digital camera to replace my old beat up pocket sized 35mm Olympus Stylus Epic compact point-and-shoot camera. I bought my old pocket sized 35mm camera about 10 or 15 years ago, for $70. It has always taken amazingly good photos which look much better than the photos from many other 35mm or digital cameras. The lack of a zoom or telephoto lens, might be one reason that it has survived a decades worth of exposure to sand and dirt, while hiking and backpacking in Arizona. It survived much better than my previous 35mm camera which had to be repaired twice, due to sand making the zoom lens jam.
Despite knowing almost nothing about photography, and not having fancy lenses or a tripod, several photos from my old pocket sized 35mm camera ended up being used in a small calendar. They look just as good as the photos that a professional photographer took with his superior skills and fancier equipment.
My old pocket sized 35mm camera still works, but I would like try using a digital camera instead. I want something that would take photos that are at least as good, but perhaps with interchangeable lenses and the option of using manual settings. Most of my photos are taken while hiking, so being compact would be an advantage (although not absolutely essential). I wonder if the above camera would be rugged enough or not? The Olympus E-P1 was one of about 14 cameras recently mentioned in an Audubon magazine article.
Another alternative, would be possibly buying a DSLR camera instead. Perhaps I might get something like the Canon EOS Rebel T1i or a Pentax K-x instead. I saw both mentioned in this month's Consumer Reports review of digital cameras. But again, I do not know how either does around dirt and sand when hiking. I do not plan on ever traveling to Kuwait, so I do not care about their DSLR camera ban.
Before I go shopping, I plan to read "The Compete Idiot's Guide to Photography Essentials." That way, I hope to know enough about the basics of photography, to shop intelligently.
I was a juror on a one day trail earlier this year, here in Arizona. As the jury selection process was starting, we were all very relieved to hear that this was expected to be just a one day trial. Because of that, no one felt the need to try to get out of jury duty.
If any of us had really wanted to get out of being on the jury, there was a certain answer to one of the jury screening questions which would have most likely caused us to not be selected. There was the question of whether or not we thought that bicycles should be allowed to share the road with cars. However, we all truthfully said that we thought that bicycles should be allowed to share the road with cars.
Just ahead of that, they had asked if any of us had never ridden a bicycle. They also asked if any of us had never driven a car. Presumably, they wanted jurors who both knew how to ride a bicycle and drive a car.
It was a 6 person jury, with one alternate juror. About half of us had either a 2-year or 4-year college degree. All of the jurors seemed intelligent enough and took their duties seriously. Despite a few minor contradictions in the testimony, the basic facts seemed clear enough to us to find the driver of the car guilty of reckless endangerment and also guilty of a similar charge.
The next day, at work, one of my co-workers and her husband criticized the fact that we had found the driver of the car guilty. They made it clear that they thought that bicyclists on the road were an annoying hazard, and that they thought that the bicyclist should have been the one that was found guilty. The driver of the car would been revving his engine while tailgating the bicyclist from about 6 inches behind, while refusing to go around the bicyclist. The driver of the car felt that the bicyclist should have pulled off of the narrow lane instead of trying to wave at him to him to pass.
I do not carry my reading glasses with me on my daily, one hour per day, walk for exercise. When outdoors hiking or working, I am in bright sunlight, without my reading glasses and unable to see the faint display or read the labels on the buttons. I only make about one call per week, so I do not get enough practice to be able to remember what button does what.
When working outdoors or hiking, I have occasionally tried to just dial the number, but I then have to guess which button to push to actually get it to dial out. It is then several seconds latter before I actually hear any indication that it is dialing out. I also can not see the visual confirmation that it is dialing out.
My reading glasses just fall out of my shirt pocket whenever I lean over to tie my shoes when hiking, so I don't bring them along. I bring along my cell phone, just in case I ever break a leg while climbing over the logs and boulders along my usual daily hiking route.
I do not want a telephone which has any exterior buttons on the outside of the telephone. I frequently bump those buttons, and then when receiving or making a call I suddenly discover that the volume has been turned off. I have also frequently bumped some exterior button which turned off the ringer. I would then latter discover that someone had been trying to call me about something important, but that my my phone did not ring.
I do not need an address book or speed dialing capability, because I have already memorized the several telephone numbers which I normally call. I also keep some other telephone numbers written down on a card in my wallet.
Does the cell phone you describe meet all of the above requirements? The local cell phone store has never once offered me a simpler cell phone, despite my repeatedly asking for one over the years. Is it too much to ask for a cell phone that is just as simple as the telephones that I used back in the 1960s and 1970s when growing up?
My technical capabilities are limited to simpler tasks such as being able build my own home computer and installing Linux on it, and then connecting it to a DSL line. But, remembering how to operate a complicated cell phone without my reading glasses, is beyond my capabilities.
Future vending machines might detect that I am a somewhat overweight, mid-50s male, wearing loose over sized pants, with athletically muscular arms and shoulders. That should tell it that I have lost some weight and work out regularly, but that I have not quite yet reached my weight loss goals. That should suggest that I would prefer something healthy and low calorie. The obvious choices would be green tea, a mixture of green and black tea, black coffee, vegetable juice, or bottled water.
The vending machine might also detect that my glowing good skin color is due to all the fruits and vegetables that I eat. That would tell it to include vegetable juice or a vegetable / fruit juice combination, as an option. Noticing that I am in my mid-50s, the machine might suspect that I am watching my salt intake and would not add any salt.
It might also detect the looseness in my pants, which are only being held up by a belt which has been tightened down to the last remaining hole. That should tell it that I have lost a significant amount of weight and that I would not even consider buying an ordinary soft drink or anything sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. If it were to offer me some food, in addition to a beverage, an apple or a mango would be a much better choice than some type of junk food.
The slightest hint of jowls along my jawline and on my throat, should tell the machine that I am in my mid-50s. The lack of wrinkles around my lips would tell the machine that I am not a smoker. Examining my skin, it might realize that I have always used sunscreen and/or worn a broad rimed hat, or possibly just stayed inside. All of the above, should strongly suggest that I am an exceptionally heath conscious person.
Seeing what a health conscious person I am, the only obvious beverage choices would be tea, black coffee, vegetable juice, or bottled water.
I have been on only one jury in my life and did not see a good way to avoid the jury duty. When filling out the questioner, I did not see any exemptions which would apply to me. I was not a small business owner, was not over 70 years old, was not an ex-convict, was not insane, and did not have any serious medical problems.
We were all relieved to discover that it was just going to be a short a one day trial.
During the jury screening questions, they asked if any of us did not know how to ride a bicycle or drive a car. They also they asked if any of us thought that bicycles should not be allowed to share the road with cars. If any of us still really wanted to get out of jury duty, we could have lied and said "no," and been quickly excused. None of us said "no," just get out of jury duty. I suppose someone could have also said that they had never learned to ride a bicycle, and probably been excused.
It was a 6 person jury of half men and half women, plus an alternate juror. We all paid careful attention and took our one day job seriously. We did not have any bias towards one side or the other. All 6 of the jurors seemed intelligent enough and several of us had a 2 or 4 year college degree. The basic facts seemed clear enough, so we found the driver of the car, guilty of both reckless endangerment and one other similar charge.
While I do not approve of illegal file sharing, if I had been a juror on that trial, I would have definitely thought the penalty was far out of proportion to the crime.