Whilst I'm no fan of Draconian laws, or excessive interferece in the making of those laws, I feel that the number of law enforcement resources that will be diverted is not going to be significant. After all, it hasn't been a factor in the States, has it?
The reason: the emerging markets of countries such as Brazil, China, India or Russia, which will be responsible of 775 new PCs and laptop computers. Seven hundred and seventy five computers!!!!! Wow, now that's what I call an emerging market
If you're a large enough organisation there's no better way of getting your M$ licensing costs down than 'investigating FOSS solutions'. Mind you, with the US navy's long history of cost effective purchasing maybe this isn't a factor here!
BTW you're conflating things that are legal but "obscene" with things that are merely "profane" and things which are just plain illegal. Err.. No, I'm not. I deliberately used an extreme example which all but the most rabid free speach advocate would agree is an innappropriate use of free speach so as to make my point that free speech has limits. I could have used the old 'shouting FIRE in a crowded theatre' example but, as the discussion is about broadcasting, I used broadcasting as an example.
Having made my point that there are examples where free speech has limits the discussion moves on to (a)where those limits are and (b)how they should be controlled. Whether the FCC is a 'good' method of monitoring those limits is an entirely different question.
So you're quite happy with hard core snuff/bestiality/kiddie/whatever porn being broadcast on the major networks during prime time viewing. If not, then you accept that free speech has limits and what we're discussing is where those limits lie.
ALL freedoms have their limits - that is an unavoidable part of living with other people.
The classic example of that was Fawlty Towers. It was a stroke of genius from John Cleese to create twelve perfect episodes and leave it at that, a series that not only never jumped the shark, but never fell below perfection. No wonder it's one of Britain's favourites. (And don't mention the war!)
Easy, apply for a job involved in education. When you find yourself arrested at five am and locked up without Habeus Corpus then you know that you have sufficient similarities to a sex offender to be arrested 'for the sake of the children'.
Please note that 'sex offender' includes the sixteen year old who makes love to his fifteen year old girlfriend and gets found out.
Anybody who takes what the Daily Mail publishes seriously needs their head examined. They are slightly more in touch with reality than the Enquirer but not much.
Now if this story were in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independant, The Guardian...
For me it will always be the Sega Megadrive - preferably playing Sonic 2.
This is not an objective opinion, I don't think that there can be one where the word 'favourite' is involved, but I spent so many hours with it in my hands that it's the one that feels right for me and all others are, in my mind, compared with it. I'm sure that, had my peer group been Nintendo, rather than Sega, orientated, then I would feel differently, but they weren't, so I don't.
Yes, I'm British but Heroes isn't, nor the Sopranos, nor Lost, nor Studio 60, nor West Wing, nor Desperate Housewives, nor...
However, what I was amazed by on a recent visit to the US, is the amount of advertising you get - around 33% of air time - which completely detracts from the content, however good. I couldn't watch any US aired TV without being able to edit them out.
TV is an outdated concept Well, it maybe for you but for many others it's not. What is an increasingly outdated concept is the delivery method. Various timeshifting methods - I personally use Sky+ - allow the consumer to watch in their own schedule and to edit out the ads where appropriate.
As for there being nothing on worth watching - Yesterday I watched 'To have and have not', got up to date with Heroes, watched Saturday's Dr Who, and finished off with a fascinating documentary about Jimi Hendrix. Ok, none of it was earth shattering but hardly nothing to watch. And yes, I could have downloaded all of these but I saved myself a lot of time and effort by not downloading.
The drivers of small cars, like us cylists, are far, far more road aware. The divers of large tank like cars feel safe in their boxes and don't feel they have to worry so much. Hence the drivers of small cars drive better and are safer.
Maybe this is because we Brits are so under the US thumb - sorry, enjoy a special relationship - that they can get away with it whereas no-one tells an Ausie what to do!
They are stupider than you which is why they are managers and they are definitely stupider then you if they can't choose the right product on their own. The very existence of your job illustrates that they realise they are stupider than you and hence need help choosing things. The final damning piece of evidence is that, after hiring you to help them make the decisions they are too dick witted to do on their own, they ignore your advice. I wonder why it is that techies are seen as insular and arrogant. The skills needed to be a sysadmin and to be a manager are different and non-overlapping. In my many years in the IT business I have learnt that Service Managers, Change Managers, Technical Architects and all the other bains of my life have a role to play and, quite often, the view from the sysadmin bunker doesn't cover all the options. An effective working relationship should involve mutual respect for each other's part in the overall plan.
And, if (s)he's so stupid, why are they your boss/paid more than you?
Much as I'm no M$ fanboy they do have some justification. The 'new' aspect here is how the virus downloads additional malware, not the initial attack vector.
However, given the time I spend helping my less technical friends clean up their PCs you do definitely have a point!
What I don't understand - perhaps an american can explain this to me - is how the White House was in a position to be able to delete emails? Surely a better system would be to require (by law) a neutral party to oversee, backup and archive all political information. After all in a hundred years it will be a valuable part of your national history and heritage - instead its just an embarrassment. The rules are made by politicians and no one in their right mind is going to lobby for a law which will get minimal public support (whom outside the/. community would really understand it) and which would prevent them from covering thier mistakes.
Exactly the same argument could have been made for railway guages, and yes, here in the UK we curse the decision to use 4'8.5" (I think, I'm sure someone will correct me) instead of Brunell's 6' but at least rolling stock can run on most tracks in the country.
From TFA
As projections of a near future go, the one I've presented in this talk is pretty poor. In my defense, I'd like to say that the only thing I can be sure of is that I'm probably wrong, or at least missing something as big as the internet, or antibiotics. Indeed, in fifty years of reading future preditions the one thing they all have in common is that they're all wrong. The next big thing always comes out of left field and is poo-pooed by the 'experts'. It's good to see that Charlie Stross understands that.
Er... but you're a techie. For the other 99.9% of PC purchasers who want their machine to 'just work' what is, or is not installed by default is quite important. After all, the reason Windows is the most popular OS is because Windows is the most popular OS.
The TV is a single use, passive, entertainment medium whereas the PC is a multi use, active, tool. In other terms the TV is 'lean back' technology whereas the PC is 'lean forward' technology. Whichever way you put it they are not the same.
From TFA
But the method does have limitations, Lee says: "It works well in indoor environments, but wouldn't be very good in less-repetitive outdoors environments." So maybe a hybrid? Whilst in structured environments expect what you know, otherwise expect the unexpected. No one single answer will ever solve all problems (except 42)
Slashdot Mirror
Whilst I'm no fan of Draconian laws, or excessive interferece in the making of those laws, I feel that the number of law enforcement resources that will be diverted is not going to be significant. After all, it hasn't been a factor in the States, has it?
And what's happened to their AMD budget?
If you're a large enough organisation there's no better way of getting your M$ licensing costs down than 'investigating FOSS solutions'. Mind you, with the US navy's long history of cost effective purchasing maybe this isn't a factor here!
Having made my point that there are examples where free speech has limits the discussion moves on to (a)where those limits are and (b)how they should be controlled. Whether the FCC is a 'good' method of monitoring those limits is an entirely different question.
So you're quite happy with hard core snuff/bestiality/kiddie/whatever porn being broadcast on the major networks during prime time viewing. If not, then you accept that free speech has limits and what we're discussing is where those limits lie.
ALL freedoms have their limits - that is an unavoidable part of living with other people.
The classic example of that was Fawlty Towers. It was a stroke of genius from John Cleese to create twelve perfect episodes and leave it at that, a series that not only never jumped the shark, but never fell below perfection. No wonder it's one of Britain's favourites. (And don't mention the war!)
Easy, apply for a job involved in education. When you find yourself arrested at five am and locked up without Habeus Corpus then you know that you have sufficient similarities to a sex offender to be arrested 'for the sake of the children'.
Please note that 'sex offender' includes the sixteen year old who makes love to his fifteen year old girlfriend and gets found out.
Anybody who takes what the Daily Mail publishes seriously needs their head examined. They are slightly more in touch with reality than the Enquirer but not much.
Now if this story were in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independant, The Guardian...
For me it will always be the Sega Megadrive - preferably playing Sonic 2.
This is not an objective opinion, I don't think that there can be one where the word 'favourite' is involved, but I spent so many hours with it in my hands that it's the one that feels right for me and all others are, in my mind, compared with it. I'm sure that, had my peer group been Nintendo, rather than Sega, orientated, then I would feel differently, but they weren't, so I don't.
Yes, I'm British but Heroes isn't, nor the Sopranos, nor Lost, nor Studio 60, nor West Wing, nor Desperate Housewives, nor...
However, what I was amazed by on a recent visit to the US, is the amount of advertising you get - around 33% of air time - which completely detracts from the content, however good. I couldn't watch any US aired TV without being able to edit them out.
As for there being nothing on worth watching - Yesterday I watched 'To have and have not', got up to date with Heroes, watched Saturday's Dr Who, and finished off with a fascinating documentary about Jimi Hendrix. Ok, none of it was earth shattering but hardly nothing to watch. And yes, I could have downloaded all of these but I saved myself a lot of time and effort by not downloading.
The drivers of small cars, like us cylists, are far, far more road aware. The divers of large tank like cars feel safe in their boxes and don't feel they have to worry so much. Hence the drivers of small cars drive better and are safer.
Maybe this is because we Brits are so under the US thumb - sorry, enjoy a special relationship - that they can get away with it whereas no-one tells an Ausie what to do!
And, if (s)he's so stupid, why are they your boss/paid more than you?
Much as I'm no M$ fanboy they do have some justification. The 'new' aspect here is how the virus downloads additional malware, not the initial attack vector.
However, given the time I spend helping my less technical friends clean up their PCs you do definitely have a point!
- cheap
- reliable - OK, hard drive errors do exist but I wish my car, for example, was as reliable
- standardized - OK, there are a number of standards but not that many
Yes, in the long term I don't see the hard drive as the best method of data storage but the altenatives have a long way to go before they replace it.See the 'Yes Minister' episode 'The Skeleton in the Cupboard' about the Official Secrets act for a full explanation
As ever you can start with Wikipedia and work outward from there.
Exactly the same argument could have been made for railway guages, and yes, here in the UK we curse the decision to use 4'8.5" (I think, I'm sure someone will correct me) instead of Brunell's 6' but at least rolling stock can run on most tracks in the country.
Er... but you're a techie. For the other 99.9% of PC purchasers who want their machine to 'just work' what is, or is not installed by default is quite important. After all, the reason Windows is the most popular OS is because Windows is the most popular OS.
Comparing the PC with the TV is not really valid.
The TV is a single use, passive, entertainment medium whereas the PC is a multi use, active, tool. In other terms the TV is 'lean back' technology whereas the PC is 'lean forward' technology. Whichever way you put it they are not the same.