Who is the cretinous asshole running around with the "off-topic" wand? Dumbass, this thread WAS on topic. Someone opened a line about gas pumps running names on the display, tied in with ads in other forms of purchase activities.
Where the f*ck are the on-duty moderators who should be slaying/disciplining the off-topic creds of those who overly slam-dunk and piss off people like me with irritating commentary. This isn't "Kiss-Slash-Dick", it's "Give your OPINION". "Off-topic", when abused, is slightly below a form of retribution for inability to outright CENSOR someone's comment off the site.
For some, the regrettable thing is that they cannot separate their identity nor machine history from their search/logon activity and they are tracked by cookie crumbs. Gas pumps, credit cards, redeemable shopper rewards points... ALL of this is in some way connected.
Off-topic my ass. Must be a ms or a dangerway-fanboy?
Slashdot needs a complaint metric to deal with overly-endowed moderators. "IF you feel your comment was unjustifiably slain/assailed/moderated, check why, and random readers will be invited to review your comments. If you've been abused, the moderator will be punished. If you wrongly/falsely complain, you will lose for 5 days the permission to submit...." (SOME site (might have even been slash) years ago did something like this...)
Well, the creeper might, after following the mark, find out the hailed name differs from the address. Could be the mark lives in a household of someone else, or just stopped there first, or is married but under a different name than the other spouse.
This isn't Mayberry RFD, or Hazel, or Green Acres. This is AMERIKA of the info age. Some entities respect privacy, and some don't. Those who don't put the "k" in America.
Out of sheer respect, stores should simply use anonymous honorifics: "Thank you so much, sir. I hope you shop with us again. By the way, just a head's up: next week we have a promo/price reduction..." Empower and please the customer THAT way. Other than stroking egos of a few minor customers, the only good that could come out of blurting out people's names is if two long-lost relatives found each other because tho they have different paper names, they both know of changed names and now voila! They reunite. And, that is so rare an event as to not justify blurting out people's names.
Blurting names also confirms the name of a mark who conscientiously and carefully LIED to her follower about her name, only to be f*scked over by her emerging stalker.
THAT's why it matters. We don't have the luxury of knowing who is our freak and our stalker.
Double Click (at least before Google got them), and heaped tons of disparagement upon the entity, i know the have some quite intelligent people there. One of my friends is there. i'm not saying (rather, not asserting that) the hiring process there is as tough as it is at Google...
i hope D/C becomes one of those companies i can gladly remove from my firewall/blocker. But, it used to be that on Comcast, EVERY site i traversed to having D/C cookies took fracking forEVER to load. Now, tho the SFPL has Comcast, the pages load as fast as if (previously) D/C cookies were not blocked. Might just be a firewall matter, not a cookies matter. But, since Google owns them, it's not entirely impossible that Google has a hidden passthru layer of some sort.
i am NOT saying this with any info from others. It's just my pseudo-conspiracy-theorist-mind at work in that regard.
How can ms claim a person's GIVEN name is NOT personal? Sound's like they've got too much duroquinone in their brains. The NERVE of them to assert a thing.
As for "I felt it was intrusive, since anybody at a neighboring pump now knows my name, but kind of a minor annoyance.", imagine people who shop safeway.
After a shopper's membership card is scanned, and the goods are bagged and the customer is ready to go, the drone cashier will usually pipe (pretty much for ALL in earshot to hear), "Thank you, Mr/Mrs/Ms (last name)".
THAT bugs the SHIT out of me. So, I would interrupt them -- as they say "Thank you" -- with "NO LAST NAME/DON'T SAY MY LAST NAME."
Women or anyone who might be targets of stalkers should especially take great offence to this. Why? Well, some asshole/creeper could follow a mark to their car, then note the license plate. Then the creeper can proceed to obtain more information by following the person and getting their address. Next, rummage any accessible mailbox or driveway mail or deliveries and note th presumed name.
Safeway could someday become "Dangerway". It's ONE thing for someone giving public speeches to be known by all. It's entirely another when a shopper is stripped of anonymity without their prior consent. So, now, i use a valid Safeway card with a borked name, and I ONLY use cash so as to not commingle my real and shopper names.
But, if they use it in bugs, and they abandon their masters, it will give a new meaning to "buggin out". If they emerge from a wig-wearing woman, then we literally have "wiggin out".
But, as for expressionism.... do you want IMpressionism?
" The machine is made from 17 molecules of the chemical duroquinone. Each one is known as a "logic device".
They each resemble a ring with four protruding spokes that can be independently rotated to represent four different states."
Would they be: Liquid, Gas, Solid, Kinetic/Memetic or Magnetic/Frenetic?
And, if you built one of these for Frankenstein, and it crashed from over-guttural grunting, would it be Blankenstein?
Can they be used to create drones, or upgrade government drones already in existence? Can they be trusted with weapons, and to guard the infrastructure?
Well, since you bring up card counting, I now have an angle to bring up something and hopefully avoid the dreaded, eviscerating "Off-Topic"-wand-wielding maestro...
I just a few weeks ago read in a copy of Asian Week how these smart AMERICAN Asians figured out a card counting method and raked in the coin from one or more casinos. Now, we've got hollyweird picking up on this and whitewashing the cast. Amazing the shit hollyweird does to calculate to obtain the best studio ticket intake.
From Wikipedia, from Asian Week and Ben Mezrich (author of the book):
"Casting of Caucasian/Asian
Although the four main characters in Bringing Down the House were Asian-Americans in real life, studio executives have cast mostly white actors to portray them in the film. Ben Mezrich, author of Bringing Down the House, has noted a "stereotypical" casting process on the part of Hollywood.[1] In the book, Mezrich explicitly states that a young Caucasian betting large amounts of money stands out, while a young Asian or other minority would be less conspicuous. Asian Week called the casting a "whitewash," pointing out that if it were African Americans replaced by Caucasians, there would be more vocal protest."
by using a protocol analyzer to recover my OWN login and password for my side of the company's intranet. Turned out that the web software we used (can't remember the name, but it was not front phage, but it was indeed popular at the time) was harvesting or retaining ALL USER ACCOUNTS names and passwords. I became scared shitless because I was not sure how IT would feel. But I was former IT in the company and felt obligated to warn them that the vendor was conducting shitty coding processes and put not only OUR company at risk but other companies as well. If they had any diagnostic or call-home code in their web site building software, then potentially a corrupt employee in their company could gain some limited or full access to many companies' intranets if they gained physical access to the building. And, we all know about piggy-backing, where thieves waltzed in behind other employees, then proceeded to lift laptops, purses, keys, wallets, documents, whatever they could steal.
DAMN, I wish I could recall the name. I may..
Here we go... I'm PRETTY damned sure it was NetObjects Fusion. Just googled "Year 1999 web building applications intranet web" and they were at the top of the list... I preferred it over front phage, but...
And, now that I Google "Year 1999 protocol analyzer sniffer packet" it seems to refresh my memory that I am PRETTY sure Sniffer Basic was the tool I used.
Of course, after that I never used any such tool on the LAN. But, being formerly in the IT department, and knowing what to look out for to help the company probably kept me out of trouble.
oft types to run their 'Get the Facts' subv... um adverts. What would be scary if mshaft got their mitts on Wikipedia. They might feign or play an interest in taking a co ownership in them as a coercive means to make Yahoo! submit. So, Yahoo!, you better make the play FIRST and up your value and enhance your poison pill! (Hehe, captcha: drumming)
might find this off-topic. With the possibility that "Terrorists" may become relegated to the title of common criminals, there is the possibility they will be "laundered" into common gangs or mafias and gain access to legitimate businesses and therefore into manufacturing processes.
Criminals always evolve. Well, at least the smarter of them. To ignore this is simply burying ones head in the sand.
Marking this off-topic is akin to burying head in sand.
"Army Maj. Reid Sawyer, of West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, says that is now changing -- and that al-Qaida's central leadership, securely based in Pakistan, is once again taking charge.
"What we have been observing is al-Qaida's attempt to re-assert control throughout their disparate networks, with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in the Horn of Africa, to provide guidance and mentoring, if you will, as well as some funding to these organizations," Sawyer said.
"And so the organization has coalesced again, because of its ability to have sanctuary. And that's really given it such a benefit that can't be overstated."
Michael Scheuer, a top al-Qaida specialist at the CIA until 2004, goes even further in his assessment.
"I think al-Qaida as an organization was never seriously damaged," Scheuer said. "What we're seeing is, it has a new base. It is fairly comfortable where it sits at the moment. And it is able to go back to doing the things it did since 1988."
But the world has changed since 1988 -- and so has al-Qaida.
The group is now on the Internet, and it even has its own media company, producing videos for radical Islamist Web sites.
With these new tools, the Internet makes it possible for al-Qaida to promote its vision of jihad or holy war and solicit recruits throughout the Muslim world.
Sawyer says the Internet even provides a training mechanism, taking the burden off al-Qaida bases in Pakistan.
"What the Internet has really created for al-Qaida and its affiliated groups is a virtual sanctuary,... "
Like Adama told Tyrol about Galactica Valerii: "You'll see her again, Chief.... There are many copies."
If the US government (by extension, the wealthy, the connected, the power brokers, then the consumers/prosumers) want cheap goods, then they will be made in China or elsewhere. If the US wants security to not be threatened by counterfeit goods (bads) then it OUGHT to SHUT UP and bite the bullet and manufacture ALL infrastructure-threat-capable electronics domestically.
But, it can't. It can't because to do so would buck or contravene many conventions, trade acts, and agreements. If the US can't trust Asian producers, what makes it think it's safe trusting European producers? Only irrational comfort in color-based similarity and common heritage is probably all there is.
So, the next best thing is for governments to stop dicking around and posturing as soft-enemies. If China never has to fear the US, then national or entrepreneurial counterfeits orders might not be a real problem. If the US stops trying to f*sking trying to be NUMERO UNO/Master-of-the-Universe, other nations might feel less threatened. If the US is less feared, sure, some will still try to exploit it, but that is best done economically, which is already the case: multiple hands from multiple nations and places from Dubai to Israel, to UK to Tokyo to Beijing, to Venezuela (oil, cheap oil) will have some tug and push on the US. Small, but definitely felt.
All this just reminds me of the post by a sysadmin about 2 weeks ago who said as long as the counterfeits work until he's got his ROI, or as long as they don't crash or trash his network and as long as the only difference is in the serial numbers, then he doesn't care, because he saved money. Well, how can HE ever know his company's chips are not trojan chips? He's not likely to have Cisco come do an audit on the chip code or substrates or pins. He'd get fire if it's shown he knew and did nothing. Well, MAYBE he'd be fired.
i wouldn't be surprised if 45% of US infrastructure and maybe the same of the EU and even Japan has been "infiltrated" (used not in the "evil" sense, but in the penetration sense) by counterfeit chips. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that prior to off-shoring chip plants to China that the US was sending "counterfeit" or infiltration chips to other nations. These companies probably did it at the bidding of the US government, under black ops national security project, which we'll never be able to prove nor disprove, given the secret accounting and multitudes of project names and cover names.
So, in all, this is "touche", or Karma (good or bad) at work or in play.
Would any of this Sony technology have any silent (via shadow investors/subsidiaries) part in resurrecting Sony income stream? Would this technology in the news today be very good for random and equidistant surveillance points for bridges, office towers and infrastructure.
I can imagine a whole new slew of patent-evading startups (not counting some failed or badly-focused ones in the SillyConJobAlley area just north of San Jose/Milpitas...). Might be JUST what Boston and Santa Clara need.
is any indication, countries like the USA will have the hopeless task of putting such cameras EVERY WHERE (good for business income from DOD/DHLS contracts...) until policy or attitude toward people OUTside of the US changes.
Maybe it WILL be good for police to use. Now, they will have no reason to cavity or strip search people. It could reduce the number of unjustified shootings/killings of people. No more claims of "S/he had what appeared to be a firearm aimed at me/my partner/a civilian bystander...". It could even protect police when approaching vehicles. No more being shot just for trying to issue a traffic citation for a vehicle code violation.
Stores and offices could use them for silent reporting and logging of robberies or undesired proliferation of weapons in neighborhoods. I wouldn't be surprised if places like SF's Tenderloin and Bayview/Hunters Point and Fillmore district get these things.
But, the train stations/undergrounds will be clamoring for federal funds (matching?/challenge grants?) to get these new gadgets installed.
somehow combines that activity with Patriot Act and border protection. Just a ruse is all takes to grab business intel on competition, or to deter some companies from advertising if their whole booth can be carted up and taken off. And, who'd be able to prove the "uniformed cops" were not imposters to screw over a company. Nahh, things like that just don't happen -- yet.
Have the cell carriers resolved their bickering over standards? Is it still an issue using one carrier phone and trying to reach a friend on another carrier's phone? Also, isn't a LOT of that speed improvement due to repeaters on tall buildings? I did see a helluva lot of digging in the streets, done by TEPCO, and some for the new lines being built to squeeze between existing rights of ways, so maybe a lot of your and other's speed gains are due to fast, fat pipes underground. (Those were the negative questions.)
Nowadays, is ISDN still available in the phone booths? I saw some there in 2004 and found it interesting (i was partly laughing, but then thought there must be valid reason, and then i recalled that in the US it might be impossible to find wired laptop connections just anywhere on the street -- even if for a fee) that ISDN modems/connections could be had. Never tried one, nor looked at the pricing. Saw them in Shinjuku, near JR West station. But, others were around, to, I think near Ginza District.
Re:Verizon and high pressure tactics...Suckers...
on
Verizon, Fiber Or Die?
·
· Score: 1
Well, if Verizon managed to suck or wrangle from Cox all the cabling and bits in the pipes, would that make Verizon the Master Cox Sucker? How much latency improvement would be involved?
I am so sick and tired of having to re-fill forms and providing information to agencies or entities that already have a working or business or mandatory relationship with the one transferring or handling my existing information -- just to prove who I am and to obtain service. I for years have (cynically, but I guess factually) presumed that the various government agencies already have the information and just pretend not to have it. It is to provice "peace of mind" to dolts who think the government does NOT have this information.
It is an astounding waste of time to go through the game of fooling oneself that this agency or entity aquiring information is getting it for the first time. Oh, *IT* might be, but why can't the one WITH it just accept my verbal. Why can't I (after "proving" my identity on the phone via challenge/reply/PIN/etc) just avoid the paper trail. The information about me in the past (not the one I'm dealing with now) can and has been screwed by carelessness, merged computer banks, and so on.
Someone said the "Japanese have an irrational acceptance of authority and conformism." And? So what? It's ONLY the people with intent or holding resservation to COMMIT crimes (or become agents of one or more governments...) who have a true need to be totally anonymous, right? Besides, when *I* wa in Japan (for 3 months) I had *no* problems with the government getting information on me. I like the people, the culture, the architecture (of new things, anyway) the technology, the food, club scenes, and more. And, no, it wasnt' about being caught up in the "feeling of being there". I would do the same thing (give up information) to visit Korea, too. Had to turn over my passport and driver's license (IIRC, but definitely my p/p) when I was in a town in central Vietnam in 1998.
Speaking of other governments, if THEY can get the same information when people travel to them, then what is the problem with domestic agencies obtaining and collating it? It's not (yet) as if the government is wholesale "solving" crime cases by taking entire dossiers on people and "fitting them" to the crime. That's already done with the most MINIMAL of fraudulent, contrived "evidence". Besides, the more the data exists in innumerable places, the more difficult it *might* be for a corrupt agency to use data it can't be sure is contradictory and more trusted than the corrupted, condemning data they feed to a court or jury or judge for a warrant or for conviction rates enhancement.
1. Maybe De Icaza laments that ms is making Office Online not work for Linux users? 2. Maybe ms is intent on gaining ads revenue from companies looking for impressions upon ms Word users?
"Visiting the Microsoft Office Live Workspace promises to allow users to store as many a 1000 documents online and share them with colleagues. Sounds good. Unless you try and sign up for the free service and you're running Linux. If you are running Linux then you'll be greeted with a screen informing you that you'll need to be running a version of Windows or MacOSX and either Internet Explorer or Firefox (good to see Firefox in there)."
"3850-mile test drive ends in arrest 07 March 2008
3850-mile test drive ends in arrest
Six-day, 3850-mile test drive man arrested
He travelled almost the length of Australia
Dealership sells car at a massive discount
While we'd always recommend you take a car for a thorough test drive before buying it, it's fair to say that an Australian man who went on a six-day, 3850-mile trip went a step too far.
Tam Thai Luu, 30, convinced a car dealer in Melbourne that he was a genuine buyer, and then set off on his test drive in a Honda Accord before the salesman could get in the passenger seat."
Slashdot Mirror
and hacking someone to death without spilling a drop of blood (assuming the pacemaker is not set to over-pressurise and inflate the target...).
Hmmm, that gives rise to "talk about being "pounded" to death"....
Can beat (ring) tones be generated so as to deliver a message to the soon-to-be-deceased?
(hehehe: captcha: salvager)
Who is the cretinous asshole running around with the "off-topic" wand? Dumbass, this thread WAS on topic. Someone opened a line about gas pumps running names on the display, tied in with ads in other forms of purchase activities.
Where the f*ck are the on-duty moderators who should be slaying/disciplining the off-topic creds of those who overly slam-dunk and piss off people like me with irritating commentary. This isn't "Kiss-Slash-Dick", it's "Give your OPINION". "Off-topic", when abused, is slightly below a form of retribution for inability to outright CENSOR someone's comment off the site.
For some, the regrettable thing is that they cannot separate their identity nor machine history from their search/logon activity and they are tracked by cookie crumbs. Gas pumps, credit cards, redeemable shopper rewards points... ALL of this is in some way connected.
Off-topic my ass. Must be a ms or a dangerway-fanboy?
Slashdot needs a complaint metric to deal with overly-endowed moderators. "IF you feel your comment was unjustifiably slain/assailed/moderated, check why, and random readers will be invited to review your comments. If you've been abused, the moderator will be punished. If you wrongly/falsely complain, you will lose for 5 days the permission to submit...." (SOME site (might have even been slash) years ago did something like this...)
Well, the creeper might, after following the mark, find out the hailed name differs from the address. Could be the mark lives in a household of someone else, or just stopped there first, or is married but under a different name than the other spouse.
This isn't Mayberry RFD, or Hazel, or Green Acres. This is AMERIKA of the info age. Some entities respect privacy, and some don't. Those who don't put the "k" in America.
Out of sheer respect, stores should simply use anonymous honorifics: "Thank you so much, sir. I hope you shop with us again. By the way, just a head's up: next week we have a promo/price reduction..." Empower and please the customer THAT way. Other than stroking egos of a few minor customers, the only good that could come out of blurting out people's names is if two long-lost relatives found each other because tho they have different paper names, they both know of changed names and now voila! They reunite. And, that is so rare an event as to not justify blurting out people's names.
Blurting names also confirms the name of a mark who conscientiously and carefully LIED to her follower about her name, only to be f*scked over by her emerging stalker.
THAT's why it matters. We don't have the luxury of knowing who is our freak and our stalker.
Double Click (at least before Google got them), and heaped tons of disparagement upon the entity, i know the have some quite intelligent people there. One of my friends is there. i'm not saying (rather, not asserting that) the hiring process there is as tough as it is at Google...
i hope D/C becomes one of those companies i can gladly remove from my firewall/blocker. But, it used to be that on Comcast, EVERY site i traversed to having D/C cookies took fracking forEVER to load. Now, tho the SFPL has Comcast, the pages load as fast as if (previously) D/C cookies were not blocked. Might just be a firewall matter, not a cookies matter. But, since Google owns them, it's not entirely impossible that Google has a hidden passthru layer of some sort.
i am NOT saying this with any info from others. It's just my pseudo-conspiracy-theorist-mind at work in that regard.
How can ms claim a person's GIVEN name is NOT personal? Sound's like they've got too much duroquinone in their brains. The NERVE of them to assert a thing.
As for "I felt it was intrusive, since anybody at a neighboring pump now knows my name, but kind of a minor annoyance.", imagine people who shop safeway.
After a shopper's membership card is scanned, and the goods are bagged and the customer is ready to go, the drone cashier will usually pipe (pretty much for ALL in earshot to hear), "Thank you, Mr/Mrs/Ms (last name)".
THAT bugs the SHIT out of me. So, I would interrupt them -- as they say "Thank you" -- with "NO LAST NAME/DON'T SAY MY LAST NAME."
Women or anyone who might be targets of stalkers should especially take great offence to this. Why? Well, some asshole/creeper could follow a mark to their car, then note the license plate. Then the creeper can proceed to obtain more information by following the person and getting their address. Next, rummage any accessible mailbox or driveway mail or deliveries and note th presumed name.
Safeway could someday become "Dangerway". It's ONE thing for someone giving public speeches to be known by all. It's entirely another when a shopper is stripped of anonymity without their prior consent. So, now, i use a valid Safeway card with a borked name, and I ONLY use cash so as to not commingle my real and shopper names.
Obviously I was crafting puns on Star Trek history:
Kirk (toward Spock): YOU are ILLOGICAL
Boma (referring to Spock): I'm sick and TIRED of taking orders from this MACHINE!
It's EXpressive: Mathematical AND artistic.
But, if they use it in bugs, and they abandon their masters, it will give a new meaning to "buggin out". If they emerge from a wig-wearing woman, then we literally have "wiggin out".
But, as for expressionism.... do you want IMpressionism?
Or, Bock's Sprain? Or, was that "Spock's Brain"?
" The machine is made from 17 molecules of the chemical duroquinone. Each one is known as a "logic device".
They each resemble a ring with four protruding spokes that can be independently rotated to represent four different states."
Would they be: Liquid, Gas, Solid, Kinetic/Memetic or Magnetic/Frenetic?
And, if you built one of these for Frankenstein, and it crashed from over-guttural grunting, would it be Blankenstein?
Can they be used to create drones, or upgrade government drones already in existence? Can they be trusted with weapons, and to guard the infrastructure?
Inquiring organic minds want to know...
Thanks!
I call:
- ms word ms blurb
- access abscess
- excel hexedcell
- x box hexed box
- outlook LOOKOUUUTTT!!!!
- powerpoint powerpointless
But, I'd have to say my faves are abscess and front phage...
becoming "rotten to the core"?
Well, since you bring up card counting, I now have an angle to bring up something and hopefully avoid the dreaded, eviscerating "Off-Topic"-wand-wielding maestro...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_(2008_film)
I just a few weeks ago read in a copy of Asian Week how these smart AMERICAN Asians figured out a card counting method and raked in the coin from one or more casinos. Now, we've got hollyweird picking up on this and whitewashing the cast. Amazing the shit hollyweird does to calculate to obtain the best studio ticket intake.
From Wikipedia, from Asian Week and Ben Mezrich (author of the book):
"Casting of Caucasian/Asian
Although the four main characters in Bringing Down the House were Asian-Americans in real life, studio executives have cast mostly white actors to portray them in the film. Ben Mezrich, author of Bringing Down the House, has noted a "stereotypical" casting process on the part of Hollywood.[1] In the book, Mezrich explicitly states that a young Caucasian betting large amounts of money stands out, while a young Asian or other minority would be less conspicuous. Asian Week called the casting a "whitewash," pointing out that if it were African Americans replaced by Caucasians, there would be more vocal protest."
by using a protocol analyzer to recover my OWN login and password for my side of the company's intranet. Turned out that the web software we used (can't remember the name, but it was not front phage, but it was indeed popular at the time) was harvesting or retaining ALL USER ACCOUNTS names and passwords. I became scared shitless because I was not sure how IT would feel. But I was former IT in the company and felt obligated to warn them that the vendor was conducting shitty coding processes and put not only OUR company at risk but other companies as well. If they had any diagnostic or call-home code in their web site building software, then potentially a corrupt employee in their company could gain some limited or full access to many companies' intranets if they gained physical access to the building. And, we all know about piggy-backing, where thieves waltzed in behind other employees, then proceeded to lift laptops, purses, keys, wallets, documents, whatever they could steal.
..
DAMN, I wish I could recall the name. I may
Here we go... I'm PRETTY damned sure it was NetObjects Fusion. Just googled "Year 1999 web building applications intranet web" and they were at the top of the list... I preferred it over front phage, but...
And, now that I Google "Year 1999 protocol analyzer sniffer packet" it seems to refresh my memory that I am PRETTY sure Sniffer Basic was the tool I used.
Of course, after that I never used any such tool on the LAN. But, being formerly in the IT department, and knowing what to look out for to help the company probably kept me out of trouble.
oft types to run their 'Get the Facts' subv... um adverts. What would be scary if mshaft got their mitts on Wikipedia. They might feign or play an interest in taking a co ownership in them as a coercive means to make Yahoo! submit. So, Yahoo!, you better make the play FIRST and up your value and enhance your poison pill! (Hehe, captcha: drumming)
might find this off-topic. With the possibility that "Terrorists" may become relegated to the title of common criminals, there is the possibility they will be "laundered" into common gangs or mafias and gain access to legitimate businesses and therefore into manufacturing processes.
Criminals always evolve. Well, at least the smarter of them. To ignore this is simply burying ones head in the sand.
Marking this off-topic is akin to burying head in sand.
Get it?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88031211&ft=1&f=1001
There is a "Listen Now" link, too.
But, here's a chunk:
"Army Maj. Reid Sawyer, of West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, says that is now changing -- and that al-Qaida's central leadership, securely based in Pakistan, is once again taking charge.
"What we have been observing is al-Qaida's attempt to re-assert control throughout their disparate networks, with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, in the Horn of Africa, to provide guidance and mentoring, if you will, as well as some funding to these organizations," Sawyer said.
"And so the organization has coalesced again, because of its ability to have sanctuary. And that's really given it such a benefit that can't be overstated."
Michael Scheuer, a top al-Qaida specialist at the CIA until 2004, goes even further in his assessment.
"I think al-Qaida as an organization was never seriously damaged," Scheuer said. "What we're seeing is, it has a new base. It is fairly comfortable where it sits at the moment. And it is able to go back to doing the things it did since 1988."
But the world has changed since 1988 -- and so has al-Qaida.
The group is now on the Internet, and it even has its own media company, producing videos for radical Islamist Web sites.
With these new tools, the Internet makes it possible for al-Qaida to promote its vision of jihad or holy war and solicit recruits throughout the Muslim world.
Sawyer says the Internet even provides a training mechanism, taking the burden off al-Qaida bases in Pakistan.
"What the Internet has really created for al-Qaida and its affiliated groups is a virtual sanctuary,... "
Like Adama told Tyrol about Galactica Valerii: "You'll see her again, Chief.... There are many copies."
How about "Back-dooring"... Introducing Her Hingelader... The hind-loading info-sucking chip...
In the traditional sense?
If the US government (by extension, the wealthy, the connected, the power brokers, then the consumers/prosumers) want cheap goods, then they will be made in China or elsewhere. If the US wants security to not be threatened by counterfeit goods (bads) then it OUGHT to SHUT UP and bite the bullet and manufacture ALL infrastructure-threat-capable electronics domestically.
But, it can't. It can't because to do so would buck or contravene many conventions, trade acts, and agreements. If the US can't trust Asian producers, what makes it think it's safe trusting European producers? Only irrational comfort in color-based similarity and common heritage is probably all there is.
So, the next best thing is for governments to stop dicking around and posturing as soft-enemies. If China never has to fear the US, then national or entrepreneurial counterfeits orders might not be a real problem. If the US stops trying to f*sking trying to be NUMERO UNO/Master-of-the-Universe, other nations might feel less threatened. If the US is less feared, sure, some will still try to exploit it, but that is best done economically, which is already the case: multiple hands from multiple nations and places from Dubai to Israel, to UK to Tokyo to Beijing, to Venezuela (oil, cheap oil) will have some tug and push on the US. Small, but definitely felt.
All this just reminds me of the post by a sysadmin about 2 weeks ago who said as long as the counterfeits work until he's got his ROI, or as long as they don't crash or trash his network and as long as the only difference is in the serial numbers, then he doesn't care, because he saved money. Well, how can HE ever know his company's chips are not trojan chips? He's not likely to have Cisco come do an audit on the chip code or substrates or pins. He'd get fire if it's shown he knew and did nothing. Well, MAYBE he'd be fired.
i wouldn't be surprised if 45% of US infrastructure and maybe the same of the EU and even Japan has been "infiltrated" (used not in the "evil" sense, but in the penetration sense) by counterfeit chips. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that prior to off-shoring chip plants to China that the US was sending "counterfeit" or infiltration chips to other nations. These companies probably did it at the bidding of the US government, under black ops national security project, which we'll never be able to prove nor disprove, given the secret accounting and multitudes of project names and cover names.
So, in all, this is "touche", or Karma (good or bad) at work or in play.
Anyone remember around 1999, when Sony camcorders were being recalled because their cameras could "see through clothing"?
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/see-thru-lens.html
http://www.kaya-optics.com/devices/sony_nightshot.shtml
http://www.spy.th.com/camcorders3.html
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/H9/H9A.HTM
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/V3/V3A2.HTM
Would any of this Sony technology have any silent (via shadow investors/subsidiaries) part in resurrecting Sony income stream? Would this technology in the news today be very good for random and equidistant surveillance points for bridges, office towers and infrastructure.
I can imagine a whole new slew of patent-evading startups (not counting some failed or badly-focused ones in the SillyConJobAlley area just north of San Jose/Milpitas...). Might be JUST what Boston and Santa Clara need.
However, if:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88031211&ft=1&f=1001
is any indication, countries like the USA will have the hopeless task of putting such cameras EVERY WHERE (good for business income from DOD/DHLS contracts...) until policy or attitude toward people OUTside of the US changes.
Maybe it WILL be good for police to use. Now, they will have no reason to cavity or strip search people. It could reduce the number of unjustified shootings/killings of people. No more claims of "S/he had what appeared to be a firearm aimed at me/my partner/a civilian bystander...". It could even protect police when approaching vehicles. No more being shot just for trying to issue a traffic citation for a vehicle code violation.
Stores and offices could use them for silent reporting and logging of robberies or undesired proliferation of weapons in neighborhoods. I wouldn't be surprised if places like SF's Tenderloin and Bayview/Hunters Point and Fillmore district get these things.
But, the train stations/undergrounds will be clamoring for federal funds (matching?/challenge grants?) to get these new gadgets installed.
HEHEH.... Captcha: Positron (how coincidental...)
somehow combines that activity with Patriot Act and border protection. Just a ruse is all takes to grab business intel on competition, or to deter some companies from advertising if their whole booth can be carted up and taken off. And, who'd be able to prove the "uniformed cops" were not imposters to screw over a company. Nahh, things like that just don't happen -- yet.
Have the cell carriers resolved their bickering over standards? Is it still an issue using one carrier phone and trying to reach a friend on another carrier's phone? Also, isn't a LOT of that speed improvement due to repeaters on tall buildings? I did see a helluva lot of digging in the streets, done by TEPCO, and some for the new lines being built to squeeze between existing rights of ways, so maybe a lot of your and other's speed gains are due to fast, fat pipes underground. (Those were the negative questions.)
Nowadays, is ISDN still available in the phone booths? I saw some there in 2004 and found it interesting (i was partly laughing, but then thought there must be valid reason, and then i recalled that in the US it might be impossible to find wired laptop connections just anywhere on the street -- even if for a fee) that ISDN modems/connections could be had. Never tried one, nor looked at the pricing. Saw them in Shinjuku, near JR West station. But, others were around, to, I think near Ginza District.
Well, if Verizon managed to suck or wrangle from Cox all the cabling and bits in the pipes, would that make Verizon the Master Cox Sucker? How much latency improvement would be involved?
You hit the nail RIGHT on the head.
I am so sick and tired of having to re-fill forms and providing information to agencies or entities that already have a working or business or mandatory relationship with the one transferring or handling my existing information -- just to prove who I am and to obtain service. I for years have (cynically, but I guess factually) presumed that the various government agencies already have the information and just pretend not to have it. It is to provice "peace of mind" to dolts who think the government does NOT have this information.
It is an astounding waste of time to go through the game of fooling oneself that this agency or entity aquiring information is getting it for the first time. Oh, *IT* might be, but why can't the one WITH it just accept my verbal. Why can't I (after "proving" my identity on the phone via challenge/reply/PIN/etc) just avoid the paper trail. The information about me in the past (not the one I'm dealing with now) can and has been screwed by carelessness, merged computer banks, and so on.
Someone said the "Japanese have an irrational acceptance of authority and conformism." And? So what? It's ONLY the people with intent or holding resservation to COMMIT crimes (or become agents of one or more governments...) who have a true need to be totally anonymous, right? Besides, when *I* wa in Japan (for 3 months) I had *no* problems with the government getting information on me. I like the people, the culture, the architecture (of new things, anyway) the technology, the food, club scenes, and more. And, no, it wasnt' about being caught up in the "feeling of being there". I would do the same thing (give up information) to visit Korea, too. Had to turn over my passport and driver's license (IIRC, but definitely my p/p) when I was in a town in central Vietnam in 1998.
Speaking of other governments, if THEY can get the same information when people travel to them, then what is the problem with domestic agencies obtaining and collating it? It's not (yet) as if the government is wholesale "solving" crime cases by taking entire dossiers on people and "fitting them" to the crime. That's already done with the most MINIMAL of fraudulent, contrived "evidence". Besides, the more the data exists in innumerable places, the more difficult it *might* be for a corrupt agency to use data it can't be sure is contradictory and more trusted than the corrupted, condemning data they feed to a court or jury or judge for a warrant or for conviction rates enhancement.
Maybe I'm missing something?
More info at:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2219
But, two thoughts come to my mind
1. Maybe De Icaza laments that ms is making Office Online not work for Linux users?
2. Maybe ms is intent on gaining ads revenue from companies looking for impressions upon ms Word users?
"Visiting the Microsoft Office Live Workspace promises to allow users to store as many a 1000 documents online and share them with colleagues. Sounds good. Unless you try and sign up for the free service and you're running Linux. If you are running Linux then you'll be greeted with a screen informing you that you'll need to be running a version of Windows or MacOSX and either Internet Explorer or Firefox (good to see Firefox in there)."
S.e.n.s.e. o.f. h.u.m.o.u.r. is s.o.r.e.l.y l.a.c.k.i.n.g.......
drive the thing, and get a massive discount:
http://www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=231661
"3850-mile test drive ends in arrest
07 March 2008
3850-mile test drive ends in arrest
Six-day, 3850-mile test drive man arrested
He travelled almost the length of Australia
Dealership sells car at a massive discount
While we'd always recommend you take a car for a thorough test drive before buying it, it's fair to say that an Australian man who went on a six-day, 3850-mile trip went a step too far.
Tam Thai Luu, 30, convinced a car dealer in Melbourne that he was a genuine buyer, and then set off on his test drive in a Honda Accord before the salesman could get in the passenger seat."