A wearable medical-alarm device that detects when I'm driving and when I'm dozing off (or legally drunk, or whatever) at the same time. Let it beep at me and let it do whatever per-programmed task I tell it to do if I don't respond.
This task may be to alert the car that the driver is impaired, so the car can take action (assuming the car is equipped to receive such a message). On the other hand, I may program it to call my doctor or the local police.
A device that can tell I'm driving can also tell my phone to send all calls to voicemail and defer notifying me of texts until I am no longer driving.
Don't they teach kids how to use a pencil in Germany?
Plus, pencil marks are easier to erase!
Seriously, when it comes to creating hard-to-copy data, it's cheaper to have a manual typewriter and a stack of paper in a secured, sound-proof room than it is to come up with an EM-proofed room with a computer. For making local copies, use a non-electronic, secured photocopier or non-electronic, secured microfilm/microfiche-creation system and a microfilm/microfiche reader. For applications where you don't need to do transmit documents off-site and where you don't need to be able to search the document, a non-electronic solution may be better than an electronic solution.
Another advantage of paper is if and when you do need to put it on a computer, it's not all that hard to do.
Paper-and-ink was the way most government documents - secret or otherwise - were created and stored until a few decades ago (yes, there is still a lot of new work being done on paper today inside of governments, but electronic copies exist for almost all new things that will have any lasting value, at least in industrialized countries).
For real-estate purposes, especially for 1-2 story buildings, a tethered powered aircraft should be fine. The question is, does the FAA claim jurisdiction over tethered flying machines flying at low altitudes (e.g. under a few hundred feet) and not close to "regulated airspace" like an airport or close to "an obvious federal jurisdiction" like crossing a state line or in the "airspace" of federal property, a U.S. Highway or Interstate Highway, or a navigable waterway?
If the FAA does claim jurisdiction over tethered flights that don't have any obvious "federal jurisdictional nexus" then it's ripe for a court challenge.
Sure, medicinal cannibas may have 250 active compounds, but how many of those - individually or in combination - are necessary to treat 95% of patients?
If we can identify the ones needed to treat the vast majority of patients and synthesize them or find a bio-factory (e.g. yeast) that we can control much better than the traditional source (the plant), we can deliver drugs that are more pure and more consistent than your average joint or brownie, yet still do the job for almost all patients.
If I get cancer and need this for medical reasons, I would much prefer to take a drug that has a known, consistent potency and known, consistent nominally-inactive ingredients than something I cut off a plant.
Maybe back when the maintenance window was created it was created for a valid technical reason, BUT technology moved on and management didn't.
In other words, in some environments, the technical people won't have a sympathetic ear if they ask to cancel the off-hours maintenance window simply because of local politics or the local management, BUT if the maintenance gets botched and services are still down or under-performing through normal business hours, nobody outside of IT will notice.
One way to prepare for failure is to have someone there who can at least recognize the failure and wake someone up in time to fix it.
Another way to prepare for failure is to have a system that is redundant enough that a part could go down and it wouldn't be more than a minor annoyance to users or management.
There are other ways to prepare for failure, but these are two common ones.
Most offices need a "go to guy" for IT issues. If you can "be that guy" it makes you much more employable.
Also, in you social clubs, religious organizations, etc. if you are known as the "IT guy" people can call when the church computer goes on the fritz, it can help you with networking for your next paid job or your next freelance gig.
I expect the Tea Party and libertarian-leaning Democrats to be up in arms about this.
I expect "business Republicans" and non-libertarian Democrats to see this as A Good Thing or at least a "neutral thing, but serving a good purpose" thing.
Then some jack ass trade marked it. AT&T lost the case.
I would like to read up on this case. Links or citations of news, magazine, or journal articles about the the case would be useful. Contemporary references would be best. If those aren't available, court case information or the equivalent information if it was decided by the USPTO or then-equivalent agency would be helpful.
... would be having the guy stand at the center of an explosion that would be big enough and quick enough to vaporize their brain or at least their brain-stem.
Short of that, a carefully-aimed sufficiently-large-caliber bullet is probably the quickest most humane death.
Unfortunately, the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" quotient of using explosives is way too high and the margin for error in aiming the gun for the "perfectly humane" shot is also much greater than zero.
In both cases, there is also the violation of the moral rights of the condemned person's family to give the person a burial looking as close to life-like as any other corpse. In other words, the state shouldn't unnecessarily disfigure the person's body.
--
By the way, for execution purposes I would consider "instant death" to be "perfectly humane" when it comes to executions. Yes, I know that some other forms of death last long enough for brain endorphins to be released, giving a supposedly-more-pleasant death. And yes, when I die I do hope it takes long enough to get that endorphin rush. But if we are to have executions, those being executed are entitled to a humane, as-painless-as-possible death. They are not necessarily entitled to go out on an endorphin high.
--
For the sake of argument let's assume that the person is guilty of a capital offense and according to applicable laws qualifies for the death penalty. I'm not going to get into the obvious inhumanity of executing someone who doesn't deserve to die nor am I going to get into the argument about whether capital punishment is inherently inhumane or not.
I think there's more to getting mod points than just karma. If you only log into/. every 2nd or 3rd day and only load stuff on "slashdot.org" a few dozen times each login, you'll probably get fewer moderation opportunities than if you pretty much stay logged in all the time, load slashdot.org hundreds or thousands of times a day, post dozens of comments a day with a fair amount of getting modded up, and 2-3 submissions a day with 1-2 accepted a week.
If "just anyone" can vote and there is no way to evaluate the quality of the voters, then the "wisdom of the crowd" may not be so wise and those who are "voted down" and whose goal is to maximize the number of voted-up posts may simply "route around it" by increasing the number of total posts, sacrificing quality along the way.
In the/. model, "votes" are scarce resources (5 moderation points every few weeks with a quick expiration), only usable for topics which you probably aren't "involved" in (if you comment while logged in, all of your related moderations are un-done), handed out only to those who have demonstrated some sustained level of "good conduct" (low karma = no mod points for you) and they are "watched over" by the community (meta-moderation). From the looks of things when I meta-moderate, Slashdot moderators are more likely to think before voting something up or down and as a result the "quality" of the "total vote" is likely to be higher.
As a result, if you take out the "inexperienced newcomers" and "immature commentators" whose first few posts happen to get down-voted and the trolls who don't care or who thrive on "-1 troll," most people will have the pleasure of seeing some of their posts "voted up" before the first or second time they see one get down-voted, and are therefore in a position to see what kinds of posts are likely to get them "good karma" and what kinds are likely to get "voted down." Since most "regulars" probably CARE about "good karma" for the perks it brings or at least they care about not being marked as "karma = -1," they will be motivated to not routinely post low-quality stuff.
I know some (less-well-known) writers who do everything longhand until it's time to send it to the publisher.
CBS news commentator Andy Rooney used a manual typewriter for much of his work until late in his career or maybe even until he died.
I personally know someone who keeps a very large production database using a commercial DOS-based program from the early- or mid-'90s. This isn't some military or other scenario where there is a good reason to use outdated software, it's just the personal preference of the person who is maintaining the database and its contents.
Who is the worst offender here (excluding "reasonable/expected" things like employers monitoring employees, parents monitoring their own kids, K-12 schools monitoring their own networks, etc.)? * The United States government (NSA, etc.) * The United States corporations (ISPs etc) * China's government * China's corporations (we'll pretend these aren't the government) * Russia's government * Russia's corporations (ditto) * North Korea's government (it's all government there!) * CowboyNeal, er, I mean Unknown Lamer**
**Notice: if you click here, well, you've been warned:)
Frankly, for certain high-security situations this kind of "immutable" device is the only kind of device that would be allowed in. So it's either something like this, or books-on-tape/CD/paper/something else.
For slightly less-but-still-very-secure situations you could allow some type of external read-only, no-processor-chip-onboard "expansion pack" memory so that the book content could be switched out without getting a whole new device. I wouldn't use USB though, as that requires a processor on the stick itself.
Also, I'd make very sure the data format was really "data only" not something that could, in theory, be a vector for "code." This would rule out PDF and PostScript. In other words, it would be pretty limited.
The things you absolutely do not want for this type of device in a high-security environment are: * Any ability to "run code" * Any wireless * Any ability to export data other than through the screen (you can't stop someone from photographing the screen) * Any ability to "hack" the device without physical access and accessing it in a non-standard way (e.g. with a screwdriver). This means the software must be proven to never do anything "bad" other than "just die, requiring a reboot" if the operator is tricked into giving it even carefully-crafted/designed-to-do-bad-things bad data.
In some cases, you do not want it displaying anything other than what is "whitelisted." This can be done by either only displaying properly-digitally-signed files or, as in this case, by only providing a limited set of files and "sealing" the device.
If this catches on, expect it to 1) be declared illegal and 2) parking meters or similar devices to be placed in each spot that prominently mark it as a "no parking zone" for some short, random, un-announced time after the spot is vacated.
In other words, when you leave, a red "no parking here for the next few minutes" light flashes. The light will go off at some random time between 2 and 10 minutes later and there will be no indication of when it will go off.
If you are caught parking there or sitting there waiting for the light to change, you will be ticketed.
1) Whole seasons of television on fewer than half the number of disks as DVD.
2) When the burners get faster and cheaper, convenient backups. But realistically, Blu-Ray is too small for geeks - you want a backup medium that's at least 10% if not 20% of the size of your data set so a full backup won't be a huge stack of disks. You also want the differential backup from several weeks or months ago vs. today to fit on one disk.
Slashdot Mirror
A wearable medical-alarm device that detects when I'm driving and when I'm dozing off (or legally drunk, or whatever) at the same time. Let it beep at me and let it do whatever per-programmed task I tell it to do if I don't respond.
This task may be to alert the car that the driver is impaired, so the car can take action (assuming the car is equipped to receive such a message). On the other hand, I may program it to call my doctor or the local police.
A device that can tell I'm driving can also tell my phone to send all calls to voicemail and defer notifying me of texts until I am no longer driving.
Don't they teach kids how to use a pencil in Germany?
Plus, pencil marks are easier to erase!
Seriously, when it comes to creating hard-to-copy data, it's cheaper to have a manual typewriter and a stack of paper in a secured, sound-proof room than it is to come up with an EM-proofed room with a computer. For making local copies, use a non-electronic, secured photocopier or non-electronic, secured microfilm/microfiche-creation system and a microfilm/microfiche reader. For applications where you don't need to do transmit documents off-site and where you don't need to be able to search the document, a non-electronic solution may be better than an electronic solution.
Another advantage of paper is if and when you do need to put it on a computer, it's not all that hard to do.
Paper-and-ink was the way most government documents - secret or otherwise - were created and stored until a few decades ago (yes, there is still a lot of new work being done on paper today inside of governments, but electronic copies exist for almost all new things that will have any lasting value, at least in industrialized countries).
For real-estate purposes, especially for 1-2 story buildings, a tethered powered aircraft should be fine. The question is, does the FAA claim jurisdiction over tethered flying machines flying at low altitudes (e.g. under a few hundred feet) and not close to "regulated airspace" like an airport or close to "an obvious federal jurisdiction" like crossing a state line or in the "airspace" of federal property, a U.S. Highway or Interstate Highway, or a navigable waterway?
If the FAA does claim jurisdiction over tethered flights that don't have any obvious "federal jurisdictional nexus" then it's ripe for a court challenge.
Sure, medicinal cannibas may have 250 active compounds, but how many of those - individually or in combination - are necessary to treat 95% of patients?
If we can identify the ones needed to treat the vast majority of patients and synthesize them or find a bio-factory (e.g. yeast) that we can control much better than the traditional source (the plant), we can deliver drugs that are more pure and more consistent than your average joint or brownie, yet still do the job for almost all patients.
If I get cancer and need this for medical reasons, I would much prefer to take a drug that has a known, consistent potency and known, consistent nominally-inactive ingredients than something I cut off a plant.
As I said, sometimes the problems are not technical in nature.
Maybe back when the maintenance window was created it was created for a valid technical reason, BUT technology moved on and management didn't.
In other words, in some environments, the technical people won't have a sympathetic ear if they ask to cancel the off-hours maintenance window simply because of local politics or the local management, BUT if the maintenance gets botched and services are still down or under-performing through normal business hours, nobody outside of IT will notice.
One way to prepare for failure is to have someone there who can at least recognize the failure and wake someone up in time to fix it.
Another way to prepare for failure is to have a system that is redundant enough that a part could go down and it wouldn't be more than a minor annoyance to users or management.
There are other ways to prepare for failure, but these are two common ones.
Most offices need a "go to guy" for IT issues. If you can "be that guy" it makes you much more employable.
Also, in you social clubs, religious organizations, etc. if you are known as the "IT guy" people can call when the church computer goes on the fritz, it can help you with networking for your next paid job or your next freelance gig.
I expect the Tea Party and libertarian-leaning Democrats to be up in arms about this.
I expect "business Republicans" and non-libertarian Democrats to see this as A Good Thing or at least a "neutral thing, but serving a good purpose" thing.
Let the sparks fly.
... apart to see how they worked then try to put them back together.
They question should be: Why doesn't every curious kid grow up to be a hacker (in the good sense of the word)?
Then some jack ass trade marked it. AT&T lost the case.
I would like to read up on this case. Links or citations of news, magazine, or journal articles about the the case would be useful. Contemporary references would be best. If those aren't available, court case information or the equivalent information if it was decided by the USPTO or then-equivalent agency would be helpful.
Thanks.
I don't have an answer to your technical question but know that my prayers are with you and your family.
... would be having the guy stand at the center of an explosion that would be big enough and quick enough to vaporize their brain or at least their brain-stem.
Short of that, a carefully-aimed sufficiently-large-caliber bullet is probably the quickest most humane death.
Unfortunately, the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" quotient of using explosives is way too high and the margin for error in aiming the gun for the "perfectly humane" shot is also much greater than zero.
In both cases, there is also the violation of the moral rights of the condemned person's family to give the person a burial looking as close to life-like as any other corpse. In other words, the state shouldn't unnecessarily disfigure the person's body.
--
By the way, for execution purposes I would consider "instant death" to be "perfectly humane" when it comes to executions. Yes, I know that some other forms of death last long enough for brain endorphins to be released, giving a supposedly-more-pleasant death. And yes, when I die I do hope it takes long enough to get that endorphin rush. But if we are to have executions, those being executed are entitled to a humane, as-painless-as-possible death. They are not necessarily entitled to go out on an endorphin high.
--
For the sake of argument let's assume that the person is guilty of a capital offense and according to applicable laws qualifies for the death penalty. I'm not going to get into the obvious inhumanity of executing someone who doesn't deserve to die nor am I going to get into the argument about whether capital punishment is inherently inhumane or not.
I think there's more to getting mod points than just karma. If you only log into /. every 2nd or 3rd day and only load stuff on "slashdot.org" a few dozen times each login, you'll probably get fewer moderation opportunities than if you pretty much stay logged in all the time, load slashdot.org hundreds or thousands of times a day, post dozens of comments a day with a fair amount of getting modded up, and 2-3 submissions a day with 1-2 accepted a week.
It probably makes a difference.
If "just anyone" can vote and there is no way to evaluate the quality of the voters, then the "wisdom of the crowd" may not be so wise and those who are "voted down" and whose goal is to maximize the number of voted-up posts may simply "route around it" by increasing the number of total posts, sacrificing quality along the way.
In the /. model, "votes" are scarce resources (5 moderation points every few weeks with a quick expiration), only usable for topics which you probably aren't "involved" in (if you comment while logged in, all of your related moderations are un-done), handed out only to those who have demonstrated some sustained level of "good conduct" (low karma = no mod points for you) and they are "watched over" by the community (meta-moderation). From the looks of things when I meta-moderate, Slashdot moderators are more likely to think before voting something up or down and as a result the "quality" of the "total vote" is likely to be higher.
As a result, if you take out the "inexperienced newcomers" and "immature commentators" whose first few posts happen to get down-voted and the trolls who don't care or who thrive on "-1 troll," most people will have the pleasure of seeing some of their posts "voted up" before the first or second time they see one get down-voted, and are therefore in a position to see what kinds of posts are likely to get them "good karma" and what kinds are likely to get "voted down." Since most "regulars" probably CARE about "good karma" for the perks it brings or at least they care about not being marked as "karma = -1," they will be motivated to not routinely post low-quality stuff.
Preparing to see my karma drop in 3...2...1...
I know some (less-well-known) writers who do everything longhand until it's time to send it to the publisher.
CBS news commentator Andy Rooney used a manual typewriter for much of his work until late in his career or maybe even until he died.
I personally know someone who keeps a very large production database using a commercial DOS-based program from the early- or mid-'90s. This isn't some military or other scenario where there is a good reason to use outdated software, it's just the personal preference of the person who is maintaining the database and its contents.
... the top 10 books/articles/whatever that every human being should read.
Now if only we could get some kind of agreement on what those "top 10" are.
Gack wrong title.
I wish I'd read Roger Kaufman's book before I started programming. It would've helped a lot.
Here's a few pages to get a taste of the style: http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner...
By "offensive" do you mean "going on the offense" in the military/sports sense or do you mean "I am most offended by?"
I'm guessing the latter by the first sentence came across as the former.
Who is the worst offender here (excluding "reasonable/expected" things like employers monitoring employees, parents monitoring their own kids, K-12 schools monitoring their own networks, etc.)?
* The United States government (NSA, etc.)
* The United States corporations (ISPs etc)
* China's government
* China's corporations (we'll pretend these aren't the government)
* Russia's government
* Russia's corporations (ditto)
* North Korea's government (it's all government there!)
* CowboyNeal, er, I mean Unknown Lamer**
**Notice: if you click here, well, you've been warned :)
Bible or the Khoran. Your choice!
You forgot The Book of Mormon and a few others.
This is not the "Worst" e-Reader ever.
Why do I say that?
Because it is working as designed.
Frankly, for certain high-security situations this kind of "immutable" device is the only kind of device that would be allowed in. So it's either something like this, or books-on-tape/CD/paper/something else.
For slightly less-but-still-very-secure situations you could allow some type of external read-only, no-processor-chip-onboard "expansion pack" memory so that the book content could be switched out without getting a whole new device. I wouldn't use USB though, as that requires a processor on the stick itself.
Also, I'd make very sure the data format was really "data only" not something that could, in theory, be a vector for "code." This would rule out PDF and PostScript. In other words, it would be pretty limited.
The things you absolutely do not want for this type of device in a high-security environment are:
* Any ability to "run code"
* Any wireless
* Any ability to export data other than through the screen (you can't stop someone from photographing the screen)
* Any ability to "hack" the device without physical access and accessing it in a non-standard way (e.g. with a screwdriver). This means the software must be proven to never do anything "bad" other than "just die, requiring a reboot" if the operator is tricked into giving it even carefully-crafted/designed-to-do-bad-things bad data.
In some cases, you do not want it displaying anything other than what is "whitelisted." This can be done by either only displaying properly-digitally-signed files or, as in this case, by only providing a limited set of files and "sealing" the device.
If this catches on, expect it to 1) be declared illegal and 2) parking meters or similar devices to be placed in each spot that prominently mark it as a "no parking zone" for some short, random, un-announced time after the spot is vacated.
In other words, when you leave, a red "no parking here for the next few minutes" light flashes. The light will go off at some random time between 2 and 10 minutes later and there will be no indication of when it will go off.
If you are caught parking there or sitting there waiting for the light to change, you will be ticketed.
1) Whole seasons of television on fewer than half the number of disks as DVD.
2) When the burners get faster and cheaper, convenient backups. But realistically, Blu-Ray is too small for geeks - you want a backup medium that's at least 10% if not 20% of the size of your data set so a full backup won't be a huge stack of disks. You also want the differential backup from several weeks or months ago vs. today to fit on one disk.