Glenn Fleishman has done a neat job of identifying some of the leading
groups and individuals that are trying to stop U.S. municipalities
from setting up wireless internet systems, such as the
Heartland Institute and the
New Millennium Research Council,
"a
sock puppet for the incumbent telecommunications interests"
that don't want municipalities to compete with
their own private, for-profit services. According to tech columnist
Dan Gillmor
, the anti-WiFi campaign is yet another
example of the "ongoing scandal" of "lack of transparency in the
world of opinion-making.... What we have today is a system of opinion
laundering, where powerful interests try to create public support for
their side of issues without disclosing the hidden agendas."
If you configure a computer to automatically
start a vnc server
after booting,
you can control the mouse and keyboard remotely.
This opens up many possibilities.
I have done this for my parents and been amazed
at how much it seems like I am physically present
when using vnc in connection with a telephone
conversation.
See, for example, http://www.tightvnc.com/: "TightVNC is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer."
I think I stopped taking this kind of thing very seriously when I read a study
where self-identified MCS sufferers were intentionally exposed to chemicals in
a blind test - expose them to chemicals with no detectable odor, and they have
no reaction. Expose them to harmless chemicals with a noticeable odor, and
they immediately have a "reaction".
The chemical industry sponsors studies to discredit the idea of chemical
sensitivities and chemical injury
(see
Toxic Deception
)
the same way
Microsoft funds studies to discredit Linux
.
In one example documented in Toxic Deception
a chemical industry study avoided finding
a correlation between workplace chemical exposures
and ill health by randomly classifying subjects as exposed or not.
An EPA employee discovered the fraud when he noticed the same subjects
had opposite classifications in different studies.
The scenario described by the parent poster is unlikely. All the studies
along those lines
that I am aware of use a masking agent to hide the sent of chemicals, not
chemicals that don't smell.
Such studies can be faked by deliberately selecting patients
using bogus criteria, or by using a masking agent that is itself toxic.
Slashdot Mirror
See, for example, http://www.tightvnc.com/: "TightVNC is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer."
The chemical industry sponsors studies to discredit the idea of chemical sensitivities and chemical injury (see Toxic Deception ) the same way Microsoft funds studies to discredit Linux . In one example documented in Toxic Deception a chemical industry study avoided finding a correlation between workplace chemical exposures and ill health by randomly classifying subjects as exposed or not. An EPA employee discovered the fraud when he noticed the same subjects had opposite classifications in different studies.
The scenario described by the parent poster is unlikely. All the studies along those lines that I am aware of use a masking agent to hide the sent of chemicals, not chemicals that don't smell. Such studies can be faked by deliberately selecting patients using bogus criteria, or by using a masking agent that is itself toxic.