"What only a free and open society can provide is the opportunity" to let the best education, best ideas, best health care thrive. Unfortunately, this is now shown to be a failure, at least implemented through the constitution within the United States.
The US government hasn't been anywhere near adhering to the constitution as it was written and amended for over a century, just like there haven't been free markets in the US for nearly as long. The US has become a kleptocratic oligarchy with the trappings of a democratic republic, nothing more.
The further the US departs from the Constitution and free markets, the worse things get across the board from civil rights to the economy, foreign relations, corruption & Rule of Law, and more. Amazingly, a large percentage of people have allowed TPTB to convince them that it's the Constitution that's causing the problems, not their constant and unrelenting twisting, redefining, and outright violations of it and every election keep putting the same or same kinds of people into power over and over again.
Insanity has been defined as repeating the same actions yet expecting different results each time.
"People are less safe as a result of it," he said.
It's true. People are less safe in a free and open society.
~Safety~
~Liberty~.
Choose one.
They promise free schooling, free healthcare, free food, free housing, and work. You can get that anywhere. We call it a "prison".
What only a free and open society can provide is the opportunity to pursue whatever dream you have to the best of your ability, and leave success or failure up to you and the choices you make.
Not to mention (referring to Weay's comments) the simple fact that if governments can crack/access it, so can criminals. After all, "government" and "criminal" are synonymous in all practical sense.
Do these dummies have any idea that the words they're saying are not going to discourage anybody making decisions, but simply encourage them to increase investments?!
If that is the goal, they could also probably do it honestly by talking about the benefits.
If you use a word like "disrupt" or "destabilizing" to an average person on the street, they might think the word sounds bad, but people who dream of ruling the world don't feel the same way about these words.
Just a snippet of my stream of thought, here. Just some random thoughts, not saying I believe or disbelieve anything, simply some fanciful "what if?".
Could Biblical descriptions of Armageddon and the protagonists actually be foretelling the crescendo of an apocalyptic war between the two most powerful super-AIs rather than nation-states as has traditionally been thought? Gog and Magog as warring super-AIs? A warning from the distant past, possibly because it's happened before?
I have to agree - I really don't even seen the point of a lunar gateway at all, at least not before there's a thriving lunar outpost getting lots of traffic. Exactly what value does a lunar space station offer? If there's a lunar outpost producing fuel or whatever, then yeah, an orbital station starts to be useful, you don't want to have to land to refuel for an interplanetary flight. But before then?
It's not going to help with building a lunar outpost - there's precious little to be gained by stopping in orbit on your way to/from the surface. At most you might want a refueling depot for the trip home, or just a BFR tanker ship. But even that's probably overkill - getting to the moon is the hard part, the return trip is almost all down hill.
A space station isn't that great for surveying - satellites are far superior and far cheaper. And there's no point in keeping supplies in orbit when they're only useful on the ground. And microgravity research doesn't care what it's orbiting, and the ISS has that covered. So what's a lunar gateway for?
Came here to say essentially the same thing.
It;s like discovering a brand new unexplored continent and the first step taken to explore this new land is to build a giant Amazon transshipment center offshore decades before anyone is thinking of living there even temporarily .
This is risk-averse NASA setting 'safe' goals intended mainly to keep the major established aerospace/defense firms in lucrative contracts. All other goals are secondary at best.
1: A rugged aluminum chassis with hard anodizing so it doesn't scratch if looked it. 2: Everything replaceable as much as possible, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc. 3: USB-C charging ability in and out. 4: Five year warranty. 5: OPAL, or other hardware encrypting SSD. 6: More than USB-C ports. A SD card, regular USB-A port, and even a combination USB/e-SATA port would be highly useful. 7: A Kensington lock slot, even if it done XJack style and slides out, or even better cleverly designed like the old Thinkpads to prevent the machine from being opened if it is in use.
8. All data ports, jacks, slots, and the like are disabled at the hardware level when the laptop is in sleep mode, logged out, placed into 'secure mode',etc, and cannot be enabled nor accessed unless the correct password is entered to unlock the machine (customizable to enable leaving the machine running closed and sending data,, audio/video, etc, if desired).
As long as we're making a list of important features that would be great to have on a laptop, there's the next item I thought belonged on that list.
Where do all those parts and software components come from?
Of course they're getting their active and passive components from the same places everyone else does who builds to that architecture. If they do it right, building the motherboards and assembling/testing the units in the US will make possible a much tighter quality control and inspection process and greater feature-flexibility.
Naturally, the 'holy grail' relating in large part to security, openness, and freedom in the manufacturing of personal computers is making your own CPUs/GPUs/etc etc, but that takes enormous capital and R&D, not to mention overcoming huge regulatory and legal hurdles and burdens.
In today's US economic/taxation/financial/environmental landscape and regulatory environment an Intel, AMD, or even a MS or Apple could not make a successful start. The big players use the government's powers to pull up the ladder after themselves through laws, Acts, and regulations. That's a danger anytime the government is allowed to broaden it powers & scope, and extend it's control into more markets and technologies.
NN makes it harder for the small guys to compete since it adds so many rules and laws that ISPs must follow.
As with most laws, Acts, etc etc from Congress, the devil is in the details including but not limited to the implementation & enforcement.
I'll reserve judgement on it until I have more detailed information. On the surface it sounds good. I don't want shady shit going on by/with backbone providers/ISPs or Netflix, Amazon, etc etc any more than anyone else does.
Even if this bill is not what it touts and gets tossed, at least this is the proper way to go about putting these kinds of rules in place...by Congress who we can vote out, not some political appointee at a federal agency that can change with every new administration/Party.
The irony will be that the chilling effects such actions have on the populace will stifle creativity right along with stifling independent thinking. They may get their human automatons, but eventually they'll only be good for doing what they're told.
The Chinese are not concerned as they can and do steal the creative/innovative ideas from those living in more-free & more-open societies. That's been their practice literally for decades. Well, except when leaders like Bill Clinton hand the Chinese things like advanced missile guidance technology. I wonder how much money the Chinese gave Bill Clinton for that? At least the deal that Clinton pushed for to allow the Chinese military to take over an old US Navy base in CA located next to a nuclear submarine base fell through, or they'd have US nuclear sub and Trident missile designs and detailed sonar-fingerprints of every sub based there as well allowing them to track all of their movements and identify individual subs from sonar.
Which the government should contract to have private sector pension investment firms handle, not the government.
The other thing that should not ever exist are public employee unions. They are pure corruption as it's union leaders and politicians getting together to decide how much of our money (taken under threat of deadly force) they will spend, and the public unions then kick back some of our money back to the politicians in the form of campaign donations and other political funding mechanisms.
How does having another non-tax source of income change that?
We could do away with taxes completely if the government owned and operated all manufacturing, businesses, etc but that's fascism or socialism, both of which are inherently authoritarian in nature.
It also removes the ability of the people to "starve the beast" when it oversteps it's authority and exceeds the limits on it's powers. Not to mention, it also drives private business out of the market as competing with the government is a losing game.
Much safer to keep the government dependent on the good will of the people it governs for funding.
So do I. What I don't see is how that precludes those funds from coming from an investment rather than taxes. What does the source matter if the accountability is there?
Looking at Norway, they have a massive investment fund that they can strategically tap to improve the country. I don't see a downside to that.
The US Constitution specifies that all moneys spent by the government be doled out by Congress, specifically the House.
So you'd rather be taxed than your government find other sources of income?
That's a rather odd position for you to be taking.
Not at all strange. I want any wealth the government spends to be parceled out by Congress in a budget from accountable and audit-able sources so that they are more accountable to the electorate and less prone to corruption.
this creates a situation where the government is unable to invest in anything since there is always some conflict of interest.
Government should not be "investing" in any business or industry, full stop.
It can put laws and policies into effect to encourage or discourage certain things but it should not be both a participant in business and the regulator of business. That's how you grow crony-capitalism and I think we've all had enough of that horseshit.
Some do but the 'establishment' types do not, however, and they are the majority. They've had many chances with Congressional veto-proof majorities to pass legislation to improve the immigration system but chose not to time after time after time. Term limits need to be enacted along with Senators once again being elected by State legislatures instead of popular vote to even begin to get some of these serious issues adressed in a meaningful way instead of 'kicking the can down the road' as has been the case.
Well met, fellow string-slinger! I'm older now, too. I play mostly festivals, fairs, casinos, and similar types of gigs where the bookings can be spread out and planned to minimize stress, which helps tremendously. It does often mean medium-long trips and odd times for my comings and goings. It's still a hell of a lot of work and energy expenditure for someone north of 60 and not in the greatest of health. But after all, "players play".
Yes, although I don't own and play *only* Stratocasters they are my usual "go-to" instrument. Also, the "Blue" in "BlueStrat" is not referring to a color, as any guitar I pick up is automatically "blue".;-)
You'll also notice, looking at my posting history, that my posts happen at wildly random times, often at oh-dark-thirty local time. The life of a working musician. It doesn't get any easier with age, either!
This. The voice of sanity in this whole insane debate. It's not about ethnicity, background, race, color, or any of that. Followed the law vs. didn't follow the law. It really is that binary.
Agreed. I will add that the current legal immigration system needs a massive rework and more funding.
Sadly, however, both sides are more interested in keeping illegal immigration as an election issue and front-and-center in public debate. After all, without such perennial wedge issues to keep the electorate's attention, they might start seriously discussing things like term limits and auditing and opening up the Federal Reserve to oversight. Gotta keep the proles stirred up, angry, and thus reduced to functioning on their lizard brain in very predictable and usable ways.
who has netgear equipment anymore? who allows default passwords anymore? wow
Yes, but let's make this all about the "hacker" and ignore anything to do with holding any US military or politicians responsible for making the breach possible. After all, cases like that of Lauri Love show that the go-to response by the US government for these sorts of situations is "kill the messenger!" whenever government incompetence and corruption are exposed, and this behavior is not limited to Left or Right. It's natural human behavior that's amplified and given power by having a too-powerful central government
This thing could already power watches as if by magic. My watch battery lasts a few years, and if I did the math correctly, that's well below 60 microwatts. Surface area is more than 5 cm2, and temperature differential is well over 5C, so it should be plenty of power.
(Not talking about smartwatches, obviously).
InB4 panties with heatsinks/convection-cooling radiator fins suddenly come into fashion among women.:)
Freeing them was against the law and a hanging offense at that time.
Not unlike, for example, declaring independence from the kingdom?
Thw revolution was decades in the future for Jefferson at the time he became the unwilling inheritor of his in-laws' estate. We have this thing called "time" so things don't all happen at once.
Look at it this way; If Jefferson had held out for including abolishing slavery in the COTUS/DOI, then the Southern colonies would have sided with England causing the revolution to fail, and as one of the possible consequences there might still be legal slavery today in the British North American Colonies (current US) and in Europe. WW1 and WW2 may have turned out much differently as well, especially for Britain and Europe. The Russians and Chinese would be riding that invasion and annexation pony hard and long, too, without the presence of a sovereign and powerful USA.
Slashdot Mirror
So...the remainder would come from a pizza shop in D.C.?
[ducks]
Strat :)
"What only a free and open society can provide is the opportunity" to let the best education, best ideas, best health care thrive. Unfortunately, this is now shown to be a failure, at least implemented through the constitution within the United States.
The US government hasn't been anywhere near adhering to the constitution as it was written and amended for over a century, just like there haven't been free markets in the US for nearly as long. The US has become a kleptocratic oligarchy with the trappings of a democratic republic, nothing more.
The further the US departs from the Constitution and free markets, the worse things get across the board from civil rights to the economy, foreign relations, corruption & Rule of Law, and more. Amazingly, a large percentage of people have allowed TPTB to convince them that it's the Constitution that's causing the problems, not their constant and unrelenting twisting, redefining, and outright violations of it and every election keep putting the same or same kinds of people into power over and over again.
Insanity has been defined as repeating the same actions yet expecting different results each time.
Strat
"People are less safe as a result of it," he said.
It's true. People are less safe in a free and open society.
~Safety~
~Liberty~.
Choose one.
They promise free schooling, free healthcare, free food, free housing, and work. You can get that anywhere. We call it a "prison".
What only a free and open society can provide is the opportunity to pursue whatever dream you have to the best of your ability, and leave success or failure up to you and the choices you make.
Not to mention (referring to Weay's comments) the simple fact that if governments can crack/access it, so can criminals. After all, "government" and "criminal" are synonymous in all practical sense.
Strat
Do these dummies have any idea that the words they're saying are not going to discourage anybody making decisions, but simply encourage them to increase investments?!
If that is the goal, they could also probably do it honestly by talking about the benefits.
If you use a word like "disrupt" or "destabilizing" to an average person on the street, they might think the word sounds bad, but people who dream of ruling the world don't feel the same way about these words.
Just a snippet of my stream of thought, here. Just some random thoughts, not saying I believe or disbelieve anything, simply some fanciful "what if?".
Could Biblical descriptions of Armageddon and the protagonists actually be foretelling the crescendo of an apocalyptic war between the two most powerful super-AIs rather than nation-states as has traditionally been thought? Gog and Magog as warring super-AIs? A warning from the distant past, possibly because it's happened before?
Discuss! :)
Strat
I have to agree - I really don't even seen the point of a lunar gateway at all, at least not before there's a thriving lunar outpost getting lots of traffic. Exactly what value does a lunar space station offer? If there's a lunar outpost producing fuel or whatever, then yeah, an orbital station starts to be useful, you don't want to have to land to refuel for an interplanetary flight. But before then?
It's not going to help with building a lunar outpost - there's precious little to be gained by stopping in orbit on your way to/from the surface. At most you might want a refueling depot for the trip home, or just a BFR tanker ship. But even that's probably overkill - getting to the moon is the hard part, the return trip is almost all down hill.
A space station isn't that great for surveying - satellites are far superior and far cheaper. And there's no point in keeping supplies in orbit when they're only useful on the ground. And microgravity research doesn't care what it's orbiting, and the ISS has that covered. So what's a lunar gateway for?
Came here to say essentially the same thing.
It;s like discovering a brand new unexplored continent and the first step taken to explore this new land is to build a giant Amazon transshipment center offshore decades before anyone is thinking of living there even temporarily .
This is risk-averse NASA setting 'safe' goals intended mainly to keep the major established aerospace/defense firms in lucrative contracts. All other goals are secondary at best.
Strat
1: A rugged aluminum chassis with hard anodizing so it doesn't scratch if looked it.
2: Everything replaceable as much as possible, RAM, SSD, HDD, etc.
3: USB-C charging ability in and out.
4: Five year warranty.
5: OPAL, or other hardware encrypting SSD.
6: More than USB-C ports. A SD card, regular USB-A port, and even a combination USB/e-SATA port would be highly useful.
7: A Kensington lock slot, even if it done XJack style and slides out, or even better cleverly designed like the old Thinkpads to prevent the machine from being opened if it is in use.
8. All data ports, jacks, slots, and the like are disabled at the hardware level when the laptop is in sleep mode, logged out, placed into 'secure mode',etc, and cannot be enabled nor accessed unless the correct password is entered to unlock the machine (customizable to enable leaving the machine running closed and sending data,, audio/video, etc, if desired).
As long as we're making a list of important features that would be great to have on a laptop, there's the next item I thought belonged on that list.
Strat
Most likely 'Assembled in an American factory'.
Where do all those parts and software components come from?
Of course they're getting their active and passive components from the same places everyone else does who builds to that architecture. If they do it right, building the motherboards and assembling/testing the units in the US will make possible a much tighter quality control and inspection process and greater feature-flexibility.
Naturally, the 'holy grail' relating in large part to security, openness, and freedom in the manufacturing of personal computers is making your own CPUs/GPUs/etc etc, but that takes enormous capital and R&D, not to mention overcoming huge regulatory and legal hurdles and burdens.
In today's US economic/taxation/financial/environmental landscape and regulatory environment an Intel, AMD, or even a MS or Apple could not make a successful start. The big players use the government's powers to pull up the ladder after themselves through laws, Acts, and regulations. That's a danger anytime the government is allowed to broaden it powers & scope, and extend it's control into more markets and technologies.
Strat
NN makes it harder for the small guys to compete since it adds so many rules and laws that ISPs must follow.
As with most laws, Acts, etc etc from Congress, the devil is in the details including but not limited to the implementation & enforcement.
I'll reserve judgement on it until I have more detailed information. On the surface it sounds good. I don't want shady shit going on by/with backbone providers/ISPs or Netflix, Amazon, etc etc any more than anyone else does.
Even if this bill is not what it touts and gets tossed, at least this is the proper way to go about putting these kinds of rules in place...by Congress who we can vote out, not some political appointee at a federal agency that can change with every new administration/Party.
Strat
The irony will be that the chilling effects such actions have on the populace will stifle creativity right along with stifling independent thinking. They may get their human automatons, but eventually they'll only be good for doing what they're told.
The Chinese are not concerned as they can and do steal the creative/innovative ideas from those living in more-free & more-open societies. That's been their practice literally for decades. Well, except when leaders like Bill Clinton hand the Chinese things like advanced missile guidance technology. I wonder how much money the Chinese gave Bill Clinton for that? At least the deal that Clinton pushed for to allow the Chinese military to take over an old US Navy base in CA located next to a nuclear submarine base fell through, or they'd have US nuclear sub and Trident missile designs and detailed sonar-fingerprints of every sub based there as well allowing them to track all of their movements and identify individual subs from sonar.
Strat
One word, pensions
Which the government should contract to have private sector pension investment firms handle, not the government.
The other thing that should not ever exist are public employee unions. They are pure corruption as it's union leaders and politicians getting together to decide how much of our money (taken under threat of deadly force) they will spend, and the public unions then kick back some of our money back to the politicians in the form of campaign donations and other political funding mechanisms.
Strat
How does having another non-tax source of income change that?
We could do away with taxes completely if the government owned and operated all manufacturing, businesses, etc but that's fascism or socialism, both of which are inherently authoritarian in nature.
It also removes the ability of the people to "starve the beast" when it oversteps it's authority and exceeds the limits on it's powers. Not to mention, it also drives private business out of the market as competing with the government is a losing game.
Much safer to keep the government dependent on the good will of the people it governs for funding.
Strat
So do I. What I don't see is how that precludes those funds from coming from an investment rather than taxes. What does the source matter if the accountability is there?
Looking at Norway, they have a massive investment fund that they can strategically tap to improve the country. I don't see a downside to that.
The US Constitution specifies that all moneys spent by the government be doled out by Congress, specifically the House.
You're welcome to amend it, however.
Strat
So you'd rather be taxed than your government find other sources of income?
That's a rather odd position for you to be taking.
Not at all strange. I want any wealth the government spends to be parceled out by Congress in a budget from accountable and audit-able sources so that they are more accountable to the electorate and less prone to corruption.
Strat
this creates a situation where the government is unable to invest in anything since there is always some conflict of interest.
Government should not be "investing" in any business or industry, full stop.
It can put laws and policies into effect to encourage or discourage certain things but it should not be both a participant in business and the regulator of business. That's how you grow crony-capitalism and I think we've all had enough of that horseshit.
Strat
Gah! Why are things just all around getting worse dammit!?!?
Regarding "things" in the US, it's very simple. The US government has become far too large and powerful to the point it no longer fears the people.
"When the government fears the people, there is liberty, when the people fear their government, there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson
Strat
The other wants to ENFORCE THE LAW.
Some do but the 'establishment' types do not, however, and they are the majority. They've had many chances with Congressional veto-proof majorities to pass legislation to improve the immigration system but chose not to time after time after time. Term limits need to be enacted along with Senators once again being elected by State legislatures instead of popular vote to even begin to get some of these serious issues adressed in a meaningful way instead of 'kicking the can down the road' as has been the case.
Strat
Well met, fellow string-slinger! I'm older now, too. I play mostly festivals, fairs, casinos, and similar types of gigs where the bookings can be spread out and planned to minimize stress, which helps tremendously. It does often mean medium-long trips and odd times for my comings and goings. It's still a hell of a lot of work and energy expenditure for someone north of 60 and not in the greatest of health. But after all, "players play".
Play on!
Strat
Yes, although I don't own and play *only* Stratocasters they are my usual "go-to" instrument. Also, the "Blue" in "BlueStrat" is not referring to a color, as any guitar I pick up is automatically "blue". ;-)
You'll also notice, looking at my posting history, that my posts happen at wildly random times, often at oh-dark-thirty local time. The life of a working musician. It doesn't get any easier with age, either!
Strat
This. The voice of sanity in this whole insane debate. It's not about ethnicity, background, race, color, or any of that. Followed the law vs. didn't follow the law. It really is that binary.
Agreed. I will add that the current legal immigration system needs a massive rework and more funding.
Sadly, however, both sides are more interested in keeping illegal immigration as an election issue and front-and-center in public debate. After all, without such perennial wedge issues to keep the electorate's attention, they might start seriously discussing things like term limits and auditing and opening up the Federal Reserve to oversight. Gotta keep the proles stirred up, angry, and thus reduced to functioning on their lizard brain in very predictable and usable ways.
Strat
who has netgear equipment anymore? who allows default passwords anymore? wow
Yes, but let's make this all about the "hacker" and ignore anything to do with holding any US military or politicians responsible for making the breach possible. After all, cases like that of Lauri Love show that the go-to response by the US government for these sorts of situations is "kill the messenger!" whenever government incompetence and corruption are exposed, and this behavior is not limited to Left or Right. It's natural human behavior that's amplified and given power by having a too-powerful central government
Strat
Defeated by a simple mirror.
Trying to deflect random laser small-arms fire with some sort of wearable or man-portable mirror system is...sub-optimal.
All you really need is shark repellent. :)
Strat
Ah, but the SGAE in Spain does not really want to forbid things. They want to be able to extort money from everybody.
Nobody expects the Spanish Requisition!
Strat
This thing could already power watches as if by magic. My watch battery lasts a few years, and if I did the math correctly, that's well below 60 microwatts. Surface area is more than 5 cm2, and temperature differential is well over 5C, so it should be plenty of power.
(Not talking about smartwatches, obviously).
InB4 panties with heatsinks/convection-cooling radiator fins suddenly come into fashion among women. :)
Strat
Thw revolution was decades in the future for Jefferson at the time he became the unwilling inheritor of his in-laws' estate. We have this thing called "time" so things don't all happen at once.
Look at it this way; If Jefferson had held out for including abolishing slavery in the COTUS/DOI, then the Southern colonies would have sided with England causing the revolution to fail, and as one of the possible consequences there might still be legal slavery today in the British North American Colonies (current US) and in Europe. WW1 and WW2 may have turned out much differently as well, especially for Britain and Europe. The Russians and Chinese would be riding that invasion and annexation pony hard and long, too, without the presence of a sovereign and powerful USA.
Strat
No, this is obviously the evil handiwork of Big Math.
Strat