It wasn't really an ID card anyway. Most people who access Government services (usually some kind of welfare) need a card of some sort it identify themselves. For most Australians this means taking a Medicare card along to the doctor, and then to a Medicare office to get a rebate on the doctors fee.
For older people who access multiple services it would be better not to have to carry three of four cards around. There is nothing to stop the federal government from integrating their databases anyway. You don't need a common card for that.
The Linux based ASUS Eee sold out in Australia over two days a couple of weeks before Christmas. Schools were buying 30 or 40 at a time. Families were buying one for each member.
I checked back about a week ago. The retailer now limits sales to four per person. They promised to have more available on the 22nd of December and I expect most of that batch will have gone by now.
The people who are buying this product like the low price and the fact it has MS word like functionality out of the box. Cheap Linux based computers are taking off. Microsoft is the new IBM.
...more often than not are proprietary software. An open source desktop application would more than likely to have a thousand options for customisation so that all the users are pleased, (gnome applications excluded of course).
If you are running proprietary software on your desktop or a proprietary web application then you use what you are given.
Are there exceptions to this? Well, sort of. There have been populations that were (and sometimes still are) in isolation from all other humans, and have been for tens of thousands of years. Many have become extinct, when traders and missionaries brought diseases to such populations. Some have survived, such as the Australian aborigines
They are barely surviving. Western culture is for them as bad as the diseases which were introduced into Aboriginal populations by outsiders.
Some Aboriginal communities are doing well by totally banning alcohol, effectively increasing their isolation from the rest of the country. At the moment that is the only strategy which works well.
Flagstaff hill in Melbourne was used to watch for ships approaching the harbour. A flag would be raised to relay the observation of an incoming ship. Not quite as handy as a proper telegraph but one bit communication served the purpose.
I am not sure which part of the GPs post you are replying to so I don't know what your point is.
I don't think OpenVMS is/was particularly secure. People tended not to hook it up to open networks, which helped a lot. It has long been loaded with bugs and if, like Kevin Mitnik, you knew which bugs to exploit you could get in fairly easily.
One classic bug was so obvious that I exploited it unconsciously before I knew what was going on. The program which prompts for username and password would search SYSUAF.DAT for the username before prompting for the password. The delay before the password prompt told you whether you had gotten the username right or not.
You know, Arthur Clarke has had such a great career. We really ought to find a way to keep him alive for another hundred years. Given that he has little to lose by trying, I am sure he would be up for the attempt.
A lot of current and ex telstra technical people I know are the "living in the parents basement" sorts. I think removing the monopoly (and particularly taking away OTC) was a bit like mother kicking the 40 year old out of the house for good.
Its our fault we did it, you know. We should never have turned our backs on the company which gave us 2400 baud modems and push button telephones. And we are paying for it now. You just see, when those amateurs at singtel realise they don't know how to solder up an MDF they will all come back and everything will be forgiven.
I once had an optus mobile and a telstra landline. I diverted calls from the landline to the mobile but telstra only charged me in 25c units so I didn't know if enabling and disabling the diversion cost me money. I called telstra and they said they would have to call the exchange. Five minutes later they came back with the reply" we are unable to answer your request because you have selected optus for long distance calls.
In other words piss off. We don't want your business.
My mother in law changed her land line over to optus and she had less than a dollar owing on her telstra bill. Every time the bill came in she called telstra to pay it only to be told that they only accept payments of more than a dollar. Years later she is still getting that bill.
I recently set up a PC for my Mother. When she clicks on something she lines up the mouse, pulls her fingers back a few centimetres and gives the mouse button a good whack. I doing so she moves the mouse and the component she is aiming for doesn't fire.
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't really an ID card anyway. Most people who access Government services (usually some kind of welfare) need a card of some sort it identify themselves. For most Australians this means taking a Medicare card along to the doctor, and then to a Medicare office to get a rebate on the doctors fee.
For older people who access multiple services it would be better not to have to carry three of four cards around. There is nothing to stop the federal government from integrating their databases anyway. You don't need a common card for that.
Navigation systems don't use geostationary orbits.
Its normally AC so that won't work
The Linux based ASUS Eee sold out in Australia over two days a couple of weeks before Christmas. Schools were buying 30 or 40 at a time. Families were buying one for each member.
I checked back about a week ago. The retailer now limits sales to four per person. They promised to have more available on the 22nd of December and I expect most of that batch will have gone by now.
The people who are buying this product like the low price and the fact it has MS word like functionality out of the box. Cheap Linux based computers are taking off. Microsoft is the new IBM.
We also need a kill file system for obvious ongoing trolls.
...more often than not are proprietary software. An open source desktop application would more than likely to have a thousand options for customisation so that all the users are pleased, (gnome applications excluded of course). If you are running proprietary software on your desktop or a proprietary web application then you use what you are given.
They are barely surviving. Western culture is for them as bad as the diseases which were introduced into Aboriginal populations by outsiders.
Some Aboriginal communities are doing well by totally banning alcohol, effectively increasing their isolation from the rest of the country. At the moment that is the only strategy which works well.
Flagstaff hill in Melbourne was used to watch for ships approaching the harbour. A flag would be raised to relay the observation of an incoming ship. Not quite as handy as a proper telegraph but one bit communication served the purpose.
I was going to debunk you by quoting John Stapp but found what I wanted at David Purley
He survived 179 gravities.
Since most computers these days are eminently hackable internet connected windows boxes, I reckon the can hack almost any system bit is feasible.
Certainly more so than it was 20 years ago.
You had catalogs? We had to walk 50 kilometers to collect papyrus to make our own paper.
I am not sure which part of the GPs post you are replying to so I don't know what your point is.
I don't think OpenVMS is/was particularly secure. People tended not to hook it up to open networks, which helped a lot. It has long been loaded with bugs and if, like Kevin Mitnik, you knew which bugs to exploit you could get in fairly easily.
One classic bug was so obvious that I exploited it unconsciously before I knew what was going on. The program which prompts for username and password would search SYSUAF.DAT for the username before prompting for the password. The delay before the password prompt told you whether you had gotten the username right or not.
Whatever it is, it is certainly persistent
A quick google suggests that 400 W is about right for a rider in good condition for a short time.
A comet
I have a small USB stick which would be easy to lose except it lives in my wallet along with a lot of other small, valuable things.
You know, Arthur Clarke has had such a great career. We really ought to find a way to keep him alive for another hundred years. Given that he has little to lose by trying, I am sure he would be up for the attempt.
A lot of current and ex telstra technical people I know are the "living in the parents basement" sorts. I think removing the monopoly (and particularly taking away OTC) was a bit like mother kicking the 40 year old out of the house for good.
Its our fault we did it, you know. We should never have turned our backs on the company which gave us 2400 baud modems and push button telephones. And we are paying for it now. You just see, when those amateurs at singtel realise they don't know how to solder up an MDF they will all come back and everything will be forgiven.
Eventually
In other words piss off. We don't want your business.
My mother in law changed her land line over to optus and she had less than a dollar owing on her telstra bill. Every time the bill came in she called telstra to pay it only to be told that they only accept payments of more than a dollar. Years later she is still getting that bill.
Also: do you remember this?
Lets all hear it for those pioneering kite surfers who risk life and limb day in and day out to prove the concept behind this totally novel idea.
I predict an increase in the number of yuppies in the crews of ocean going ships.
They could do it inside second life! On second thoughts, maybe not so awesome.
There is something to be said for plain old text and a few pictures.
Arguing about Math and Maths a couple of articles down
I recently set up a PC for my Mother. When she clicks on something she lines up the mouse, pulls her fingers back a few centimetres and gives the mouse button a good whack. I doing so she moves the mouse and the component she is aiming for doesn't fire.
Not really