Compensation is IRELLEVANT. Pursuit of Justice is FUTILE...
Don't EVER publish your own novels or such on ms' site, for given their requirements, you could publish the world's next best novel and be screwed their heavy-handedness. Or, you could post an idea covering the history of gaming and sims, only to find them developing your idea behind your back and then pointing to the contract.
Don't contribute to them. Apparently, they don't want or don't need PUBLIC DOMAIN material and seem, rather, to be fishing for new content at the expense of the contributor.
Can anyone really trust microsoft to be fair, honest, and such about ideas that come to them and they perceive to be worth millions, but the contributor is clueless? When does "survival of the fittest" take a back seat to integrity?
I wonder if this sort of thing could get a permit to be on the streets. Imagine the size of sidewalk-widening projects in the US. Might actually span a resurgence of new cities creations and help reduce density in already congested, corrupt, or "locked-down" cities where people cannot or are afraid to design homes that don't "fit" in with existing styles.
Now, if there's a "wreck on the sidewalk", it could mess up a fruit stand or crush some peds, but, as long as the operator has skill and a permit, "side-stepping" (hehehe) a sidewalk issue would be "a walk in the park".
I wonder how many miles this thing can go. Practically, though, wheeled conveyance might be the way to go. I wonder if Sakakibara Kikai-san will put wheels in the heels. Those who take up Robo-Club, a la Hells Angels, could be Heels Angels, hehehh, or "Heels/Angles", hheehh, if that set can spin like kids do in those wheeled tennis shoes. Talk about "Doin' da Robot" dance....
But, I can see some problems:
--Getting Groceries home --Going on a date --Going on a blind date (in snow storms, or on one with two extra pax (passengers...) --Showing up at the TSA-controlled airports --Showing up in Afghanistan or Tikrit (the Marines will either go slackjaw in awe, or reduce the thing to rubble, hehehe) --Trying out lovers' lane (don't fall, or you'll have a REAL crush going on...)
--Stooping, kneeling, --Being Flame-thrower-attacked (Stop, Drop, & Roll won't work here, but fire-suppression bottles might...)
--Doing a last robo-tango-in (name your town...)
David Syes
Re:Frickin' sharks... go the Dolphins! Porpoise...
on
Finally ... RoboShark!
·
· Score: 1
if 5 or 6 REAL Great Whites ganger-banged Cousteau's shark. It would a moment of sudden clarity, sort of like Michael Behm's character in The Abyss... sinking...sinking...CRUNCH and plexi-shatter...
I wonder if any of the real sharks would be pissed off or curious about this mech swimmer in their domain. Will they really ignore it, or chomp on it, or try to hump-back it...?I hope they have windscreen wipers just in case... I wonder if that thing has a "sample collector port" in case one of Willy's enemies wants to "deep-six" (or, umm, deep sixteen) the craft's underbelly. I wonder if the navigation and gyration system has "coitus operandi" programmed into it. Talk about a wet, "roughride". BORN to be WILD, YAHH!
But, if that vessel gets cock-locked, (and is missing a cock-block or liquid saw or torch to burn or embolize that frisky seallion hunter...) and the battery juice runs out...talk about being in deep shit. Better caall Darrwin-- Darwin... Horrny... Me save hapless human explorer... Mee Darh-when....
and that litttle Flippy is Trippy. Don't get goin' too fast, tho, cuz if it rolls uncontrollably and irrecoverably into the depths, someone may as well break out the cyanide capsule and in the final moments begin singing:
"We call him Flihh-purh, Fllipp-hur, fahsstur thanh lyghttt-neeng...."
I consider the presence of cookies a form of TRESPASS. (See my other post in this discussion; it is LONG, and terse...)
However, ONE sure-fire way to burn PIE and throw it back in Untied Virulent's face is to surf from a boot CD or read-only file system.
Change you cookie destination to Root ownership, or devise and distribute a script that every 5 seconds scans the filesystem for session-related downloads and purges them, quarantines them, or edits them to make them unreliable, untrustworthy, or puts vulgar content into the cookie and PIE.
Now, that will likely raise issues and open a new can of worms. UV will likely say THEY own the cookies. IF they take that tack, they surely they must be aware they can be sued for trespass. Maybe they are trying to beat double-dick doubleclick at its own game. Maybe doubledick or other agencies own shares in these companies, but if not now, they may later.
If UV gets "smart" and tries to send the cookie crumbs and pie slices to paths outside of the surfing user's own home space, then that also could be considered a form of trespass, as they would likely have to violate system admin security policies which might be set up to force web content to a security proxy or to a root-controlled path on the users' disk.
What will double-dick and UV say when more people shift to diskless stations? Edit/crumble their cookies? Burn/toss their pie?
Time to counter-act this NOW, while it's early. Time to make better firewall, IDS, and editing tools to deliver a message loud and clear.
(No, I am not wearing a tin-foil hat. I am simply being malevolently and diametrically (but not yet diabolically) opposed to digital trespass once I've declared something to be trespass on my system
"Deleting cookies throws this all out of whack and makes it difficult for web sites to know what their readers really want. "
I don't buy that at all. The content providers could JUST as easily limit themselves to keeping track of WHAT was downloaded and WHEN said item was downloaded. They can look at the IP, or the last router, or the other information about the geographic location of the IP. Even so, some users will have traversed to a site via company/employer-imposed VPNs or maybe they arrive to a product site via a kiosk. Some will have arrived via wireless devices such as PDAs, cell phones and other equipment. Thus, it is INDIVIDUALs the companies want to track, and all too many subscribers and viewers click "OK" without one iota of self-preservation or protection about what information they give up which can be merged/acquired and then sold or abused.
But, **no**, they want to know every last damn little detail they can get just shy of (and sometimes questionably close to) breaking laws and privacy convenants..
I ROUTINELY not only delete cookies via the user interface in the browser, I sometimes delete the wretched encrypted cookie file from a browser. As for KDE, I drill down to the cookies folders themselves and whack from there what I don't like. Moreover, I recently got pissed that certain doubleclick CRAP kept ending up in there, either because it was being told to not come back, or it was coming back against my wishes, EVEN THOUGH my inbound firewall rules as supposed to keep double-dick off my system. Sometimes, I'll even create another user and surf from it, just to keep certain frequently-offending sites' cookies out of my normal user account (no, not pron, but just at a whim I may decide I've had enough Yahoo! cookies or other's cookies for one day or week...), or, maybe to play games with sites. If I were inclined, I'd edit the cookies and inject garbage into them just to make them unreliable, not just delete them. However, none of that would mask my machine's BIOS/MAC ID the telcos and government are in bed over... (Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if the domestic intel agencies own shares in or fund doublclick or some unnamed "eviler twin" of doubledick... 1s and 0s are a lot more managable than the Sears/Penny's paper catalogs doubledick used to manage/own...)
Now, I have to (will, and desire to) upgrade to a firewall tool that lets me block outbound streams/bytes as well. I have hundreds, or well over a hundred "offenders" on my shitlist and I malevolently whack them. When I get the money together, I will subscribe or Pay-Pal to sites I frequent, but, NO means NO! and when I tell doubledick and anything "ad...." to stay away, I mean exactly that.
I am one who is weird enough to endure 30 seconds for a page to load, so long as I know it is the result of my dumping or maligning cookies. There are plenty of sites to visit in 30 seconds; I can check e-mail. For that matter, I even block things from Yahoo!, even though it degrades my access time to my e-mail. It's the price I pay for making a terse, swift-kick-up-the-marketing-ass statement. Now, if only more people feel the same way, and accordingly adjust their firewalls and ad killers... No, we have too many sheep for that to become a reality.
Again, marketing teams should, by LAW or common sense, for that matter, have an OPT IN policy that allows users to be tracked, or endure slightly-degraded performance. They can even track that, just by seeing how many cookies don't get accepted, or that are actively and consciously and conscientiously denied. Cookies don't have to be tracked across sessions as long as the end user or visitor is complacent with entering passwords or passphrases with every site or session traversal.
I despise cookies, more than I despise most social dangers and certain other things. Cookies, deadly or not, are insidious and any user who despises them should be given the polite, friendly opt-out method and still have access to content.
Now, if only the US markets use JAN or QR code so that we could go grocery and other shopping and receive product information on user-initiated queries. We could even scan library shelves (on even from on-line libraries) and download content, or receive flyers on the street. Hell, even police cars could radiate missing persons reports that they receive. Then, any concerned citizen or visitor could download pictures and relevant information in a given community.
LOTS of things could be done right here in the US that AREN'T being done because some PHB or bean counter can't find an immediate payback in it.
distributed by Vodafone. My phone allows reading of e-books. I just recently figured out how to find the hidden folder (it's on the mini SD card in Kanji, so I had to sprinkle files here and there and put the card back into my phone and then drill into e-Books until the file showed up in a list.
Here is how my text appears, 7 words across 13 lines down.
----------
Perhaps if the whole DVD region encoding scheme were to be stricken or banished, and movies released world-wide to many regions versus by region coode (1), then piracy and shoddy translations would be reduced, maybe a lot. (Diisclaimer, I have only ONE non-paid DVD in my collection and iit's not US-produced, but ALL my others are paidd-for, usually from Fry's Electronics or as Blockbuster or Hollywood used video sell-offs, and I have spent HUNDREDSs on over 50 DVDs and maybe 80 or more VHS cassettes. (2)
---------
That is on a CG Silicon screen READIN AREA (black border lines) measuring 1-11/32 inches wide by 1-14/32 (or, 1-7/16) inches. Using the scrool ring makes reading faster, and I can save to the bookmark, move to the bookmark, Home, End, % Shift, and Copy, a the page in percentages and save the bookmark. Also, I can change the text direction from horizontal to lateral. In lateral orientation/direction, I get 12 lines of text to read, vs 13. But, that is not a problem because I can flip and twist the screen and read it as a reader rather than as a phone, in appearance. *
The average paperback has 10 to 15 words across and 40-45 words down. Also, I can adjust the font to 3 (THREE) different sizes, but only one is useful to me, as my vision permits me to read small fonts (for now...).
The cool thing is I can write materiaal and save it in TEXT format (.txt, not.pdf) onto my mini-SD card and read it on my phone, and that is GOOD, particularly since when on a bus or train it's utterly embarrassing a impractical to use my Sony VAIO PCG-FX215 as the battery lasts only 3 (THREE) minutes now once KDE is up, and that is even with CPU throttling turned on. Even at a black screen before selecting a kernel, if I forget to plug in the laptop, I get maybe 4 minutes before the battery dies. (Yes, I try to discharge it by running the l/t, but when I plug in, it begins charging at some 85%, then takes an hour or so to get to 100%...)
Now, if the US markets offer.txt reading via cell phones (assuming the phone has an SD/mini-SD card slot), this might tick off the PDA and content providers, especially since the content providers might feeel "screwed out of" being able to charge by the kilobyte for downloading text. But, that would be a screwed up argument in itself, as Bluetooth-enabled phones would probably permit inbound text transfers to a phone (well, unless the provider specifically asks the phone manufacturer to block it in the circuitry...)
Now, when I run my phone's Analog TV (picks up Bay Area broadcasts, and when close enough to a tower like CH11 it is mouth watering. The Spanish and a few others are astoundinggly clear/sharp, and all run at 30-fps) or the FM radio (tunes from 76 MHz to 90 MHz... fortunately, I can pick up NPR/88.5), I get only about 1 hour of time on the battery. That is not bad, as it permits about 25% of juice to remain to take calls, e-mail, play scheduled alarms, etc. But, as long as the phone is plugged into AC, all I have to do hit the power button every 30 or every 60 minutes, depending on which I chose for battery conservation...
* (The screen measures 1-14/32 by 1-28/32 vertically, or 1-7/16 by 1-7/8 inches, while the lid itself, above the swivel point measures: 1-31/32 wide by 2-26/32. It's is a helluva cool phone, and I wish Vodafone or a US carrier would put this phone in t
This reminds me of a question that for years I have never posed on the Internet:
Can a site that sends to a user a "user requested/downloaded document" actually SEE and log the destination path? In other words, can the remote site know my folder names?
If so, that means ANY documents you download should go into a generic path name so that document providers cannot glean/glimpse your file structure. Imagine if government agencies and even just marketing companies were able to get a psyche outlook on your system. Imagine if they could force the downloading document to attempt a path traversal up or down or around your system but still only go to the path you specified. They'd be in the position of monitoring your file structure even if you dump documets into a generic path...
Now, wouldn't THAT be scary? Means you better do TWO things, maybe 3:
1. Download to an "exposed machine" 2. Copy to a disk so that no machine transfer logs can be later exploited. 3. Keep off-machine logs and system monitors watching your internal and your external traffic to note whether the document is sending information or receiving remote "packet burst" instructions.
It always interest me whether or not a document is sending encrypted or random, eyeball-confusing bits that would draw no attention to the less-than-sophisticated/newbie system admin.
Huh, ms "Count Chocula"?... More like Count Cocula, Screwing the hell out of not only its customers and channel partners, but dumping mounds and heaps of documentation on its developers. Enters into contract agreements to reach a point of clear assessment of another's ideas, then implements as own after breaking the contract...
Or, maybe Count FudUla? Assesses the threat potential of a competitor deserving a chance in the market, but then spews Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (not the first, but the most prolific, effficient, and insidious) to crush the rib cages and choke off the air supply of said competitors whose prospective and actual funders, supporters, and suppliers back out in anticipation of the new "gee whiz, we can do that and integrate it well at no extra cost to your licensing pak..."
Just, ahem, audit your "logs" and don't leave any "trans-action" trails, ahem...
Keep in mind that your "digital linkup" could come under screwtiny, ahem, scrutiny.
Regardless of iCopulate gender or digital orientation, among both and other orientations, I'll wager there are quite a number of anonymous f***s out there just waiting to be fingered, grepped, touched, ls'd and more...
Let's break out the "sex by the command line" lines, shall we?
Maybe Novell should also license from IBM all it can from Lotus SmartSuite, then merge the best of WP, Paradox, (if it still has any rights to WP & Pdx) into SmartSuite and then release the package to compete with OpenOffiice.org.
I am STILL not pleased with the document insert "feature" which, when I insert a document, it goes into a "band", invisibly. When I link to another document and then want to edit from beginning to end, I damn well should be able to SEEEEEEE those linked documents.
Lotus WordPro has done this RIGHT for years. 1.9.79 still makes me go, "sigh.... maybe NEXT version SO/OO.o will pull their heads out and actually BUY a copy of Lotus SmartSuite and start simplyfiying and mimicking stuff that works, instead of coming up with gee-whizz stuff that piles on to the list of features that have to be debugged, making it too resource intensive (on the devs AND the desktop) to be economical to go back and fix those useful features.
I also think Novell could pull a rabbit or two by adjusting the document interface so that a user in a spreadsheet can put the tabs wherever they want, not just get force-fed bottom tabs only or top tabs only. (Actually, I thought GroupWise offered that, or maybe it was QuattroPro...)
If IBM and Novell had some limited thing going on, Lotus SmartSuite could be diffused (not DEfused, mind you) across more Linux/Open Source environments.
I am not at all about "killing off" the various suites that OpenSource devs are making, but christ-o-matic, take a LOOK at what SmartSuite has, and gingerly, without ticking IBM off too terribly, clone some of those features, especially if IBM is not going to get its Lotus camp on the band wagon.
NOVELL, are you leesteneeng? Please, PLEASE, license from IBM/Lotus the Lotus and then uppgrade the Approach database interface, the Lotus WordPro document interface, and the Lotus 1-2-3 interface. They're crisp, tight, concise, colorful, not drab/gray.
At least Lotus isn't busy chomping away and cloning the heck out of ms' orifice. (Actually between Lotus and SourceNext ("Lotus SuperOffce developers/distributors in Japan/Asia...), I wonder what will be the next offerings to Lotus SmartSuite.)
him into believing the GIMP **IS** the "low-cost" version of Photoshoppe...., and that they've changed the interface and name. (Just be sure to write a script to change all references to "OS/FLOSS/GNU/GPL...." for his login...
-- take the name of god (or God) in vain as if daring and willing suicide by blashphemy (think: suicide by cop) for everything that did and will go wrong in this and other lifetimes
-- pound the living shit out of the surrounding and supporting furniture
-- cry
-- cry some more
-- fling the disk across the room
-- fling the disk across the room, again
-- attempt audaciouss, irreversible, instant suicide by persistent, vehement, non-repentent blasphemy, again
-- Clench-fist-shake like Kirk in the Genesis Cave, forehead veins bulging, howling:
"Gooooddd!!!!. Gooooddd!!!!. Gooooddd!!!!",
while trying to find a suitable place to hurl that disk like a mo-fo without it richocheting into forehead or window (both expensive to fix if hit by a disk flying at 25 MPH... The gray MATTER is NOT as durable as the silver PLATTER) (No, not ALL of those in this bullet happened to me, yet...heheh...)
-- (and, if a tecchie working too far into the night, smashed the hell out of the drive but then and hour after the fact realises the data cable was never connected, though power was, or vice versa...) (no comment...)
-- save the disk for a decade, in the hopes that some new, non-rotative technology will vacuuum the data off the platter
===========
The part that if had to joke about after reading this:
"One restaurant manager who was so upset with his laptop that he threw it into deep fryer. That destroyed the laptop... and deep fryer, too."
was, "That drive WAS FRIED!".
And, "THAT laptop really did have a CORE MELTDOWN!"
And, "Unlike "Therminator", this disk will NOT "... bee bohkk.."
And, I wonder if the EPA was called for the toxic site cleanup. I wonder if he was standing before a vat of a "veal pond" (think: the CA man whose property developments were held up by environmentalists over some scum on his property... it was really just scum, not a new life form...)
After all, if a cigarette butt in water qualifies as a toxic site, then a laptop dropped into a deep oil/fat fryer would gunk up the pipes and be all too hard to miss when the *trol/Horbart/whatever company rep comes to fix it.
Some duty to reporting environmental hazards, ehh?
I guess if my suggestions are the basis of updated civil rights groups cases, then some attorneys would be "AGOG"... 'anti-gag-order-gag', but then some of us might be slain like "Agag"...
(bad attempts at a gag gog, or an agog gag... gaak...)
(I sort of had ideas of how to anti-gag a gag order, legally, and hopefully fairly efficiently...)
Anyone worried and wanting to tip off their site visitors to a possible gag order could just post a counter on their site, sort of like employer safety stats:
We have gone XXX (number) days without having been served a subpoena for:
Category:
1. 2. 3. 4....
which would require the site operator to manually upadate the numbers and to positively push the button to commit the site refreshing. If you refuse to do that, then all concerned could presume the site or its records are under some sort of subpoena.
When the site isn't updated, then the users can legitimately "start shitting", and if the government "puts a gun to your head" to falsely update your site, THEN it will be more criminal than just inspecting or "subpoenaing" your equipment. --- Probably, the best advice is just to:
-- be on your best behavior
-- ALWAYS assume logs are being kept
-- ALWAYS assume you've been watched for longer than you think
-- Keep things in some sort of non-threatening context or perspective
-- THINK about what you say or write and be able to BACK IT UP
If you can to those and a few other things, you can possibly avoid having the anvil being on your head or feet or the proverbial (or literal) "swift kick in the ass"...
Now, when I had a plan for an internet cafe, I envisioned and put into the pending Articles of Incorportion (yes, if the state refuses to take them over counter, then put them into the charter or bylaws, and any other legal documents...AND then refile/restate your articles to force them to take them later...) I was to place above, or next to, all the computers:
-- Be on your best behavior
-- Assume the computers are being tapped by not just crackers and foreigners, but the US FBI and other domestic and related agencies
-- You have permission to ask us to supervise your taking apart of the keyboards and computers if downtime is there and won't affect the customers
-- you have permission to mag/rf/optical/microwave sweep the premises and tell us what you find (just don't wreck anything
As far as the business goes, I would opt to not use plastic or rubber keyboard covers, and therefore, at random I could toss or smash or inspect at whim or leisure any computer device on my premises, and, AND
IFFF I found something that did not belong there, I would immediately and in full-press image and distribute the images of suspicious items. I have NO obligation to assume it is only a domestica "intelligence" agency that would "compromise" my facility, nor do I have to assume that ANY spook sinewing in my gear has permission of mine. So, rather than get into arguments, just be pre-emptive. Now, when the government starts writing "anti-advance-circumvention" laws, we KNOW we're in DEEP SHIT. The best thing, then, would be to en masse quit using technology to the point that ALL that fancy sniffing gear sits idle, with nothing to do, meaning tax support for it would dry up, and agents would be unemployed like soooo many others who need paychecks as bad as them...
I make these assertions because virtually ANYTHING a spook agency (foreign or domestic) needs to or ought to make best efforts to discover in the electromagnetic spectrum what can be found by microwave, optical, or other electronic equipment AT THE GODDAM DEMARC, and NOT force or extend their apparatus onto shop owners, and not sneak into their equipment.
Alternatives to confiscating businesses' and individual's computers could and OUGHT to include federal prohibition on confiscations of data storage devices. Why? The goverment, via our taxes, makes, specs, or collects and operates a SHITLOAD of technical wizardry devices, and at the VERY LEAST out to be a bit more sensitive and polite about wreaking havoc upon
I wish I had mod points for your comment. I'd bump it up another point.
It was really inspirational to read this. It made me wish I had a foundation to get these and kids like them swept up and put into a think tank. I'd get them going on a project to right-size government and force the mass cleanup of some rotten underbelly of the infrastructure.
I hope thesee kids can come up with a way to or find an inspiration to help clean up some of the 200,000,000 land mines that the US and others have sewn, strewn and flung across the Earth. In the UK, I heard on NPR/PRI, a firm came up with a plan that uses FIRE to defuse or, hehe, FUSE, the land mines in place. How many of you know that every 20 (TWENTY) minutes there is a "casualty", a person, that a landmine mutilates or kills? That probably doesn't even take into account the local economic damage when fear deters farmers from going back to otherwise useful land, nor does it likely include a destroyed cow or farm animal that was the planned source of income...
Maybe these kids will come up with a magneto/plasti-sniff device that will find and eradicate the USA's latest PLASTIC mines that are meant to avoid detection (and, maybe some rust when planted in swamps, marshes and other wet jungle type areas...)
I guess we won't learn until somebody replaces Botts dots with landmines. That'll make ANY country learn, REAL fast...
Maybe, then, various governments will also take the article to show that not all inbound foreigners lacking degrees would be a drain on the local infrastructure, and could, in fact/theory, give back more.
I am really curious, though, how in the living HELL a student in JROTC since the 9th grade can be ignored for FOUR YEARS!
FTA:
"Oscar Vazquez was a born leader. A senior, he'd been in ROTC since ninth grade and was planning on a career in the military. But when he called to schedule a recruitment meeting at the end of his junior year, the officer in charge told him he was ineligible for military service. Because he was undocumented - his parents had brought him to the US from Mexico when he was 12 - he couldn't join, wouldn't get any scholarships, and had to start figuring out what else to do with his life. Oscar felt aimless until he heard about the robot club from Ledge, who was teaching his senior biology seminar. Maybe, he thought, engineering could offer him a future."
I ask this question because unless the kid weirdly was ignorant of prior official denials or had some legal issues other than immigration, then either the SCHOOL failed him or the DOD uniformed recruiters failed this kid. There is NO CREDIBLE WAY a 4-year, or even 1- or 2-year cadet to be passed over for mailers, campaigns, and downright urban-vacuuming that recruiting offices undertake to keep their monthly quotas high or on target. I KNOW, I had the USMC, USAF and US Army vying for me, offering my USN recuriter 3 to 4 of their own named-quotas JUST FOR ME. Sometimes it's count, sometimes quality. But, from Texas to California, Navy recruiters knew I was going to the Navy, and didn't even have to campaign me. I even took the ASVAB, as so many if not all students have to take, since they're receiving federal funding...
But, I am wondering why in 4 years Oscar was apparently not informed that he would not be allowed to join the US services. JROTC is not there to keep kids busy, it's there to help the DOD find promising candidates and convince them to become recruits, and possibly future military leaders (assuming they don't get blown to bits after a short stint in uniform...), and even civilian leaders in government or in community. SO, what recruiters passsed up, ignored, or failed to inform Oscar? The only good thing, it seems to me, is that Oscar took it in stride and, undaunted, redirected his talents to something that paid off better. Sure, he could have had a shot at a guaranteed paycheck, but now, hopefully, these kids are in the international spotlight. Their skills are not applicable to just findin
I guess it would be an upgrade nightmare, too, if some of those partition-blocked nodes failed to remotely upgrade.
But, is there any idea or possibility that these things could make Cisco squirm? Or are these things just great for tech innovation?
Interesting, tho, how "toy" software can be found in the smallest of places... Maybe will will, in Solid State form, get those Wi-Fi Linux servers another guy in this forum was asking for...
Hmm, what is scary, tho, is by the time that happens, we could have sub-dermal patches with computers on them. Well, scary if abused. OTOH, they could help out the physically-challenged...
Only saw a few minutes of it, but when I see the pinstripe suites and some of the camera moves, I can't help but ask:
"Where's da HEATER, Kirk?"
Yeh, heaters in a court room would save the juries a lot of time...hehhe.
Do those characters eat too much from the vending machine, or are they always eating peanut shells. I guess somebody is busy sweeping the floor. I wonder if those shells are considere rubbish or props. Imagine Shatner selling his used shells on Priceline. Oh, wait, that'll be E-Bay, I guess...
"For $5.00 per palmful, you can have these partially-used shat-out shells. Nearly mint condition, as they were never really eaten...Just spat out..."
Well, how about another ship and crew in the same timeline? Have a few of the DS9 and Voyager crew step in as cameo appearances, mentors, ship-riders, and such.
Whatever happened to that crew of the Defiant sister ship, the ones who fought the Dominion or such after they got flung out into deep space. I always felt that could have been a spun-off franchise. But, I guess that must've led to Voyager. I can't remember the timelines, but I think it was *just* before Voyager was piloted.
But, what might be scary would be to have "Bureacracy, the beginning years. These are hallowed corridors of the UFP, Star Fleet, and the High Command. We have learned from our forefathers; to take our wares and ways into deep space, pervading, purloining franchises and free enterprise..."
Whups, that might cause at least 2 or 3 distance-viewing aliens to devise time travel and mosquito-squish earth before we get out of the year 2006. Like the Kazon, as Seven of MINE said when Neelix asked why there were not Kazon among the Borg, hyoo-mohns would be "unworthy of Aassimilation."
Maybe we'll actually convert ourselves into the Vidiians?
Maybe Kirk and Spock falsified Official Government Documents?
He could pitch that it is the "Mirror, Mirror" Star Fleet Academy. And if it is reality-based, base it on the current cabal in the white house. It could make for some interesting "manifest destiny/wagon trains and bibles and phaser cannons of the red, white and blue" in outer space.
Anyway, I attended an ST convention in San Jose around 1989 or 90 or so and wandered into a section that was labeled for "Adults Only". I wondered, "what in the HELL in Star Trek could be for 'adults only'?
Well, apparently, Kirk/Spock lover stories! Authors under pseudonyms (pen names) who I heard happen to be mostly women authors, took up the pen and the challenge to tell their take on Kirk and Spock and why they were so inseperable (other than what we saw on screen...). A sample (and, not I didn't buy, but I remember some lines that had me laughing my ass off...)...
Here, I a paraphrase: " Kirk rushes into the Transporter Room and dismisses the Chief. The door closes and Kirk rushes up to plead with Spock, holding his hand..." Spock, why do you have to go? Assign someone else."
Raspily/whatever, Spock points out the obvious, "Jim, this assignment is very dangerous. Someone could get killed, and I am the best-qualified to carry it out and the odds in my favor of coming back alive..."
"But, Spock, you always take the dangerous assignment..."
"Jim..."
"Spock, just be careeful." Affectionately, " I love you.... I'll be waiting for you in your quarters." ("...With my legs wide open...", I presume...) "
Now, I thought "WHOA!" Never imagined THAT kinda shit, umm, "interaction" between Kirk and Spock, when I grew up watching Trek. But, it was funny, interesting, and kinda refreshing.
Too bad Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, DeSalle, Rand and many others, despite all these pocket and bantam and schuster et al books the lines seem to go to the top 3. I am so sick of ensembles. I prefer the way some militaries work, where a captain might be there for 18 months, but where the camera cuts in, the CO is already into his/her 9th month, officers come and go... That's the kind of stuff I am into and working on, down-to-Earth stuff. Rotations and frustrations. Port-and-Starboard watch shifts that lead to drug or alcohol abuse, or sex in a fan room or cleaning gear area... Or, like on my ship, when the XO confiscate the pron mags of an augmentee crewman, the crewman went right into the XO's stateroom, looked around, and re-acquired is contraband. Since Trek (or mutations of it) has already shown that the "future" is not so rosy, after all (unless Enterprise is a holo-novel), then maybe we should return to stories more on terra firma...
However, as for Sci-Fi stuff or Trek, I am in favor of Voyager returning, with Harry Kim as a Captain (No, that take in the shuttle is only an appeasement mechanism, and doesn't really SAY he was a Captain. C'mon, Paris commited some big offenses, and got promoted, and Kim-chan was clean-nosed mostly, and innovative and to the very end NEVER got promoted above ENsign. Just scripting/marketing BS! NObody that good stays in a Navy that long without being promoted. Probably humans still are too stereotypical, racist or something, but it is patently inexplicable for Kim to not be field-promoted Lieutenant; Star Fleet surely would back it, but America, in 1995-2001 wouldn't...and today still can't (nevermind/disregard for the moment "24" and other shows...), Paris somewhere elsewhere, and minor crew members, such as Naomi Wildman in the crew. I like that serpentine vessel, and it was cool. I didn't any decked-out-cannnized versions, though. Dunno about the Doctor, but I feel that Harry Kim was in there only for demographics. If I had money to crank out a show such as Trek, I'd make sure the show was geared to a more globally diverse audience, not just the US audience with "syndication/reruns" on the offing.
But, I digress--a bit. OTOH, maybe, there could be a Tom and Ha
Slashdot Mirror
A-S-S-I-M-I-L-A-T-E-D
Compensation is IRELLEVANT. Pursuit of Justice is FUTILE...
Don't EVER publish your own novels or such on ms' site, for given their requirements, you could publish the world's next best novel and be screwed their heavy-handedness. Or, you could post an idea covering the history of gaming and sims, only to find them developing your idea behind your back and then pointing to the contract.
Don't contribute to them. Apparently, they don't want or don't need PUBLIC DOMAIN material and seem, rather, to be fishing for new content at the expense of the contributor.
Can anyone really trust microsoft to be fair, honest, and such about ideas that come to them and they perceive to be worth millions, but the contributor is clueless? When does "survival of the fittest" take a back seat to integrity?
David Syes
Commuter Vehicle..
L W.htm
http://www.sakakibara-kikai.co.jp/products/other/
I wonder if this sort of thing could get a permit to be on the streets. Imagine the size of sidewalk-widening projects in the US. Might actually span a resurgence of new cities creations and help reduce density in already congested, corrupt, or "locked-down" cities where people cannot or are afraid to design homes that don't "fit" in with existing styles.
Now, if there's a "wreck on the sidewalk", it could mess up a fruit stand or crush some peds, but, as long as the operator has skill and a permit, "side-stepping" (hehehe) a sidewalk issue would be "a walk in the park".
I wonder how many miles this thing can go. Practically, though, wheeled conveyance might be the way to go. I wonder if Sakakibara Kikai-san will put wheels in the heels. Those who take up Robo-Club, a la Hells Angels, could be Heels Angels, hehehh, or "Heels/Angles", hheehh, if that set can spin like kids do in those wheeled tennis shoes. Talk about "Doin' da Robot" dance....
But, I can see some problems:
--Getting Groceries home
--Going on a date
--Going on a blind date (in snow storms, or on one with two extra pax (passengers...)
--Showing up at the TSA-controlled airports
--Showing up in Afghanistan or Tikrit (the Marines will either go slackjaw in awe, or reduce the thing to rubble, hehehe)
--Trying out lovers' lane (don't fall, or you'll have a REAL crush going on...)
--Stooping, kneeling,
--Being Flame-thrower-attacked (Stop, Drop, & Roll won't work here, but fire-suppression bottles might...)
--Doing a last robo-tango-in (name your town...)
David Syes
... with a purpose?
DOH!
WHO embolizes WHO?
if 5 or 6 REAL Great Whites ganger-banged Cousteau's shark. It would a moment of sudden clarity, sort of like Michael Behm's character in The Abyss... sinking...sinking...CRUNCH and plexi-shatter...
I wonder if any of the real sharks would be pissed off or curious about this mech swimmer in their domain. Will they really ignore it, or chomp on it, or try to hump-back it...?I hope they have windscreen wipers just in case... I wonder if that thing has a "sample collector port" in case one of Willy's enemies wants to "deep-six" (or, umm, deep sixteen) the craft's underbelly. I wonder if the navigation and gyration system has "coitus operandi" programmed into it. Talk about a wet, "roughride". BORN to be WILD, YAHH!
But, if that vessel gets cock-locked, (and is missing a cock-block or liquid saw or torch to burn or embolize that frisky seallion hunter...) and the battery juice runs out...talk about being in deep shit. Better caall Darrwin-- Darwin... Horrny... Me save hapless human explorer... Mee Darh-when....
Now, on to Dolphins....
I looked at:
http://www.innespace.com/
and that litttle Flippy is Trippy. Don't get goin' too fast, tho, cuz if it rolls uncontrollably and irrecoverably into the depths, someone may as well break out the cyanide capsule and in the final moments begin singing:
"We call him Flihh-purh, Fllipp-hur, fahsstur thanh lyghttt-neeng...."
I consider the presence of cookies a form of TRESPASS. (See my other post in this discussion; it is LONG, and terse...)
However, ONE sure-fire way to burn PIE and throw it back in Untied Virulent's face is to surf from a boot CD or read-only file system.
Change you cookie destination to Root ownership, or devise and distribute a script that every 5 seconds scans the filesystem for session-related downloads and purges them, quarantines them, or edits them to make them unreliable, untrustworthy, or puts vulgar content into the cookie and PIE.
Now, that will likely raise issues and open a new can of worms. UV will likely say THEY own the cookies. IF they take that tack, they surely they must be aware they can be sued for trespass. Maybe they are trying to beat double-dick doubleclick at its own game. Maybe doubledick or other agencies own shares in these companies, but if not now, they may later.
If UV gets "smart" and tries to send the cookie crumbs and pie slices to paths outside of the surfing user's own home space, then that also could be considered a form of trespass, as they would likely have to violate system admin security policies which might be set up to force web content to a security proxy or to a root-controlled path on the users' disk.
What will double-dick and UV say when more people shift to diskless stations? Edit/crumble their cookies? Burn/toss their pie?
Time to counter-act this NOW, while it's early. Time to make better firewall, IDS, and editing tools to deliver a message loud and clear.
(No, I am not wearing a tin-foil hat. I am simply being malevolently and diametrically (but not yet diabolically) opposed to digital trespass once I've declared something to be trespass on my system
(Injects barium, sodium, lithium, titanium concoction...)
David Syes
"Deleting cookies throws this all out of whack and makes it difficult for web sites to know what their readers really want. "
I don't buy that at all. The content providers could JUST as easily limit themselves to keeping track of WHAT was downloaded and WHEN said item was downloaded. They can look at the IP, or the last router, or the other information about the geographic location of the IP. Even so, some users will have traversed to a site via company/employer-imposed VPNs or maybe they arrive to a product site via a kiosk. Some will have arrived via wireless devices such as PDAs, cell phones and other equipment. Thus, it is INDIVIDUALs the companies want to track, and all too many subscribers and viewers click "OK" without one iota of self-preservation or protection about what information they give up which can be merged/acquired and then sold or abused.
But, **no**, they want to know every last damn little detail they can get just shy of (and sometimes questionably close to) breaking laws and privacy convenants..
I ROUTINELY not only delete cookies via the user interface in the browser, I sometimes delete the wretched encrypted cookie file from a browser. As for KDE, I drill down to the cookies folders themselves and whack from there what I don't like. Moreover, I recently got pissed that certain doubleclick CRAP kept ending up in there, either because it was being told to not come back, or it was coming back against my wishes, EVEN THOUGH my inbound firewall rules as supposed to keep double-dick off my system. Sometimes, I'll even create another user and surf from it, just to keep certain frequently-offending sites' cookies out of my normal user account (no, not pron, but just at a whim I may decide I've had enough Yahoo! cookies or other's cookies for one day or week...), or, maybe to play games with sites. If I were inclined, I'd edit the cookies and inject garbage into them just to make them unreliable, not just delete them. However, none of that would mask my machine's BIOS/MAC ID the telcos and government are in bed over... (Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if the domestic intel agencies own shares in or fund doublclick or some unnamed "eviler twin" of doubledick... 1s and 0s are a lot more managable than the Sears/Penny's paper catalogs doubledick used to manage/own...)
Now, I have to (will, and desire to) upgrade to a firewall tool that lets me block outbound streams/bytes as well. I have hundreds, or well over a hundred "offenders" on my shitlist and I malevolently whack them. When I get the money together, I will subscribe or Pay-Pal to sites I frequent, but, NO means NO! and when I tell doubledick and anything "ad...." to stay away, I mean exactly that.
I am one who is weird enough to endure 30 seconds for a page to load, so long as I know it is the result of my dumping or maligning cookies. There are plenty of sites to visit in 30 seconds; I can check e-mail. For that matter, I even block things from Yahoo!, even though it degrades my access time to my e-mail. It's the price I pay for making a terse, swift-kick-up-the-marketing-ass statement. Now, if only more people feel the same way, and accordingly adjust their firewalls and ad killers... No, we have too many sheep for that to become a reality.
Again, marketing teams should, by LAW or common sense, for that matter, have an OPT IN policy that allows users to be tracked, or endure slightly-degraded performance. They can even track that, just by seeing how many cookies don't get accepted, or that are actively and consciously and conscientiously denied. Cookies don't have to be tracked across sessions as long as the end user or visitor is complacent with entering passwords or passphrases with every site or session traversal.
I despise cookies, more than I despise most social dangers and certain other things. Cookies, deadly or not, are insidious and any user who despises them should be given the polite, friendly opt-out method and still have access to content.
Not many people hate cookies enoug
You CAN back them up, providing 2 things:
l
h tml
3 sh/index.html
1. there is a removable media card
2. the phone permits you to see the content on your card and external computer
3. the content is not encrypted.
See:
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/index.htm
and, for a lineup:
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/domestic.
(I have the older v402-SH...)
But, if you want to enjoy hand-motion in a game, see:
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/kisyu/v60
Now, if only the US markets use JAN or QR code so that we could go grocery and other shopping and receive product information on user-initiated queries. We could even scan library shelves (on even from on-line libraries) and download content, or receive flyers on the street. Hell, even police cars could radiate missing persons reports that they receive. Then, any concerned citizen or visitor could download pictures and relevant information in a given community.
LOTS of things could be done right here in the US that AREN'T being done because some PHB or bean counter can't find an immediate payback in it.
I have a Sharp v402SH phone
.pdf) onto my mini-SD card and read it on my phone, and that is GOOD, particularly since when on a bus or train it's utterly embarrassing a impractical to use my Sony VAIO PCG-FX215 as the battery lasts only 3 (THREE) minutes now once KDE is up, and that is even with CPU throttling turned on. Even at a black screen before selecting a kernel, if I forget to plug in the laptop, I get maybe 4 minutes before the battery dies. (Yes, I try to discharge it by running the l/t, but when I plug in, it begins charging at some 85%, then takes an hour or so to get to 100%...)
.txt reading via cell phones (assuming the phone has an SD/mini-SD card slot), this might tick off the PDA and content providers, especially since the content providers might feeel "screwed out of" being able to charge by the kilobyte for downloading text. But, that would be a screwed up argument in itself, as Bluetooth-enabled phones would probably permit inbound text transfers to a phone (well, unless the provider specifically asks the phone manufacturer to block it in the circuitry...)
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/kisyu/v402 sh/index.html
distributed by Vodafone. My phone allows reading of e-books. I just recently figured out how to find the hidden folder (it's on the mini SD card in Kanji, so I had to sprinkle files here and there and put the card back into my phone and then drill into e-Books until the file showed up in a list.
Here is how my text appears, 7 words across 13 lines down.
----------
Perhaps if the whole DVD region encoding
scheme were to be stricken or banished,
and movies released world-wide to many
regions versus by region coode (1), then
piracy and shoddy translations would be
reduced, maybe a lot. (Diisclaimer, I
have only ONE non-paid DVD in my
collection and iit's not US-produced, but
ALL my others are paidd-for, usually
from Fry's Electronics or as Blockbuster
or Hollywood used video sell-offs, and
I have spent HUNDREDSs on over 50 DVDs
and maybe 80 or more VHS cassettes. (2)
---------
That is on a CG Silicon screen READIN AREA (black border lines) measuring 1-11/32 inches wide by 1-14/32 (or, 1-7/16) inches. Using the scrool ring makes reading faster, and I can save to the bookmark, move to the bookmark, Home, End, % Shift, and Copy, a the page in percentages and save the bookmark. Also, I can change the text direction from horizontal to lateral. In lateral orientation/direction, I get 12 lines of text to read, vs 13. But, that is not a problem because I can flip and twist the screen and read it as a reader rather than as a phone, in appearance. *
The average paperback has 10 to 15 words across and 40-45 words down. Also, I can adjust the font to 3 (THREE) different sizes, but only one is useful to me, as my vision permits me to read small fonts (for now...).
The cool thing is I can write materiaal and save it in TEXT format (.txt, not
Now, if the US markets offer
Now, when I run my phone's Analog TV (picks up Bay Area broadcasts, and when close enough to a tower like CH11 it is mouth watering. The Spanish and a few others are astoundinggly clear/sharp, and all run at 30-fps) or the FM radio (tunes from 76 MHz to 90 MHz... fortunately, I can pick up NPR/88.5), I get only about 1 hour of time on the battery. That is not bad, as it permits about 25% of juice to remain to take calls, e-mail, play scheduled alarms, etc. But, as long as the phone is plugged into AC, all I have to do hit the power button every 30 or every 60 minutes, depending on which I chose for battery conservation...
* (The screen measures 1-14/32 by 1-28/32 vertically, or 1-7/16 by 1-7/8 inches, while the lid itself, above the swivel point measures: 1-31/32 wide by 2-26/32. It's is a helluva cool phone, and I wish Vodafone or a US carrier would put this phone in t
This reminds me of a question that for years I have never posed on the Internet:
Can a site that sends to a user a "user requested/downloaded document" actually SEE and log the destination path? In other words, can the remote site know my folder names?
If so, that means ANY documents you download should go into a generic path name so that document providers cannot glean/glimpse your file structure. Imagine if government agencies and even just marketing companies were able to get a psyche outlook on your system. Imagine if they could force the downloading document to attempt a path traversal up or down or around your system but still only go to the path you specified. They'd be in the position of monitoring your file structure even if you dump documets into a generic path...
Now, wouldn't THAT be scary? Means you better do TWO things, maybe 3:
1. Download to an "exposed machine"
2. Copy to a disk so that no machine transfer logs can be later exploited.
3. Keep off-machine logs and system monitors watching your internal and your external traffic to note whether the document is sending information or receiving remote "packet burst" instructions.
It always interest me whether or not a document is sending encrypted or random, eyeball-confusing bits that would draw no attention to the less-than-sophisticated/newbie system admin.
David Syes
Huh, ms "Count Chocula"?... More like Count Cocula, Screwing the hell out of not only its customers and channel partners, but dumping mounds and heaps of documentation on its developers. Enters into contract agreements to reach a point of clear assessment of another's ideas, then implements as own after breaking the contract...
Or, maybe Count FudUla? Assesses the threat potential of a competitor deserving a chance in the market, but then spews Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (not the first, but the most prolific, effficient, and insidious) to crush the rib cages and choke off the air supply of said competitors whose prospective and actual funders, supporters, and suppliers back out in anticipation of the new "gee whiz, we can do that and integrate it well at no extra cost to your licensing pak..."
Just, ahem, audit your "logs" and don't leave any "trans-action" trails, ahem...
Keep in mind that your "digital linkup" could come under screwtiny, ahem, scrutiny.
Regardless of iCopulate gender or digital orientation, among both and other orientations, I'll wager there are quite a number of anonymous f***s out there just waiting to be fingered, grepped, touched, ls'd and more...
Let's break out the "sex by the command line" lines, shall we?
It wouldn't hurt to "Ask microsoft's Martin Taylor about Linux vs. windoze"?
He might fall for it... ye never know... it could be Halloween Papers version x...
Maybe Novell should also license from IBM all it can from Lotus SmartSuite, then merge the best of WP, Paradox, (if it still has any rights to WP & Pdx) into SmartSuite and then release the package to compete with OpenOffiice.org.
I am STILL not pleased with the document insert "feature" which, when I insert a document, it goes into a "band", invisibly. When I link to another document and then want to edit from beginning to end, I damn well should be able to SEEEEEEE those linked documents.
Lotus WordPro has done this RIGHT for years. 1.9.79 still makes me go, "sigh.... maybe NEXT version SO/OO.o will pull their heads out and actually BUY a copy of Lotus SmartSuite and start simplyfiying and mimicking stuff that works, instead of coming up with gee-whizz stuff that piles on to the list of features that have to be debugged, making it too resource intensive (on the devs AND the desktop) to be economical to go back and fix those useful features.
I also think Novell could pull a rabbit or two by adjusting the document interface so that a user in a spreadsheet can put the tabs wherever they want, not just get force-fed bottom tabs only or top tabs only. (Actually, I thought GroupWise offered that, or maybe it was QuattroPro...)
If IBM and Novell had some limited thing going on, Lotus SmartSuite could be diffused (not DEfused, mind you) across more Linux/Open Source environments.
I am not at all about "killing off" the various suites that OpenSource devs are making, but christ-o-matic, take a LOOK at what SmartSuite has, and gingerly, without ticking IBM off too terribly, clone some of those features, especially if IBM is not going to get its Lotus camp on the band wagon.
NOVELL, are you leesteneeng? Please, PLEASE, license from IBM/Lotus the Lotus and then uppgrade the Approach database interface, the Lotus WordPro document interface, and the Lotus 1-2-3 interface. They're crisp, tight, concise, colorful, not drab/gray.
At least Lotus isn't busy chomping away and cloning the heck out of ms' orifice. (Actually between Lotus and SourceNext ("Lotus SuperOffce developers/distributors in Japan/Asia...), I wonder what will be the next offerings to Lotus SmartSuite.)
David Syes
Just exchange the links like pollution credits... hheheh
him into believing the GIMP **IS** the "low-cost" version of Photoshoppe...., and that they've changed the interface and name. (Just be sure to write a script to change all references to "OS/FLOSS/GNU/GPL...." for his login...
did ALL of those things: Hit, yell, sweet-talk
... and deep fryer, too."
plus in marathon and wash-rinse-repeat mode:
-- rub it like a Genie bottle
-- take the name of god (or God) in vain as if daring and willing suicide by blashphemy (think: suicide by cop) for everything that did and will go wrong in this and other lifetimes
-- pound the living shit out of the surrounding and supporting furniture
-- cry
-- cry some more
-- fling the disk across the room
-- fling the disk across the room, again
-- attempt audaciouss, irreversible, instant suicide by persistent, vehement, non-repentent blasphemy, again
-- Clench-fist-shake like Kirk in the Genesis Cave, forehead veins bulging, howling:
"Gooooddd!!!!. Gooooddd!!!!. Gooooddd!!!!",
while trying to find a suitable place to hurl that disk like a mo-fo without it richocheting into forehead or window (both expensive to fix if hit by a disk flying at 25 MPH... The gray MATTER is NOT as durable as the silver PLATTER) (No, not ALL of those in this bullet happened to me, yet...heheh...)
-- (and, if a tecchie working too far into the night, smashed the hell out of the drive but then and hour after the fact realises the data cable was never connected, though power was, or vice versa...) (no comment...)
-- save the disk for a decade, in the hopes that some new, non-rotative technology will vacuuum the data off the platter
===========
The part that if had to joke about after reading this:
"One restaurant manager who was so upset with his laptop that he threw it into deep fryer. That destroyed the laptop
was, "That drive WAS FRIED!".
And, "THAT laptop really did have a CORE MELTDOWN!"
And, "Unlike "Therminator", this disk will NOT "... bee bohkk.."
And, I wonder if the EPA was called for the toxic site cleanup. I wonder if he was standing before a vat of a "veal pond" (think: the CA man whose property developments were held up by environmentalists over some scum on his property... it was really just scum, not a new life form...)
After all, if a cigarette butt in water qualifies as a toxic site, then a laptop dropped into a deep oil/fat fryer would gunk up the pipes and be all too hard to miss when the *trol/Horbart/whatever company rep comes to fix it.
Some duty to reporting environmental hazards, ehh?
David Syes
I guess if my suggestions are the basis of updated civil rights groups cases, then some attorneys would be "AGOG"... 'anti-gag-order-gag', but then some of us might be slain like "Agag"...
(bad attempts at a gag gog, or an agog gag... gaak...)
David Syes
Have them gag on this:
...
"Gag orders should have ANTI-GAGS"
(I sort of had ideas of how to anti-gag a gag order, legally, and hopefully fairly efficiently...)
Anyone worried and wanting to tip off their site visitors to a possible gag order could just post a counter on their site, sort of like employer safety stats:
We have gone XXX (number) days without having been served a subpoena for:
Category:
1.
2.
3.
4.
which would require the site operator to manually upadate the numbers and to positively push the button to commit the site refreshing. If you refuse to do that, then all concerned could presume the site or its records are under some sort of subpoena.
When the site isn't updated, then the users can legitimately "start shitting", and if the government "puts a gun to your head" to falsely update your site, THEN it will be more criminal than just inspecting or "subpoenaing" your equipment.
---
Probably, the best advice is just to:
-- be on your best behavior
-- ALWAYS assume logs are being kept
-- ALWAYS assume you've been watched for longer than you think
-- Keep things in some sort of non-threatening context or perspective
-- THINK about what you say or write and be able to BACK IT UP
If you can to those and a few other things, you can possibly avoid having the anvil being on your head or feet or the proverbial (or literal) "swift kick in the ass"...
Now, when I had a plan for an internet cafe, I envisioned and put into the pending Articles of Incorportion (yes, if the state refuses to take them over counter, then put them into the charter or bylaws, and any other legal documents...AND then refile/restate your articles to force them to take them later...) I was to place above, or next to, all the computers:
-- Be on your best behavior
-- Assume the computers are being tapped by not just crackers and foreigners, but the US FBI and other domestic and related agencies
-- You have permission to ask us to supervise your taking apart of the keyboards and computers if downtime is there and won't affect the customers
-- you have permission to mag/rf/optical/microwave sweep the premises and tell us what you find (just don't wreck anything
As far as the business goes, I would opt to not use plastic or rubber keyboard covers, and therefore, at random I could toss or smash or inspect at whim or leisure any computer device on my premises, and, AND
IFFF I found something that did not belong there, I would immediately and in full-press image and distribute the images of suspicious items. I have NO obligation to assume it is only a domestica "intelligence" agency that would "compromise" my facility, nor do I have to assume that ANY spook sinewing in my gear has permission of mine. So, rather than get into arguments, just be pre-emptive. Now, when the government starts writing "anti-advance-circumvention" laws, we KNOW we're in DEEP SHIT. The best thing, then, would be to en masse quit using technology to the point that ALL that fancy sniffing gear sits idle, with nothing to do, meaning tax support for it would dry up, and agents would be unemployed like soooo many others who need paychecks as bad as them...
I make these assertions because virtually ANYTHING a spook agency (foreign or domestic) needs to or ought to make best efforts to discover in the electromagnetic spectrum what can be found by microwave, optical, or other electronic equipment AT THE GODDAM DEMARC, and NOT force or extend their apparatus onto shop owners, and not sneak into their equipment.
Alternatives to confiscating businesses' and individual's computers could and OUGHT to include federal prohibition on confiscations of data storage devices. Why? The goverment, via our taxes, makes, specs, or collects and operates a SHITLOAD of technical wizardry devices, and at the VERY LEAST out to be a bit more sensitive and polite about wreaking havoc upon
I wish I had mod points for your comment. I'd bump it up another point.
It was really inspirational to read this. It made me wish I had a foundation to get these and kids like them swept up and put into a think tank. I'd get them going on a project to right-size government and force the mass cleanup of some rotten underbelly of the infrastructure.
I hope thesee kids can come up with a way to or find an inspiration to help clean up some of the 200,000,000 land mines that the US and others have sewn, strewn and flung across the Earth. In the UK, I heard on NPR/PRI, a firm came up with a plan that uses FIRE to defuse or, hehe, FUSE, the land mines in place. How many of you know that every 20 (TWENTY) minutes there is a "casualty", a person, that a landmine mutilates or kills? That probably doesn't even take into account the local economic damage when fear deters farmers from going back to otherwise useful land, nor does it likely include a destroyed cow or farm animal that was the planned source of income...
Maybe these kids will come up with a magneto/plasti-sniff device that will find and eradicate the USA's latest PLASTIC mines that are meant to avoid detection (and, maybe some rust when planted in swamps, marshes and other wet jungle type areas...)
I guess we won't learn until somebody replaces Botts dots with landmines. That'll make ANY country learn, REAL fast...
Maybe, then, various governments will also take the article to show that not all inbound foreigners lacking degrees would be a drain on the local infrastructure, and could, in fact/theory, give back more.
I am really curious, though, how in the living HELL a student in JROTC since the 9th grade can be ignored for FOUR YEARS!
FTA:
"Oscar Vazquez was a born leader. A senior, he'd been in ROTC since ninth grade and was planning on a career in the military. But when he called to schedule a recruitment meeting at the end of his junior year, the officer in charge told him he was ineligible for military service. Because he was undocumented - his parents had brought him to the US from Mexico when he was 12 - he couldn't join, wouldn't get any scholarships, and had to start figuring out what else to do with his life. Oscar felt aimless until he heard about the robot club from Ledge, who was teaching his senior biology seminar. Maybe, he thought, engineering could offer him a future."
I ask this question because unless the kid weirdly was ignorant of prior official denials or had some legal issues other than immigration, then either the SCHOOL failed him or the DOD uniformed recruiters failed this kid. There is NO CREDIBLE WAY a 4-year, or even 1- or 2-year cadet to be passed over for mailers, campaigns, and downright urban-vacuuming that recruiting offices undertake to keep their monthly quotas high or on target. I KNOW, I had the USMC, USAF and US Army vying for me, offering my USN recuriter 3 to 4 of their own named-quotas JUST FOR ME. Sometimes it's count, sometimes quality. But, from Texas to California, Navy recruiters knew I was going to the Navy, and didn't even have to campaign me. I even took the ASVAB, as so many if not all students have to take, since they're receiving federal funding...
But, I am wondering why in 4 years Oscar was apparently not informed that he would not be allowed to join the US services. JROTC is not there to keep kids busy, it's there to help the DOD find promising candidates and convince them to become recruits, and possibly future military leaders (assuming they don't get blown to bits after a short stint in uniform...), and even civilian leaders in government or in community. SO, what recruiters passsed up, ignored, or failed to inform Oscar? The only good thing, it seems to me, is that Oscar took it in stride and, undaunted, redirected his talents to something that paid off better. Sure, he could have had a shot at a guaranteed paycheck, but now, hopefully, these kids are in the international spotlight. Their skills are not applicable to just findin
"Shhhhhhh...." (Puts on Tin Foil Hat)
"They're leesteening..."
(Removes Tin Foil Hat...)
That's right... I forgot about that.
I guess it would be an upgrade nightmare, too, if some of those partition-blocked nodes failed to remotely upgrade.
But, is there any idea or possibility that these things could make Cisco squirm? Or are these things just great for tech innovation?
Interesting, tho, how "toy" software can be found in the smallest of places... Maybe will will, in Solid State form, get those Wi-Fi Linux servers another guy in this forum was asking for...
Hmm, what is scary, tho, is by the time that happens, we could have sub-dermal patches with computers on them. Well, scary if abused. OTOH, they could help out the physically-challenged...
David Syess
Only saw a few minutes of it, but when I see the pinstripe suites and some of the camera moves, I can't help but ask:
"Where's da HEATER, Kirk?"
Yeh, heaters in a court room would save the juries a lot of time...hehhe.
Do those characters eat too much from the vending machine, or are they always eating peanut shells. I guess somebody is busy sweeping the floor. I wonder if those shells are considere rubbish or props. Imagine Shatner selling his used shells on Priceline. Oh, wait, that'll be E-Bay, I guess...
"For $5.00 per palmful, you can have these partially-used shat-out shells. Nearly mint condition, as they were never really eaten...Just spat out..."
dew-due-dew-due-doo-doo-doo-dew-dieu-dyoooo
(cut to commercial/ad insert)
Well, how about another ship and crew in the same timeline? Have a few of the DS9 and Voyager crew step in as cameo appearances, mentors, ship-riders, and such.
Whatever happened to that crew of the Defiant sister ship, the ones who fought the Dominion or such after they got flung out into deep space. I always felt that could have been a spun-off franchise. But, I guess that must've led to Voyager. I can't remember the timelines, but I think it was *just* before Voyager was piloted.
But, what might be scary would be to have "Bureacracy, the beginning years. These are hallowed corridors of the UFP, Star Fleet, and the High Command. We have learned from our forefathers; to take our wares and ways into deep space, pervading, purloining franchises and free enterprise..."
Whups, that might cause at least 2 or 3 distance-viewing aliens to devise time travel and mosquito-squish earth before we get out of the year 2006. Like the Kazon, as Seven of MINE said when Neelix asked why there were not Kazon among the Borg, hyoo-mohns would be "unworthy of Aassimilation."
Maybe we'll actually convert ourselves into the Vidiians?
David Syes
I guess "payback can be a 'dis'", hehehe...
Maybe his end-run got him a "smackdown"?
Maybe Kirk and Spock falsified Official Government Documents?
He could pitch that it is the "Mirror, Mirror" Star Fleet Academy. And if it is reality-based, base it on the current cabal in the white house. It could make for some interesting "manifest destiny/wagon trains and bibles and phaser cannons of the red, white and blue" in outer space.
Anyway, I attended an ST convention in San Jose around 1989 or 90 or so and wandered into a section that was labeled for "Adults Only". I wondered, "what in the HELL in Star Trek could be for 'adults only'?
Well, apparently, Kirk/Spock lover stories! Authors under pseudonyms (pen names) who I heard happen to be mostly women authors, took up the pen and the challenge to tell their take on Kirk and Spock and why they were so inseperable (other than what we saw on screen...). A sample (and, not I didn't buy, but I remember some lines that had me laughing my ass off...)...
Here, I a paraphrase:
"
Kirk rushes into the Transporter Room and dismisses the Chief. The door closes and Kirk rushes up to plead with Spock, holding his hand..." Spock, why do you have to go? Assign someone else."
Raspily/whatever, Spock points out the obvious, "Jim, this assignment is very dangerous. Someone could get killed, and I am the best-qualified to carry it out and the odds in my favor of coming back alive..."
"But, Spock, you always take the dangerous assignment..."
"Jim..."
"Spock, just be careeful." Affectionately, " I love you.... I'll be waiting for you in your quarters." ("...With my legs wide open...", I presume...)
"
Now, I thought "WHOA!" Never imagined THAT kinda shit, umm, "interaction" between Kirk and Spock, when I grew up watching Trek. But, it was funny, interesting, and kinda refreshing.
Too bad Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, Sulu, DeSalle, Rand and many others, despite all these pocket and bantam and schuster et al books the lines seem to go to the top 3. I am so sick of ensembles. I prefer the way some militaries work, where a captain might be there for 18 months, but where the camera cuts in, the CO is already into his/her 9th month, officers come and go... That's the kind of stuff I am into and working on, down-to-Earth stuff. Rotations and frustrations. Port-and-Starboard watch shifts that lead to drug or alcohol abuse, or sex in a fan room or cleaning gear area... Or, like on my ship, when the XO confiscate the pron mags of an augmentee crewman, the crewman went right into the XO's stateroom, looked around, and re-acquired is contraband. Since Trek (or mutations of it) has already shown that the "future" is not so rosy, after all (unless Enterprise is a holo-novel), then maybe we should return to stories more on terra firma...
However, as for Sci-Fi stuff or Trek, I am in favor of Voyager returning, with Harry Kim as a Captain (No, that take in the shuttle is only an appeasement mechanism, and doesn't really SAY he was a Captain. C'mon, Paris commited some big offenses, and got promoted, and Kim-chan was clean-nosed mostly, and innovative and to the very end NEVER got promoted above ENsign. Just scripting/marketing BS! NObody that good stays in a Navy that long without being promoted. Probably humans still are too stereotypical, racist or something, but it is patently inexplicable for Kim to not be field-promoted Lieutenant; Star Fleet surely would back it, but America, in 1995-2001 wouldn't...and today still can't (nevermind/disregard for the moment "24" and other shows...), Paris somewhere elsewhere, and minor crew members, such as Naomi Wildman in the crew. I like that serpentine vessel, and it was cool. I didn't any decked-out-cannnized versions, though. Dunno about the Doctor, but I feel that Harry Kim was in there only for demographics. If I had money to crank out a show such as Trek, I'd make sure the show was geared to a more globally diverse audience, not just the US audience with "syndication/reruns" on the offing.
But, I digress--a bit. OTOH, maybe, there could be a Tom and Ha