I see the story to be more of a "let's sue anyone we can because we can and that is how we'll make all the money since making money off of patents didn't work"
But is the disk you bought technically "their" media or yours? You payed for the disk just like you payed for the computer. Is the little piece of plastic and aluminium actually Sony's property?
Then also, if you say that the disk is theirs and the computer is yours, the software on the disk should play on your computer so it has to "mess" somehow with your computer. Obviously the old way when you just bought the data and played it as a passive data stream wouldn't work with DRM too well. By having DRM they technically will have to fuck with your computer to stop you from doing certain things with it (like copy their music). So I think what you really meant to say is "fuck DRM" wich I agree with.
1) pretend you never read this story on Slashdot.
2) Ask someone you know from some 3rd world country to create a simple keylogger and prefix all executable with $sys$omgCo0LHackingPref1xS0nYIsL33t
3) Go to that someone's webpage and by chance your Internet Explorer 5 just happens to automatically install keylogger.
4) next day you find your computer ravaged by digital vandals from some far away country
5) you contact a good friend who just "knows a bit about computers" to help you and OMG!!! he finds that Sony Corp. (and throw in Microsoft there too for the full effect) aided those cyber fiends by opening the doors to your machine and so they contributed to the stealing and removal of priceless family photos, banking details etc etc. You tell the media how the cyber terrorists have been aided by SONY and how SONY is a threat to middle class suburbanville America.
6) sue Sony
6.5) ? [warning - obligatory South Park reference]
7) $sys$profit
Yeah, I agree. The real "kicker" is that I am a Russian immigrant myself who works as a software developer. And I can't say that I have personally had a bad experience but most immigrants I know did, and I have seen them get up the ladder and then it is pure revenge for all those years of "slaving" for the yuppies. I wouldn't want to go into management, cause to be honest, I don't think I would even like to work for myself if I was a manager. But I do like software develpment, just gotta find a nice reasonable and appreciative boss to work for.
What about memories that are encoded in the neurons. The problem of long-term memories that seem to persist despite changes in the individual neurons is still not completely solved. So growing new neurons might work but will you be able to keep that individual's memory, thoughts, habits and other things that are considered as a part of someone's personality.
-> The author claims to be able to fix aging, but doesn't go into much detail how to do it. Theoretically it might be possible to to create wormholes and perhaps do time travel, that doesn't mean that it will ever work. One could probably move genes back into mitochondria, but will that mean living forever? Which brings me to the next point.
-> It is implied in the article that aging = cell damage and toxicity. The reader is expected to assume that as truth just like the author does. But is that what it means to be old? When do you call someone old, do you look at their cells and say "you sir are old, 1% of your cells are damaged". So old age is not an exact clinical diagnosis, it more of a subjective state that includes cultural, social, medical and psychological aspects. In my country someone that is 50 years old is considered "old" and here in US someone who is 50 can still be in their prime. Anyway, without a clear, objective definition of aging, there can be no talks about finding "cures" for it.
-> Another reason to call "bullshit" on this article is that it treads on the so often abused territory of "immortality for $29.99, get it now, not sold in stores". Which in turn uses the common and universal fear of death to get people to follow/invest/buy/believe into ideology/products/methods/research.
I second that. You don't have to give them raises, you can cut their benefits, you can spit on them, they'll still love you and kiss your butt because it is much much better than having to get back home. I have seem that many times. But once a few of them get their green cards and make their way into management they become nasty and vicious. At the expense of burning all my karma and offending all the Polital Correctness whores, I'll say that would never want to work for a Chinese, Indian or Russian boss. They've been kicked around as graduate students or as H1B workers and then they feel like they need to pay back and want to fuck everyone around them who is not from thier own part of the world.
If the companies are using the H1B workers to pay them $20,000/yr less, do you think they'll give them large raises. What if they don't? The H1B code monkeys aren't going anywhere, they'll work for $30,000/yr, it is still better than what they get in their home country. Most of them will underestimate the living expenses and will think they are getting a killer deal. It is like me, when I tell my family in Russia what I make here in America, they are all "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing like I am some kind of a millionare, they don't know that my car insurance is $200/month and utilites another $150/month and car payments, mortgage, school loans etc etc
Well, cancer, heart failure, diabetes come with old age. There is no medical "old age" diagnosis. The claimed ability to reverse cell damage will also reverse cancer since it is technically a damaged cell with the celluar replication mechanism gone out of control.
That said, at the expense of burning my karma I will call "bullshit" on this story. Claims for aging cures are made every year by someone, and yet we still "kick the bucket" like everyone before us. Better hygiene and better drugs and procedures is what helps us live slighlty longer than our parents and grandparents, not some kind of magical cure-all aging panacea.
But of course the thought of death is a terrible thing so people buy into all these "finally we found cure for aging". It is like selling penis enhancement pills, it is just a clever play on people's insecurities and fears. If someone does want a good cure for aging, better try Alex Chiu's site . You can just buy yourself two nice little rings and of course live forever (...until you die of stupidity or cancer, of course).
Money comes from Congress. Congressmens know as much math as my cat (which can count yummy tender vitals when needed!), but the point is that politicians are morons too. They don't see numbers, they are highly emotional and impressionable. They don't see 0.017 or whatever they see "Must compete in space race", "Must show the world we have big penis", "Kill astronauts = bad". It is the same thing that goes for plane crashes. Many more people die in auto accidents and from heart disease and cancer. Just freak random accidents kill probably more people than plane crashes. But yet so many people are afraid of dying and you have to jump through so much freakin' security just to fly 45 min to the city of your destination.
So the main trick is for NASA to just have good spin doctors and talk about the wonders of flux capacitors and big lasers and stuff like that to get any funding from Congress.
Buran was a proof that they can do it to stick to the Americans. But how many lives did Buran take? Russians didn't think it was cost effective and efficient. Launching the supposedly "re-usable" shuttle is more expensive than launching the old Soviet "disposable" rockets.
We cannot even live friendly and peacefully on this shitty peace of rock flying through space. What makes you think we'll live well in a colony somewhere. People probably have a higher chance of just killing each other before they'll even get anywhere and build colonies. I don't want to sound too cliche but the biggest enemy of people is not a meteorite or bird-flu - it is people.
Besides, why do you even care if the human species survives, you and I and everyone else alive today would be dead by then.
Somehow "space talk" and astronomy always makes me depressed, it is just a reminder of how silly, short and pointless our lives are...
The 2001 movie reminds me most of all the the great illusion of AI. People did think that by now we would have had computers that could pass the Turing test, and we are not even close.
So how come the "amazingly" cheap reusable shuttles stay grounded while the Russians with probably 1/10 of a budget of NASA can sent people to ISS cheaper and on schedule?
And how exactly are the Shuttles "amazingly safe", did you just wake from a coma and missed the last re-entry disaster?
What are going to do on the moon once we get there? Impress little kids and convince people how great we are - a sort of a glucose shot to spike up national self esteem that will last about a month or so?
As far as public support, people already stopped caring around the 3rd Apollo moon landing. What do you think is going to make them "ooh" and "aah" again about the moon landings so they will run to their Congressman and petition them to vote for more NASA funding?
What ground-breaking engineering do the Russians have? They are flying 60s and 70s designs into space reliably and on schedule and probably on a 1/10 of the NASA's budget. At this point in time the cash-strapped Ruskies can get to the ISS safer, faster and cheaper than NASA can with their shuttles.
And NASA probably did get their budget cut since they keep making mistakes and blowing up astronauts.
Newsflash: "Tens of billions of dollars later and and two crews of astronauts killed, NASA is accepting that the Russians have been right all along...".
Some will say that NASA is just so great and it just doesn't get enough money. But NASA is probably not getting enough money because it is making too many mistakes and burns through the funds (literally!) without any good results.
Salut,
I am from Moldova and I will tell you that in Moldova they would have just hushed it up until it would have spread to humans. They wouldn't even have been able to detect it probably. Some farmers might distrust the goverment in Romania, in Moldova all of them do. They will hide the chickens and I would not be surprised if the Republic of Moldova will become the source of the flu pandemic in Europe. The funny thing is though, the Moldovans are so jacked up on wine and vodka (rachiu), they probably won't get sick and won't even notice the flu;)
YKK is just a conspiracy to take over the world, one zipper at a time.
But seriously, I solved "attacking zipper" problem by using a pillow cover on top (which you would have to wash with bleach every week...)
Let me say it agian, third's the charm --> THE ASSUMPTION WAS THAT THERE IS AN IDENTICAL FEATURE SET. So "no", the apples that are on the tree are the same apples being sold to you. You can pay or you can get them free.
My wife has bad asthma so we:
1.make sure to buy new pillows every year or so (the cheap synthetic kind)
2.wash them often in hot water
3.wash the pillow cases in bleach and hot water every week
4.use protective dust mite covers (not sure if these work for fungual spores?). The plastic ones should work too.
All in all it works pretty well. This article though seems to fall into the "let's play on people's fear of the invisible deadly germs" category. Everyone has been sleeping on old pillows made from animal feathers for centuries and millenia probably and we seem to have survived. So people who are healthy could just continue sleeping the way they did before. There are probably other problems in the world to worry about other than fungus in pillows.
Slashdot Mirror
I see the story to be more of a "let's sue anyone we can because we can and that is how we'll make all the money since making money off of patents didn't work"
Then also, if you say that the disk is theirs and the computer is yours, the software on the disk should play on your computer so it has to "mess" somehow with your computer. Obviously the old way when you just bought the data and played it as a passive data stream wouldn't work with DRM too well. By having DRM they technically will have to fuck with your computer to stop you from doing certain things with it (like copy their music). So I think what you really meant to say is "fuck DRM" wich I agree with.
1) pretend you never read this story on Slashdot. 2) Ask someone you know from some 3rd world country to create a simple keylogger and prefix all executable with $sys$omgCo0LHackingPref1xS0nYIsL33t 3) Go to that someone's webpage and by chance your Internet Explorer 5 just happens to automatically install keylogger. 4) next day you find your computer ravaged by digital vandals from some far away country 5) you contact a good friend who just "knows a bit about computers" to help you and OMG!!! he finds that Sony Corp. (and throw in Microsoft there too for the full effect) aided those cyber fiends by opening the doors to your machine and so they contributed to the stealing and removal of priceless family photos, banking details etc etc. You tell the media how the cyber terrorists have been aided by SONY and how SONY is a threat to middle class suburbanville America. 6) sue Sony 6.5) ? [warning - obligatory South Park reference] 7) $sys$profit
Yeah, I agree. The real "kicker" is that I am a Russian immigrant myself who works as a software developer. And I can't say that I have personally had a bad experience but most immigrants I know did, and I have seen them get up the ladder and then it is pure revenge for all those years of "slaving" for the yuppies. I wouldn't want to go into management, cause to be honest, I don't think I would even like to work for myself if I was a manager. But I do like software develpment, just gotta find a nice reasonable and appreciative boss to work for.
In other news: "Scientists discover the molecular composition of water"
What about memories that are encoded in the neurons. The problem of long-term memories that seem to persist despite changes in the individual neurons is still not completely solved. So growing new neurons might work but will you be able to keep that individual's memory, thoughts, habits and other things that are considered as a part of someone's personality.
-> The author claims to be able to fix aging, but doesn't go into much detail how to do it. Theoretically it might be possible to to create wormholes and perhaps do time travel, that doesn't mean that it will ever work. One could probably move genes back into mitochondria, but will that mean living forever? Which brings me to the next point.
-> It is implied in the article that aging = cell damage and toxicity. The reader is expected to assume that as truth just like the author does. But is that what it means to be old? When do you call someone old, do you look at their cells and say "you sir are old, 1% of your cells are damaged". So old age is not an exact clinical diagnosis, it more of a subjective state that includes cultural, social, medical and psychological aspects. In my country someone that is 50 years old is considered "old" and here in US someone who is 50 can still be in their prime. Anyway, without a clear, objective definition of aging, there can be no talks about finding "cures" for it.
-> Another reason to call "bullshit" on this article is that it treads on the so often abused territory of "immortality for $29.99, get it now, not sold in stores". Which in turn uses the common and universal fear of death to get people to follow/invest/buy/believe into ideology/products/methods/research.
I second that. You don't have to give them raises, you can cut their benefits, you can spit on them, they'll still love you and kiss your butt because it is much much better than having to get back home. I have seem that many times. But once a few of them get their green cards and make their way into management they become nasty and vicious. At the expense of burning all my karma and offending all the Polital Correctness whores, I'll say that would never want to work for a Chinese, Indian or Russian boss. They've been kicked around as graduate students or as H1B workers and then they feel like they need to pay back and want to fuck everyone around them who is not from thier own part of the world.
If the companies are using the H1B workers to pay them $20,000/yr less, do you think they'll give them large raises. What if they don't? The H1B code monkeys aren't going anywhere, they'll work for $30,000/yr, it is still better than what they get in their home country. Most of them will underestimate the living expenses and will think they are getting a killer deal. It is like me, when I tell my family in Russia what I make here in America, they are all "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing like I am some kind of a millionare, they don't know that my car insurance is $200/month and utilites another $150/month and car payments, mortgage, school loans etc etc
That said, at the expense of burning my karma I will call "bullshit" on this story. Claims for aging cures are made every year by someone, and yet we still "kick the bucket" like everyone before us. Better hygiene and better drugs and procedures is what helps us live slighlty longer than our parents and grandparents, not some kind of magical cure-all aging panacea.
But of course the thought of death is a terrible thing so people buy into all these "finally we found cure for aging". It is like selling penis enhancement pills, it is just a clever play on people's insecurities and fears. If someone does want a good cure for aging, better try Alex Chiu's site . You can just buy yourself two nice little rings and of course live forever (...until you die of stupidity or cancer, of course).
So the main trick is for NASA to just have good spin doctors and talk about the wonders of flux capacitors and big lasers and stuff like that to get any funding from Congress.
Buran was a proof that they can do it to stick to the Americans. But how many lives did Buran take? Russians didn't think it was cost effective and efficient. Launching the supposedly "re-usable" shuttle is more expensive than launching the old Soviet "disposable" rockets.
Shhh...don't tell Bush that ;)
Besides, why do you even care if the human species survives, you and I and everyone else alive today would be dead by then.
Somehow "space talk" and astronomy always makes me depressed, it is just a reminder of how silly, short and pointless our lives are...
The 2001 movie reminds me most of all the the great illusion of AI. People did think that by now we would have had computers that could pass the Turing test, and we are not even close.
And how exactly are the Shuttles "amazingly safe", did you just wake from a coma and missed the last re-entry disaster?
What are going to do on the moon once we get there? Impress little kids and convince people how great we are - a sort of a glucose shot to spike up national self esteem that will last about a month or so?
As far as public support, people already stopped caring around the 3rd Apollo moon landing. What do you think is going to make them "ooh" and "aah" again about the moon landings so they will run to their Congressman and petition them to vote for more NASA funding?
And NASA probably did get their budget cut since they keep making mistakes and blowing up astronauts.
Some will say that NASA is just so great and it just doesn't get enough money. But NASA is probably not getting enough money because it is making too many mistakes and burns through the funds (literally!) without any good results.
Will this make people convicted of crimes say they did it because s/goobbehavior/badbehavior/; pattern made her/him do it.
You just ruined our chance to panic and flame about ISS falling from the sky. Thanks a lot! Sheesh...You and your hard facts
Salut, ;)
I am from Moldova and I will tell you that in Moldova they would have just hushed it up until it would have spread to humans. They wouldn't even have been able to detect it probably. Some farmers might distrust the goverment in Romania, in Moldova all of them do. They will hide the chickens and I would not be surprised if the Republic of Moldova will become the source of the flu pandemic in Europe. The funny thing is though, the Moldovans are so jacked up on wine and vodka (rachiu), they probably won't get sick and won't even notice the flu
YKK is just a conspiracy to take over the world, one zipper at a time.
But seriously, I solved "attacking zipper" problem by using a pillow cover on top (which you would have to wash with bleach every week...)
Let me say it agian, third's the charm --> THE ASSUMPTION WAS THAT THERE IS AN IDENTICAL FEATURE SET. So "no", the apples that are on the tree are the same apples being sold to you. You can pay or you can get them free.
My wife has bad asthma so we :
1.make sure to buy new pillows every year or so (the cheap synthetic kind)
2.wash them often in hot water
3.wash the pillow cases in bleach and hot water every week
4.use protective dust mite covers (not sure if these work for fungual spores?). The plastic ones should work too.
All in all it works pretty well. This article though seems to fall into the "let's play on people's fear of the invisible deadly germs" category. Everyone has been sleeping on old pillows made from animal feathers for centuries and millenia probably and we seem to have survived. So people who are healthy could just continue sleeping the way they did before. There are probably other problems in the world to worry about other than fungus in pillows.