and they want to keep Kontrol... They want to shag the field with Austen-sible power CON-sumptions? So, do they want to *86* or DEEP-SIX ATI & nVidia and others?
"I#m very sceptic about Intes try of making a high end graphic board."
That exemplifies why I feel burned for buying a laptop with an Intel video chip. Next time, I'll get another make, an ADD-ON chip that still is affordable, or in the $600 range of laptop.
That that Carl guy and msoft are both or singly behind prodding the DOJ to actually review the merger or collaboration deal. If that Carl guy and that other one named Ballmer were not so vociferously after Yahoo!, then I doubt the DOJ would probe or investigate for too long.
Hell, are the DOJ going to investigate InBev? Are they going to investigate Anheuser Busch/Dos Equis?
If Yahoo! and Google strike an arrangement that actually does measurable, sustained, enduring and painful retardation of microsoft, then WE ALL WIN, except for those who don't care that their individual greed are likely to put newer, (fresher ?) players at a disadvantage. In the computer world ms has had a long lucky, thuggery-derived winnings streak, and anything that "market corrects" that affront or compensates for the corporate and moral damage they've done should be encouraged.
What's to stop there being any retention or forwarding of the print spool history? When I took my drawings to copy shops to have them scanned and burned to disk or plotted on paper for purposes of making check prints, one of my biggest fears was the risk of an unscrupulous employee who could take an image and forward to swifter, more enterprising friends. It's not an unreasonable fear, considering that these copiers that take electronic payment ARE hooked to a CORPORATE server, either local or on a WAN. I've requested the scanner & plotter be one not hooked to a network, but every time, I was told the server accounting systems blah blah blah.
So, of you copy granny's recipe, or scan or self-serve-scan copies of a nuclear reactor or prison or police station or power station plan layouts, there WILL come the day we may read of you -- even if the official published report doesn't say attention came to you via electronic surveillance.
For YEARS I've wondered if the various intel agencies have paid the major copier shops like Kinkos to embed data scanning chips to just "get interesting things". Imagine if Kinkos were a front CIA operation. It would be of GREAT utility to them... looking legit, with payroll, real estate and a steady stream of unwitting clients.... would be a great fishnet
"Professors aren't like John Grisham or Tom Clancy."
GHOST WRITERS?
Clancy, like many authors, has ghost writers, too. They on occasion just add a few pages of their own writing to that another author or team wrote. Not all authors these days are or remain TRULY successful as they age. Sometimes their fans who really identify with the author and have a lot more pizazz to extend the original work are their best friends. But, as long as the books are bought and not pirated (tho they are resold), these authors will probably thrive -- depending upon what royalties they negotiate.
Academic book authors and publishers, OTOH, IMO, need to seriously rethink their business model. We've had for far too many years now PDFs which can be displayed by hand-held devices (including some gaming devices and MP3 players) for there to be these hefty paperbacks still reigning king.
I'd say, too, that a LOT of universities can put a dent in this wing of publishing just by being compelled to show how "green" they are. As in, their carbon foot print. For every student carrying around heavy books, that is the extent of the carbon footprint of that university. As for publishers of back-breaking books which end up in the backpacks of young children, SHAME on THEM. They could be exacerbating scoliosis (which I had, but emerged unscathed, as I engaged in rigorous fitness exercises before I joined the USN, and I did this to because my doctor almost sabotaged my plans to join the USN by recommending my father get me into surgery, in which a titanium rod would have been attached and fused to my spine. I shuddered and said to myself something along the lines of "fuck that". I ran, did innumerable sit-ups, push-ups, jumpjacks, Marine Corps-style duck walks, and other stuff I learned from the Young Marines, the Navy JROTC, and other places...), which is not necessarily the worst disorder around, but still hauling those books can't be good for a youngster's developing spinal column, not to mention it could retard growth in some kids, induce poor posture, and more. These things might unnecessarily compress organs and reduce lung capacity in some.
Anyway.... I made it to "The Nav", and nowadays, people who look at my back don't see nearly the curvature I *used* to have. Self- or age-corrected, no pins, no back braces, no alteration surgery.
With huge laptops and 17" displays that some of us DO carry, PDFs may be the way to go, or indexed help-file-like course material may be the better exchange of weight. Maybe instructors could create their own voice-coached Courses on Tape, so students can listen while on public transit. Better, lighter, spindle-able electronics would help, too. But, until these wallet-pirating publishers return pricing to the sane levels, students will pirate, or buy used, or buy new and pool/share over-priced name-stipulated course books.
">"The joker scans this image and prints it on the withdrawal slip with color printer. The bank >teller accepts this slip and passbook as authentic, and victim's account will be emptied. >Sometimes, the scanned digital image goes to hanko carving machine, too."
And...
>It's the stamped image of one's hanko that is stored in the databases of goverment offices, >banks and other public institutions. Not the particulars of physical hanko itself! And any >image can be flawlessly reproduced in this era of digital processing.
To me, I do not see the security here. If you stamp a cheque or other document with your Hanko in the 'correct dial' position, it still gives the 'Joker' the ability to scan the document and reproduce a static Hanko, without ever needing to have the device.
Could one create an encrypted hanko stamp that changes with the date? Officials would decode using a 'public key'...
IIRC, there is a hidden part of the body having its OWN type of "fingerprint". An Oculo-Anulo scan, like in a pair of calipers, would give quite a.... measure of one's eye-dent-tity...
Reminds me of the Stevens Creek Acura (or, ahem, Acura of Stevens Creek, in SillyConJobAlley) advert/coupon I received in 1992-1993. Just a cursory scan of it lead my eye(s) to:
"Duel Airbags"... I thought, "That could be worse than getting into a collision/wreck..."
Patrol power to seize and conduct invasive searches of personal electronics. This could be used to:
-- tie in to those with NO criminal history (expunged records or not),
-- facilitate with a passing of the "trusted flyer" types of background checks
-- clear or continue to clear travelers (especially domestic travelers returning to the wretched "no mans land" areas through Customs
-- databank ALL federal law enforcement and borders personnel and tie them to every case (except, maybe "deep cover" operations, as far as trials and hearings go, but can also be used to exonerate CERTAIN deep cover operatives who are only killing of bad guys in the course of their operations) of seized property, so that compromised privacy and business and entrepreneurial losses and damages and legal costs can be charged directly back to Border Patrol AND to the directors as well as the personnel making a decision to seize and search electronics beyond the cursory wipe pad and X-Ray/T-Ray-types of scans.
The music and video IP losses are best handled electronically by sniffing the users and the sites hosting illegally-hosted content. Unless a person has been electronically tagged and followed locally or globally, Customs needs to be stripped of the charter of searching content that is electronic. Look at pictures, yes. Briefly peruse any readily-exposed items, yes. READ matter, NO! These days, too many privacy and marginalization issues abound, and it only takes ONE agent on the take to ruin the life or livelihood of a non-criminal.
Hopefully, the laptops of the porn-peddlers were actually targeted PRIOR to seizures because they were legitimate targets, not because of random searches. This *might* explain the lower-published numbers of seizures.
(NO, I haven't "thought of everything"; that's not possible...)
If you're IN a no-mans land and somebody dicks with you, then you should be able to ask for a one-on-one duel. If the guard/agent agrees, and if you kick the living shit out of him, and the buddies there break the agreement and gang up on you, they'd have to kill you. After all, "no witnesses" would take over. And they could BE ASSURED that the next time that traveler came back (if not on the no-fly list), they'd have all unholy hell unleashed upon them.
If it's a no-mans land then it should be possible for foreign airlines to set up and offer refuge. Hell, even the UN peacekeeping forces or any other country's forces should be allowed to land and offer escape/refuge for those being oppressed by their supposed own government.
I sometimes find i am ashamed to say "my/our" government. I pay it, and it claims to protect me, and as long as I don't do more than run my mouth and don't actually carry out crimes, i should count myself lucky that no official put me on the "rub-out" list. Wow, what a fucking system. Enlightened, with "god" on the currency. Belief in a being that has NEVER left incontrovertible proof, and none of us mortals has died, visited the other side, and brought back and disseminated that proof. And, if such person/s did, you could BET YOUR ASS this very same sitting government and probably any in the past or in the near future would NOT ALLOW such disclosures to occur if rapture and sudden declarations of "i only answer to god from now on..." swept the country. This government for certain would start a Nazi-like movement to rub out ANY of us if that "god" did not fit square with the "leadership's" views of "god".
If i have any logic flaws in there, the above comments, please let me know.....
BOTH of these have Linux and Window's clients. Both are powerful, and both are out of my price range for full products, but CAD Schroer offers a free-use personal license.
If you've got Apple Computers, but need parametric capabilities and don't want to pay TONS of money you can check out Punch! ViaCAD:
They have a non-pro version (ViaCAD 2D/3D 6), for about $99, and also have decent range of architectural/residential CAD apps, too, with.exe and Universal Binaries. The 3D solids tools for ad-hoc and precision work are giddiness-inducing, at least for me.
and IMPLORE them with real solid conversion opportunities, they *might* feel inclined to explore porting options, ESPECIALLY if business-minded programmers can induce them to look at QT/Trolltech and other technologies that might help them port or even rebuild their apps. But, for that to happen, we probably need to see a SIGNIFICANT curtailment or reduction of seats held by some major incumbents.
And, here, I thought the BANKS' ATM machines looked for color or fired a light or laser beam onto the card to make sure it at least returned a reasonable image or result, just as one more fraud detection mechanism.
What is WITH these banking execs and ATM designers? These days, the banks have so many cameras IN THEM and in pinholes in the ATM kiosks that i'm surprised they haven't quietly shot pics to match against cards and pin hashes just to find out how many customers SHARE the card. Differing faces would be one way to get an ESTIMATE, at least from the ATM machine side.
But, since store clerks sometimes have wandering eyes (one at Rite-Aid took too long to take his eyes away from the pin pad before I started typing, so I looked at him long enough to make him turn his head...) i make sure they don't see ALL of my pin. Yeh, I know about TJMAX and their pin collectors stories...
Then again, the banks don't give too much of a rat's ass because they can turn to the FED, or they can just raise fees and charges on us all. We're their "market correction" machine, just as we are the ATM machine to the "government"...
some spray nozzles to fire out Easy Off for their Easy Bake Oven in case some silica monster tries to hitch a ride back to Earth. Or, maybe instead they have some RoundUp dispensers. Now, if they have that and some DDT or quinine or something else to terminate any hitchers... like asparagus monsters
GEEZus Christ. I am the of the most staunch, rabid supports and users of Linux, but, isn't this STRETCHING it a bit?
I tried for the past 3 or 4 releases of Mandriva and currently PCLinuxOS to get "rhyme" working. Zip, Zilch, NADA. I'll try again.
I could go on about other appls I've been trying to drag forward through fresh installs (vice upgrades), and tho MOST (say, 98%) of the stuff I previously used works in the subsequent version, RHYME is one of those that should NEVER have been allowed to break.... RHYME is not just some "utility" code, it could be part of Edu-whatever part of Linux experience.
Just how much hardware Dell & HP and others sell to the US government? I'll be it is or will become a black ops-line item redacted from reports. Deploying tons of computer will eventually enable agents to clone hardware without actually having to confiscate the computer.
Actually, a probably good idea is that IF they give you a choice of surrendering the laptop or having it cloned, which would you take. Right now, we do NOT have the option of keeping it if they demand it, and we probably can't get a reverse flight out (wouldn't that be shameful, if an american had an option and chose to reverse their travel because they couldn't clear customs because they refused to surrender their laptop, which passed the X- and T- Ray scans, but the CBP wanted to perform the equivalent of digital rectal exam on your laptop) to avoid seizure.
So, the scary thing is that if they give us this option, we surrender the right to privacy against unreasonable or unwarranted/no-warrant search and seizure that is not allowed at the border just because it's a border, and we open up a can of worms in which it could be routine blackmail: in order to keep your laptop, you have to surrender it to cloning, then be on your way. Oh, same for you phone, Nintendo, P/S 2, and so on. BUT, at least we don't LOSE our hardware. For those of us who surf with our hardware, for all we know, federally-mandated back doors already subject us to routine, no-warrant, un-noticed sniffing and fingerprinting anyway.
Re:Back in the day... Fleas???
on
Terminal Chaos
·
· Score: 1
"Business people need to get over this prehistoric desire to go pick fleas off fellow apes if they want to sign deals with them."
Hehehe, well, unlike you, those business executives have a craving for EATING those fleas. There aren't yet any palatable digital fleas to pick or eat. I guess these are nit-picky/flea-picking execs?
Dammit, all the agencies we now have sniffing up our asses and breathing down our necks need to be consolidated. The time we wait between ordering our overseas ticket and flying is used to verify we aren't criminals or serious no-fly threats.
If we pass muster, then the CBP should NOT be FUCKING with peoples' privacy. Their mission should be amended, not exploited just because the forefathers (of this or any other country) did not envision digital property/possession. They have a mission to find THREATS to the COUNTRY and seek items that need to be taxed, not conduct goddamned fishing expeditions. So, if the passenger for bus/rail/air IS found to have a record, (and, the person ought to know he/she is an ex-con or prosecuted person) is gambling they will be searched and property seized.
BUT, for people who pass muster and GET their ticket, they should rest assured that whatever information the governments COULD find was not that bad. On that basis, assume the person is innocent until they are tracked actually buying or caught frequenting (FREQUENTING, not simply casually/one-off visiting) known IP harboring theft-/transfer sites.
I am NOT looking to help criminals or terrorists gain ways to pass stolen or catastrophe-orders. There exists information to seek chemicals (weapons and drugs) to interdict people at borders. DATA MINING should be forbidden until a person is flagged.
Now, what we have to face is the fear that these agencies will make up excuses to randomly or selectively just TAKE property, probably just to FUCK with people like me and others who defy openly these inane policies. Nabbing a porn trader is not the inane part. Leaving the rest of us worried about how we fit or don't fit a target profile is aggravating and wanton and is just a big-ass catch-all opportunity.
If the CBP is helping companies for economic reasons, they need to do that behind our backs, electronically, or by good old-fashioned following/shadowing. IF they take a laptop, cell phone, etc, it should be that they KNEW in advance of the criminal/peddler/terrorist. The rest of us need to consider fingerprinting our hardware and data so that if data is copied, we have a pattern of integrity or non-criminal activity to present to a judge. If our data is leaked (data we presumably won't leak against ourselves and harm ourselves), then swift, PAINFUL action needs to be taken. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the seizure of laptops of non-criminals becomes so painful that people set up leak-rings to cause unending grief for the CBP.
I haven't thought of everything, but dammit, they could EASILY say that my hobby is dual-use, and of interest to the country to shut it down, yet i have nowhere NEAR the knowledge it takes nor the access to what it takes to actually harm naval or maritime matters, other than running my ideas across, just like any other pseudo-fiction writer or aspiring writer might do. I don't need the fear of some bureaucrat unilaterally deciding to dick with me. I suppose if i travel with a blank laptop, they'll say i super-encrypted it and they'll STILL take it. I could go to Yodabashi or a Toshiba store overseas, return with a factory-sealed laptop and they could STILL say there is something not quite right about me, and that I somehow obtained an unused factory box and tape and sealed up a customized (read: tampered/weaponized/transport-of-contraband-enabled) laptop.
Dammit, use your neutron/T-ray scanners and look for coke, chemicals, improvised weapons, and flight/travel-disrupting matter! STOP taking property of non-criminals, and DON'T engage in falsity-based profiling just to fishnet people.
Slashdot Mirror
suggest Korean?
http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/05/new-songdo-the-south-korean-ubiquitous-city-of-the-future/
http://www.idtechex.com/products/en/presentation.asp?presentationid=272
With Korean, you only have to learn some 41 "characters", tho it can be daunting stringing together a number of verb endings.
Also, see:
http://www.linkroll.com/computer-programming/on-the-way-to-learning-computer-programming-in-nano.php
http://www.learn-korean.net/
http://www.learn-korean.net/learn-korean-classes-listarticles-1.html
and they want to keep Kontrol... They want to shag the field with Austen-sible power CON-sumptions? So, do they want to *86* or DEEP-SIX ATI & nVidia and others?
"I#m very sceptic about Intes try of making a high end graphic board."
That exemplifies why I feel burned for buying a laptop with an Intel video chip. Next time, I'll get another make, an ADD-ON chip that still is affordable, or in the $600 range of laptop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart
Pyroclave the PC (Pyrotechnic autoClave...)
Or, sick AVG on it... hehhee
Well, that would be "non-Green", and that would be mean.
Maybe Google has carbon offset credits to sell to Viacom on TOP of charging them for the paper/post/packing. Yeah, add insult to injury...
That that Carl guy and msoft are both or singly behind prodding the DOJ to actually review the merger or collaboration deal. If that Carl guy and that other one named Ballmer were not so vociferously after Yahoo!, then I doubt the DOJ would probe or investigate for too long.
Hell, are the DOJ going to investigate InBev? Are they going to investigate Anheuser Busch/Dos Equis?
If Yahoo! and Google strike an arrangement that actually does measurable, sustained, enduring and painful retardation of microsoft, then WE ALL WIN, except for those who don't care that their individual greed are likely to put newer, (fresher ?) players at a disadvantage. In the computer world ms has had a long lucky, thuggery-derived winnings streak, and anything that "market corrects" that affront or compensates for the corporate and moral damage they've done should be encouraged.
Come to think of it, such a gripping test would be a measure of one's "end-durance"... Bummer...
What's to stop there being any retention or forwarding of the print spool history? When I took my drawings to copy shops to have them scanned and burned to disk or plotted on paper for purposes of making check prints, one of my biggest fears was the risk of an unscrupulous employee who could take an image and forward to swifter, more enterprising friends. It's not an unreasonable fear, considering that these copiers that take electronic payment ARE hooked to a CORPORATE server, either local or on a WAN. I've requested the scanner & plotter be one not hooked to a network, but every time, I was told the server accounting systems blah blah blah.
So, of you copy granny's recipe, or scan or self-serve-scan copies of a nuclear reactor or prison or police station or power station plan layouts, there WILL come the day we may read of you -- even if the official published report doesn't say attention came to you via electronic surveillance.
For YEARS I've wondered if the various intel agencies have paid the major copier shops like Kinkos to embed data scanning chips to just "get interesting things". Imagine if Kinkos were a front CIA operation. It would be of GREAT utility to them... looking legit, with payroll, real estate and a steady stream of unwitting clients.... would be a great fishnet
"Professors aren't like John Grisham or Tom Clancy."
GHOST WRITERS?
Clancy, like many authors, has ghost writers, too. They on occasion just add a few pages of their own writing to that another author or team wrote. Not all authors these days are or remain TRULY successful as they age. Sometimes their fans who really identify with the author and have a lot more pizazz to extend the original work are their best friends. But, as long as the books are bought and not pirated (tho they are resold), these authors will probably thrive -- depending upon what royalties they negotiate.
Academic book authors and publishers, OTOH, IMO, need to seriously rethink their business model. We've had for far too many years now PDFs which can be displayed by hand-held devices (including some gaming devices and MP3 players) for there to be these hefty paperbacks still reigning king.
I'd say, too, that a LOT of universities can put a dent in this wing of publishing just by being compelled to show how "green" they are. As in, their carbon foot print. For every student carrying around heavy books, that is the extent of the carbon footprint of that university. As for publishers of back-breaking books which end up in the backpacks of young children, SHAME on THEM. They could be exacerbating scoliosis (which I had, but emerged unscathed, as I engaged in rigorous fitness exercises before I joined the USN, and I did this to because my doctor almost sabotaged my plans to join the USN by recommending my father get me into surgery, in which a titanium rod would have been attached and fused to my spine. I shuddered and said to myself something along the lines of "fuck that". I ran, did innumerable sit-ups, push-ups, jumpjacks, Marine Corps-style duck walks, and other stuff I learned from the Young Marines, the Navy JROTC, and other places...), which is not necessarily the worst disorder around, but still hauling those books can't be good for a youngster's developing spinal column, not to mention it could retard growth in some kids, induce poor posture, and more. These things might unnecessarily compress organs and reduce lung capacity in some.
Anyway.... I made it to "The Nav", and nowadays, people who look at my back don't see nearly the curvature I *used* to have. Self- or age-corrected, no pins, no back braces, no alteration surgery.
With huge laptops and 17" displays that some of us DO carry, PDFs may be the way to go, or indexed help-file-like course material may be the better exchange of weight. Maybe instructors could create their own voice-coached Courses on Tape, so students can listen while on public transit. Better, lighter, spindle-able electronics would help, too. But, until these wallet-pirating publishers return pricing to the sane levels, students will pirate, or buy used, or buy new and pool/share over-priced name-stipulated course books.
"So what happens when the FBI DB gets hacked and some serial killer changes his Eye Scan with mine. The FBI has no way of knowing who is who."
You will be "identifried"..., until you get the true hacker "identified". You have to fight an eye for an eye...
about this BEFORE Nov 2007... Can't find URLs, though...
But, see:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hanko_security.html
">"The joker scans this image and prints it on the withdrawal slip with color printer. The bank >teller accepts this slip and passbook as authentic, and victim's account will be emptied. >Sometimes, the scanned digital image goes to hanko carving machine, too."
And...
>It's the stamped image of one's hanko that is stored in the databases of goverment offices, >banks and other public institutions. Not the particulars of physical hanko itself! And any >image can be flawlessly reproduced in this era of digital processing.
To me, I do not see the security here. If you stamp a cheque or other document with your Hanko in the 'correct dial' position, it still gives the 'Joker' the ability to scan the document and reproduce a static Hanko, without ever needing to have the device.
Could one create an encrypted hanko stamp that changes with the date? Officials would decode using a 'public key'...
Posted by: nzruss at August 17, 2006 10:37 AM"
Retinal, Iris, or Iro-Recto?
IIRC, there is a hidden part of the body having its OWN type of "fingerprint". An Oculo-Anulo scan, like in a pair of calipers, would give quite a .... measure of one's eye-dent-tity...
Reminds me of the Stevens Creek Acura (or, ahem, Acura of Stevens Creek, in SillyConJobAlley) advert/coupon I received in 1992-1993. Just a cursory scan of it lead my eye(s) to:
"Duel Airbags"... I thought, "That could be worse than getting into a collision/wreck..."
I think I STILL have that coupon somewhere...
Patrol power to seize and conduct invasive searches of personal electronics. This could be used to:
-- tie in to those with NO criminal history (expunged records or not),
-- facilitate with a passing of the "trusted flyer" types of background checks
-- clear or continue to clear travelers (especially domestic travelers returning to the wretched "no mans land" areas through Customs
-- databank ALL federal law enforcement and borders personnel and tie them to every case (except, maybe "deep cover" operations, as far as trials and hearings go, but can also be used to exonerate CERTAIN deep cover operatives who are only killing of bad guys in the course of their operations) of seized property, so that compromised privacy and business and entrepreneurial losses and damages and legal costs can be charged directly back to Border Patrol AND to the directors as well as the personnel making a decision to seize and search electronics beyond the cursory wipe pad and X-Ray/T-Ray-types of scans.
The music and video IP losses are best handled electronically by sniffing the users and the sites hosting illegally-hosted content. Unless a person has been electronically tagged and followed locally or globally, Customs needs to be stripped of the charter of searching content that is electronic. Look at pictures, yes. Briefly peruse any readily-exposed items, yes. READ matter, NO! These days, too many privacy and marginalization issues abound, and it only takes ONE agent on the take to ruin the life or livelihood of a non-criminal.
Hopefully, the laptops of the porn-peddlers were actually targeted PRIOR to seizures because they were legitimate targets, not because of random searches. This *might* explain the lower-published numbers of seizures.
(NO, I haven't "thought of everything"; that's not possible...)
"Of Mice and Men"...
gladitorium there.
If you're IN a no-mans land and somebody dicks with you, then you should be able to ask for a one-on-one duel. If the guard/agent agrees, and if you kick the living shit out of him, and the buddies there break the agreement and gang up on you, they'd have to kill you. After all, "no witnesses" would take over. And they could BE ASSURED that the next time that traveler came back (if not on the no-fly list), they'd have all unholy hell unleashed upon them.
If it's a no-mans land then it should be possible for foreign airlines to set up and offer refuge. Hell, even the UN peacekeeping forces or any other country's forces should be allowed to land and offer escape/refuge for those being oppressed by their supposed own government.
I sometimes find i am ashamed to say "my/our" government. I pay it, and it claims to protect me, and as long as I don't do more than run my mouth and don't actually carry out crimes, i should count myself lucky that no official put me on the "rub-out" list. Wow, what a fucking system. Enlightened, with "god" on the currency. Belief in a being that has NEVER left incontrovertible proof, and none of us mortals has died, visited the other side, and brought back and disseminated that proof. And, if such person/s did, you could BET YOUR ASS this very same sitting government and probably any in the past or in the near future would NOT ALLOW such disclosures to occur if rapture and sudden declarations of "i only answer to god from now on..." swept the country. This government for certain would start a Nazi-like movement to rub out ANY of us if that "god" did not fit square with the "leadership's" views of "god".
If i have any logic flaws in there, the above comments, please let me know.....
"of CAD without having to use an unsupported intermediary (wine)."
If you haven't heard of VariCAD...
http://www.varicad.com/en/home/
It's not AutoCAD, but if you have a machine shop, or are adept with generic CAD tools...
Check out their demonstration...
http://www.varicad.com/en/home/products/demo-videos/
Another is CAD Schroer...
http://www.cad-schroer.com/
BOTH of these have Linux and Window's clients. Both are powerful, and both are out of my price range for full products, but CAD Schroer offers a free-use personal license.
If you've got Apple Computers, but need parametric capabilities and don't want to pay TONS of money you can check out Punch! ViaCAD:
http://www.punchcad.com/products/viacadpro.htm
They have a non-pro version (ViaCAD 2D/3D 6), for about $99, and also have decent range of architectural/residential CAD apps, too, with .exe and Universal Binaries. The 3D solids tools for ad-hoc and precision work are giddiness-inducing, at least for me.
And, if you need 3D Digital Prototyping...:
http://www.punchcad.com/index.htm
http://www.punchcad.com/index_pro.htm
http://www.punchcad.com/products/shark.htm
http://www.punchcad.com/products/sharkfx.htm
Now, if the Linux/Open Source community would seriously hit up ViaCAD and also IMSI:
http://www.turbocad.com/
http://www.imsisoft.com/Products/3DModelingCategory/tabid/470/Default.aspx
and IMPLORE them with real solid conversion opportunities, they *might* feel inclined to explore porting options, ESPECIALLY if business-minded programmers can induce them to look at QT/Trolltech and other technologies that might help them port or even rebuild their apps. But, for that to happen, we probably need to see a SIGNIFICANT curtailment or reduction of seats held by some major incumbents.
And, we need to get MORE
And, here, I thought the BANKS' ATM machines looked for color or fired a light or laser beam onto the card to make sure it at least returned a reasonable image or result, just as one more fraud detection mechanism.
What is WITH these banking execs and ATM designers? These days, the banks have so many cameras IN THEM and in pinholes in the ATM kiosks that i'm surprised they haven't quietly shot pics to match against cards and pin hashes just to find out how many customers SHARE the card. Differing faces would be one way to get an ESTIMATE, at least from the ATM machine side.
But, since store clerks sometimes have wandering eyes (one at Rite-Aid took too long to take his eyes away from the pin pad before I started typing, so I looked at him long enough to make him turn his head...) i make sure they don't see ALL of my pin. Yeh, I know about TJMAX and their pin collectors stories...
Then again, the banks don't give too much of a rat's ass because they can turn to the FED, or they can just raise fees and charges on us all. We're their "market correction" machine, just as we are the ATM machine to the "government"...
some spray nozzles to fire out Easy Off for their Easy Bake Oven in case some silica monster tries to hitch a ride back to Earth. Or, maybe instead they have some RoundUp dispensers. Now, if they have that and some DDT or quinine or something else to terminate any hitchers... like asparagus monsters
hehehe....
GEEZus Christ. I am the of the most staunch, rabid supports and users of Linux, but, isn't this STRETCHING it a bit?
I tried for the past 3 or 4 releases of Mandriva and currently PCLinuxOS to get "rhyme" working. Zip, Zilch, NADA. I'll try again.
I could go on about other appls I've been trying to drag forward through fresh installs (vice upgrades), and tho MOST (say, 98%) of the stuff I previously used works in the subsequent version, RHYME is one of those that should NEVER have been allowed to break.... RHYME is not just some "utility" code, it could be part of Edu-whatever part of Linux experience.
Just how much hardware Dell & HP and others sell to the US government? I'll be it is or will become a black ops-line item redacted from reports. Deploying tons of computer will eventually enable agents to clone hardware without actually having to confiscate the computer.
Actually, a probably good idea is that IF they give you a choice of surrendering the laptop or having it cloned, which would you take. Right now, we do NOT have the option of keeping it if they demand it, and we probably can't get a reverse flight out (wouldn't that be shameful, if an american had an option and chose to reverse their travel because they couldn't clear customs because they refused to surrender their laptop, which passed the X- and T- Ray scans, but the CBP wanted to perform the equivalent of digital rectal exam on your laptop) to avoid seizure.
So, the scary thing is that if they give us this option, we surrender the right to privacy against unreasonable or unwarranted/no-warrant search and seizure that is not allowed at the border just because it's a border, and we open up a can of worms in which it could be routine blackmail: in order to keep your laptop, you have to surrender it to cloning, then be on your way. Oh, same for you phone, Nintendo, P/S 2, and so on. BUT, at least we don't LOSE our hardware. For those of us who surf with our hardware, for all we know, federally-mandated back doors already subject us to routine, no-warrant, un-noticed sniffing and fingerprinting anyway.
"Business people need to get over this prehistoric desire to go pick fleas off fellow apes if they want to sign deals with them."
Hehehe, well, unlike you, those business executives have a craving for EATING those fleas. There aren't yet any palatable digital fleas to pick or eat. I guess these are nit-picky/flea-picking execs?
NO. NO. NO.
Dammit, all the agencies we now have sniffing up our asses and breathing down our necks need to be consolidated. The time we wait between ordering our overseas ticket and flying is used to verify we aren't criminals or serious no-fly threats.
If we pass muster, then the CBP should NOT be FUCKING with peoples' privacy. Their mission should be amended, not exploited just because the forefathers (of this or any other country) did not envision digital property/possession. They have a mission to find THREATS to the COUNTRY and seek items that need to be taxed, not conduct goddamned fishing expeditions. So, if the passenger for bus/rail/air IS found to have a record, (and, the person ought to know he/she is an ex-con or prosecuted person) is gambling they will be searched and property seized.
BUT, for people who pass muster and GET their ticket, they should rest assured that whatever information the governments COULD find was not that bad. On that basis, assume the person is innocent until they are tracked actually buying or caught frequenting (FREQUENTING, not simply casually/one-off visiting) known IP harboring theft-/transfer sites.
I am NOT looking to help criminals or terrorists gain ways to pass stolen or catastrophe-orders. There exists information to seek chemicals (weapons and drugs) to interdict people at borders. DATA MINING should be forbidden until a person is flagged.
Now, what we have to face is the fear that these agencies will make up excuses to randomly or selectively just TAKE property, probably just to FUCK with people like me and others who defy openly these inane policies. Nabbing a porn trader is not the inane part. Leaving the rest of us worried about how we fit or don't fit a target profile is aggravating and wanton and is just a big-ass catch-all opportunity.
If the CBP is helping companies for economic reasons, they need to do that behind our backs, electronically, or by good old-fashioned following/shadowing. IF they take a laptop, cell phone, etc, it should be that they KNEW in advance of the criminal/peddler/terrorist. The rest of us need to consider fingerprinting our hardware and data so that if data is copied, we have a pattern of integrity or non-criminal activity to present to a judge. If our data is leaked (data we presumably won't leak against ourselves and harm ourselves), then swift, PAINFUL action needs to be taken. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the seizure of laptops of non-criminals becomes so painful that people set up leak-rings to cause unending grief for the CBP.
I haven't thought of everything, but dammit, they could EASILY say that my hobby is dual-use, and of interest to the country to shut it down, yet i have nowhere NEAR the knowledge it takes nor the access to what it takes to actually harm naval or maritime matters, other than running my ideas across, just like any other pseudo-fiction writer or aspiring writer might do. I don't need the fear of some bureaucrat unilaterally deciding to dick with me. I suppose if i travel with a blank laptop, they'll say i super-encrypted it and they'll STILL take it. I could go to Yodabashi or a Toshiba store overseas, return with a factory-sealed laptop and they could STILL say there is something not quite right about me, and that I somehow obtained an unused factory box and tape and sealed up a customized (read: tampered/weaponized/transport-of-contraband-enabled) laptop.
Dammit, use your neutron/T-ray scanners and look for coke, chemicals, improvised weapons, and flight/travel-disrupting matter! STOP taking property of non-criminals, and DON'T engage in falsity-based profiling just to fishnet people.