We can't have people's civil rights get in the way of law enforcement. We need to change the law to keep the courts out of this. The courts have no right getting involved in these matters.
*That'll* fix those Satanic, Evolution-loving, Commie Terrorists!
(/tongue in cheek)
There, I believe I've insulted enough Conservatives for one day. I'll go now.
Instead, it is the job of parents to get involved in what their kids are doing, to teach them to have at least a half a braincell's worth of common sense. You don't allow the internet or the television to babysit your children. That's worse than handing them into the care of a random stranger on the street for no better reason than you're too lazy (or too busy) to do your job.
Parenting is hard, time-consuming work. If you're not prepared to do the time, then don't do the crime in the first place. I know what my 12-year old son is into, where he goes on the net, what music he listens to (mostly my old vinyl LP's, strangely enough), and what little TV he watches. I don't shield him from Bad Things. *I* show them to him, and make sure he knows they are bad. The hardest thing in the world is to show or say certain things to a child, but if you don't, they'll never know what those bad things are, and that you specifically disapprove of them (timing here is everything, but that's a discussion for another thread). You're the adult. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and act like one.
The parents have to be the biggest influence in their children's lives. This idea in Australia is worse than bad. It encourages the parents to ignore their kids and let the random stranger babysit them. Filtering that random babysitter doesn't make them any less a stranger.
Cities like Philadelphia will soon be handing out more parking tickets, in that case. When you run low of that group, you can start on jay-walkers. Think of it: At the same time you get a cheap source of energy, reduce vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and clear the way for urban renewal (fewer people, you see).
I like it! Someone call Mayor Street and let him know the good news.
I haven't had the chance to play with Oracle 10, but I've found the SQL dialect in the previous versions of Oracle to be just awful. Not completely SQL92 complient at all. Sure, the Object Oriented features are nice, but I'd rather have the same powerful SQL language that databases such as SQL Server and DB2/UDB have (If you've only worked with DB2 on the mainframe, you won't know what I'm talking about. DB2 on the mainframe's not the same thing as UDB). It appears that Oracle wants to go their own way instead of following standards (gee, who does *that* sound like, boys and girls?).
I often have to write code against multiple database engines, and prefer to write the SQL once, and tweak it a little for each DB as needed, usually finding a common syntax that works with most DB's. With Oracle, however, I'm forced to write lowest-common-denominator SQL that's little more than bare "select" statements, and let the application do the heavy lifting. It's annoying to waste a multi-million-dollar Server with 50-60 big fat processors and lots of memory and do the work on a clerk's PC that is so old it can barely run Windows (how about a 450 Mhz Pentium-II with 128MB of Ram running Windows NT4!) The alternitive is to write two apps: one for Oracle, and the other for everyone else.
Microsoft will shortly announce their introduction of the "Burn FLOSS To The Ground And Salt The Earth Beneath It" License, saying it will make the world safer for convicted antitrust violators everywhere!
First of all, Aero Glass sucks. I've been working with a Stardock clone of this look and feel for a few weeks now in XP, and it wears thin pretty quickly, adding nothing at all to the OS experience. Other than a sucky look and feel, what's left? Fixes for bugs that never should have hit XP in the first place? New bugs caused by MS putting functionality in the OS that doesn't belong there (e.g., RSS feeds)? How about a search engine for people who put files in random places on their hard drive, then complain when they can't find anything (Wanted: an automated search engine that works with socks and underwear)?
As for Media Player's GUI, does anyone stare at their media player all day, admiring it, or do you fire up a playlist and then minimize it (or if playing video, maximize it to get rid of the GUI entirely).
There's nothing whatever in Vista worth waiting for. What is there I neither want nor need. Right now, I'm running a clone of the Mac OSX GUI on XP. It's easy on the eyes, and doesn't require a video card from Industrial Light and Magic to run.
It's not like the ISS is of use to anyone, thanks to it being in its current orbit. Like the Shuttle itself, it was a bad idea poorly implemented. You don't design and implement a space station just so a gaggle of nations can proudly say they have a presence in space, and you don't build a shuttle just because a bunch of Air Force pilots insist on flying a space ship home like an airplane. You do both to accomplish a purpose in space. What is our current mission in space? Besides lining the pockets of the Aerospace Industry, that is. Form follows function. If you don't have a concrete goal to accomplish, you'll never reach it. We have no business being in space without such a goal.
My suggestion: decommission the space station and shuttle, close down NASA, and give the money we currently spend on it to private individuals and companies to do something (tourism, manufacturing, mining, whatever) worthwhile with it. That is the only way mankind will reach the "new frontier", the same way we reached the old one: monitize it.
Not so very long ago, in many countries, you had to be a land owner in order to vote. Times may have changed, but government power hasn't. Today, governments aren't run by the people, but by the large multinational corporations. Either way, the vast majority of people wind up with no say in how things are run. Even if they vote (which is rare enough), they have a choice between corporate candidate #1 or corporate candidate #2, with the occasional choice of extremist candidate #3, just to give the media something to panic about during the 6 o'clock news.
Orwell was right, gang. The government is not under our control, we are under its. Our every step, and every breath, is monitored from birth thru death by our corporate overlords thru credit cards, phone bills, Tivos, and spyware. Free speech is censored by Google, Yahoo, and others. The openness of the Internet is a lie spread by ISP's who advertise huge bandwidths but close down anyone who actually tries to use it. 1984 was filled with dim-witted, ham-fisted amateurs, compared to the real world.
The first computer virus I encountered was back in the glory days of the Amiga 500. I forget the name of it, but the virus re-wrote your video driver so the screen displayed everything upside down and backwards.
The second virus I encountered (same machine) was just as interesting: a tiny helicopter flew onto your screen, dropped a grappling hook to grab your pointer, and fly off with it, never to be seen again.
I tell ya, those were the days, when men were men, gurus meditated, and virus writers were... but I digress.
Today, those guys probably are making a fortune somewhere writing video DRM for Vista.
Another Problem: Timing a Password Change
on
Too Many Passwords
·
· Score: 1
One of the biggest problems I have is when I cannot change my password on *my* schedule. I like to change my password on the first of every month, and sometimes the administrator has assigned an arbitrary number of days, such as 30 (31 would be better). A very few won't let you change your password earlier than 2 or 3 weeks, so it becomes difficult to catch up if you have to use a "temporary" password to satisfy the 30-day system.
I've found that, rather than use a grid or somesuch as others have suggested, what works for me is to make up a multipart password consisting of two unusual words plus a series of letters, numbers, and symbols referencing the current month and year (all in some consistant order). On the first of each month, you need only change the date part. The result appears random, is easy to remember in the long run, and requires nothing be written down. If you're *really* paranoid, you can select two different words translated into two different foreign languages.
As has been pointed out before, the administrators who enforce the toughest rules aren't improving security. The only thing they're improving is the sales of Post-It Notes.
The first place, and usually, the only place, I will play a CD is on my computer, where it gets ripped, and added to my music library (all of which I have legally purchased on CD). Usually, I listen to it there, sometimes I copy it to an MP3 player. At no time does the music get shared with anyone else, though.
I, therefore, don't mind the kind of DRM that can be bypassed with the shift key (in my case, I've disabled autorun), if that sort of scheme keeps the RIAA happy and away from anything that really works.
So, I say let's support DRM schemes, as long as they're as lame as this.
I have no need of 5.1 surround-sound DVD Audio disks (I use headphones) with more advanced DRM, and no interest in HDTV disks (regular DVD's are enough for me) with the DRM requiring an always-on Internet connection and special monitors. As long as I vote with my wallet for the stuff with ineffective (or no) DRM, then I'm doing my part. Let the RIAA spend millions of dollars on something worthless. Wait, that also covers most of what they publish, doesn't it?
First, that's an appropriate place to keep a Slashdot stylesheet. Second, I didn't know CmdrTaco was in the navy. Go figure. At least he has something to read while he's in there.
I find it interesting that a lot of the focus at the end of the article is on creating some sort of Holodeck, ala Star Trek. It's a sad state of affairs when the latest tech "innovation" comes from the previous week's episode of Star Trek.
So, where are these brilliant ideas going to come from now that there *is* no more Trek?
Quantum Link had the worst customer service I have ever seen (but then again, I've never tried AOL). I had several problems with them, and as a result tried to drop them. Had the same difficulties doing that as people today do with AOHell. Why anyone would want to raise that particular dead body, I don't know. Same folks that are into self-mutilation, I suppose.
Hey, I know, let's bring back Fido Net and command-line BBS systems.
The only way the patent system will get fixed is if a lot of big companies end up spending lots of money in court fighting nonsense patents like this one. Eventually, the guys with the bucks will cry "Enough!", and Congress will be forced to make changes. After all, the men and women in Congress work for, and report to, those same corporations, right? I mean, it's not like they're going to listen to the voters (heaven forbid)!
Microsoft is just showing their future plans for Windows. This is the whole purpose behind the Trusted Computing initiative: collect a toll from every software and hardware company that wants to sell something that works with Windows.
Violators will be hit with the DMCA, or patent violations, or both.
Pretty much what Apple's planning to do with their Macintel!
For the benefit of everyone suggesting that we use a space elevator, unfortunately, we don't have the technology yet to make Bucky cables (Buckminsterfullerene, I believe) 100 miles long. I don't even think we've managed to make one a foot long yet.
Can you imagine the lawsuits, though, when someone gets hit in the head by one of these cables being dragged from orbit by an off-course space shuttle? Of course, if you could catch it as it goes by, you can anchor it in front of your house and make a fortune. I can see it now: "Joe Billy-Bob's Used Car Lot and Space Transportation Company". Has a nice ring to it, I think.
Slashdot Mirror
We can't have people's civil rights get in the way of law enforcement. We need to change the law to keep the courts out of this. The courts have no right getting involved in these matters.
*That'll* fix those Satanic, Evolution-loving, Commie Terrorists!
(/tongue in cheek)
There, I believe I've insulted enough Conservatives for one day. I'll go now.
Instead, it is the job of parents to get involved in what their kids are doing, to teach them to have at least a half a braincell's worth of common sense. You don't allow the internet or the television to babysit your children. That's worse than handing them into the care of a random stranger on the street for no better reason than you're too lazy (or too busy) to do your job.
Parenting is hard, time-consuming work. If you're not prepared to do the time, then don't do the crime in the first place. I know what my 12-year old son is into, where he goes on the net, what music he listens to (mostly my old vinyl LP's, strangely enough), and what little TV he watches. I don't shield him from Bad Things. *I* show them to him, and make sure he knows they are bad. The hardest thing in the world is to show or say certain things to a child, but if you don't, they'll never know what those bad things are, and that you specifically disapprove of them (timing here is everything, but that's a discussion for another thread). You're the adult. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and act like one.
The parents have to be the biggest influence in their children's lives. This idea in Australia is worse than bad. It encourages the parents to ignore their kids and let the random stranger babysit them. Filtering that random babysitter doesn't make them any less a stranger.
I wouldn't worry about the Vegans until they finish their Hyperspatial Throughway. So, Don't Panic, OK?
Cities like Philadelphia will soon be handing out more parking tickets, in that case. When you run low of that group, you can start on jay-walkers. Think of it: At the same time you get a cheap source of energy, reduce vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and clear the way for urban renewal (fewer people, you see). I like it! Someone call Mayor Street and let him know the good news.
...But maybe that's just me.
Oh, wait...
I haven't had the chance to play with Oracle 10, but I've found the SQL dialect in the previous versions of Oracle to be just awful. Not completely SQL92 complient at all. Sure, the Object Oriented features are nice, but I'd rather have the same powerful SQL language that databases such as SQL Server and DB2/UDB have (If you've only worked with DB2 on the mainframe, you won't know what I'm talking about. DB2 on the mainframe's not the same thing as UDB). It appears that Oracle wants to go their own way instead of following standards (gee, who does *that* sound like, boys and girls?).
I often have to write code against multiple database engines, and prefer to write the SQL once, and tweak it a little for each DB as needed, usually finding a common syntax that works with most DB's. With Oracle, however, I'm forced to write lowest-common-denominator SQL that's little more than bare "select" statements, and let the application do the heavy lifting. It's annoying to waste a multi-million-dollar Server with 50-60 big fat processors and lots of memory and do the work on a clerk's PC that is so old it can barely run Windows (how about a 450 Mhz Pentium-II with 128MB of Ram running Windows NT4!) The alternitive is to write two apps: one for Oracle, and the other for everyone else.
Microsoft will shortly announce their introduction of the "Burn FLOSS To The Ground And Salt The Earth Beneath It" License, saying it will make the world safer for convicted antitrust violators everywhere!
Embrace...Extend...Extinguish
First of all, Aero Glass sucks. I've been working with a Stardock clone of this look and feel for a few weeks now in XP, and it wears thin pretty quickly, adding nothing at all to the OS experience. Other than a sucky look and feel, what's left? Fixes for bugs that never should have hit XP in the first place? New bugs caused by MS putting functionality in the OS that doesn't belong there (e.g., RSS feeds)? How about a search engine for people who put files in random places on their hard drive, then complain when they can't find anything (Wanted: an automated search engine that works with socks and underwear)?
As for Media Player's GUI, does anyone stare at their media player all day, admiring it, or do you fire up a playlist and then minimize it (or if playing video, maximize it to get rid of the GUI entirely).
There's nothing whatever in Vista worth waiting for. What is there I neither want nor need. Right now, I'm running a clone of the Mac OSX GUI on XP. It's easy on the eyes, and doesn't require a video card from Industrial Light and Magic to run.
Sorry, Redmond. Not interested.
It's not like the ISS is of use to anyone, thanks to it being in its current orbit. Like the Shuttle itself, it was a bad idea poorly implemented. You don't design and implement a space station just so a gaggle of nations can proudly say they have a presence in space, and you don't build a shuttle just because a bunch of Air Force pilots insist on flying a space ship home like an airplane. You do both to accomplish a purpose in space. What is our current mission in space? Besides lining the pockets of the Aerospace Industry, that is. Form follows function. If you don't have a concrete goal to accomplish, you'll never reach it. We have no business being in space without such a goal.
My suggestion: decommission the space station and shuttle, close down NASA, and give the money we currently spend on it to private individuals and companies to do something (tourism, manufacturing, mining, whatever) worthwhile with it. That is the only way mankind will reach the "new frontier", the same way we reached the old one: monitize it.
The one with all the gold makes the rules. That leaves the UN out, I guess.
...without dropping the connection at least once a day, I'd be happy. Microsoft, makers of the finest semi-functional software in the world!
Not so very long ago, in many countries, you had to be a land owner in order to vote. Times may have changed, but government power hasn't. Today, governments aren't run by the people, but by the large multinational corporations. Either way, the vast majority of people wind up with no say in how things are run. Even if they vote (which is rare enough), they have a choice between corporate candidate #1 or corporate candidate #2, with the occasional choice of extremist candidate #3, just to give the media something to panic about during the 6 o'clock news.
Orwell was right, gang. The government is not under our control, we are under its. Our every step, and every breath, is monitored from birth thru death by our corporate overlords thru credit cards, phone bills, Tivos, and spyware. Free speech is censored by Google, Yahoo, and others. The openness of the Internet is a lie spread by ISP's who advertise huge bandwidths but close down anyone who actually tries to use it. 1984 was filled with dim-witted, ham-fisted amateurs, compared to the real world.
The first computer virus I encountered was back in the glory days of the Amiga 500. I forget the name of it, but the virus re-wrote your video driver so the screen displayed everything upside down and backwards.
The second virus I encountered (same machine) was just as interesting: a tiny helicopter flew onto your screen, dropped a grappling hook to grab your pointer, and fly off with it, never to be seen again.
I tell ya, those were the days, when men were men, gurus meditated, and virus writers were... but I digress.
Today, those guys probably are making a fortune somewhere writing video DRM for Vista.
One of the biggest problems I have is when I cannot change my password on *my* schedule. I like to change my password on the first of every month, and sometimes the administrator has assigned an arbitrary number of days, such as 30 (31 would be better). A very few won't let you change your password earlier than 2 or 3 weeks, so it becomes difficult to catch up if you have to use a "temporary" password to satisfy the 30-day system.
I've found that, rather than use a grid or somesuch as others have suggested, what works for me is to make up a multipart password consisting of two unusual words plus a series of letters, numbers, and symbols referencing the current month and year (all in some consistant order). On the first of each month, you need only change the date part. The result appears random, is easy to remember in the long run, and requires nothing be written down. If you're *really* paranoid, you can select two different words translated into two different foreign languages.
As has been pointed out before, the administrators who enforce the toughest rules aren't improving security. The only thing they're improving is the sales of Post-It Notes.
The first place, and usually, the only place, I will play a CD is on my computer, where it gets ripped, and added to my music library (all of which I have legally purchased on CD). Usually, I listen to it there, sometimes I copy it to an MP3 player. At no time does the music get shared with anyone else, though.
I, therefore, don't mind the kind of DRM that can be bypassed with the shift key (in my case, I've disabled autorun), if that sort of scheme keeps the RIAA happy and away from anything that really works.
So, I say let's support DRM schemes, as long as they're as lame as this.
I have no need of 5.1 surround-sound DVD Audio disks (I use headphones) with more advanced DRM, and no interest in HDTV disks (regular DVD's are enough for me) with the DRM requiring an always-on Internet connection and special monitors. As long as I vote with my wallet for the stuff with ineffective (or no) DRM, then I'm doing my part. Let the RIAA spend millions of dollars on something worthless. Wait, that also covers most of what they publish, doesn't it?
First, that's an appropriate place to keep a Slashdot stylesheet. Second, I didn't know CmdrTaco was in the navy. Go figure. At least he has something to read while he's in there.
I find it interesting that a lot of the focus at the end of the article is on creating some sort of Holodeck, ala Star Trek. It's a sad state of affairs when the latest tech "innovation" comes from the previous week's episode of Star Trek.
So, where are these brilliant ideas going to come from now that there *is* no more Trek?
Quantum Link had the worst customer service I have ever seen (but then again, I've never tried AOL). I had several problems with them, and as a result tried to drop them. Had the same difficulties doing that as people today do with AOHell. Why anyone would want to raise that particular dead body, I don't know. Same folks that are into self-mutilation, I suppose.
Hey, I know, let's bring back Fido Net and command-line BBS systems.
N/T
The only way the patent system will get fixed is if a lot of big companies end up spending lots of money in court fighting nonsense patents like this one. Eventually, the guys with the bucks will cry "Enough!", and Congress will be forced to make changes. After all, the men and women in Congress work for, and report to, those same corporations, right? I mean, it's not like they're going to listen to the voters (heaven forbid)!
Well, if they haven't yet, they surely will soon. (to which Will replied "Don't call me Shirley")
After broadcasting Star Trek Enterprise, it is truely the Urine-Powered Network
Microsoft is just showing their future plans for Windows. This is the whole purpose behind the Trusted Computing initiative: collect a toll from every software and hardware company that wants to sell something that works with Windows.
Violators will be hit with the DMCA, or patent violations, or both.
Pretty much what Apple's planning to do with their Macintel!
For the benefit of everyone suggesting that we use a space elevator, unfortunately, we don't have the technology yet to make Bucky cables (Buckminsterfullerene, I believe) 100 miles long. I don't even think we've managed to make one a foot long yet.
Can you imagine the lawsuits, though, when someone gets hit in the head by one of these cables being dragged from orbit by an off-course space shuttle? Of course, if you could catch it as it goes by, you can anchor it in front of your house and make a fortune. I can see it now: "Joe Billy-Bob's Used Car Lot and Space Transportation Company". Has a nice ring to it, I think.