Walk into high school math class at 9:45, pop quiz says the teacher, reads the questions, pausing for 30 seconds after each one, computer whirring in the corner, at 10:05 the teacher announces "Well, since 6 of you failed today we are going to study xyz"
Once communication is set to bits and bytes things can go a lot faster. At least in some circumstances. Speed dating might get a whole new power setting from this and some vital sign stats.
I can see quite a few things changing radically when you don't have to the have the social clutter of one person talking at a time.
those conversations at work that start out "did you see show_xyz last night?"
Television is about to get more customizable, whether you believe this is a good thing or not, if YouTube makes itself available to anyone that can plug in a box like a Tivo, well that means joe six pack will watch more YouTube.
Wonder what the response of the MPAA and others related will be? Outlaw YouTube on television screens?
and if they hack your pace maker, you had better have a will.
Nevermind that, the burning question is will Clinton use this to scare us out of voting for McCain? He should be due for a pace maker soon if he doesn't already have one.
At least they're not screwing anything up when they do this, they're just spinning their wheels. While I agree with you on this, they also are not getting anything done. Neither is the US 'killing terrorists' as one poster suggested. The game of politics in Washington is rather like a game of chess. Often it's about how to look like you're cutting pork spending while not actually cutting any pork in your district. To out right do something right about spying there are many legislators that have to be willing to cut ties with all the lobbyists that are tied to those that are tied to the telecomm lobbyists. You can't take out the bishop without losing some pawns. Sacrifice is part of the game, and what everyone is willing to sacrifice is the question. Obviously not much lately, at least for the majority. That brings in the question of neocons being both democrat and republicans... an irrefutably difficult mess to clean up or sort out.
The nice thing is that when the new president is elected it does NOT mean that Bush is free and clear. He would have to be pardoned by the new president to avoid jail or worse. If the spying is brought to light, and is as bad as some believe, the WhiteHouse is in some serious shit. They won't go down without a fight. There will be blood. It's not quite as simple as Watergate where the guilty could be kept on one side of the aisle.
That is exactly why I'm following the developments of open hardware efforts. I'm hoping they are quite successful. Then we can all know (vicariously maybe) what is in both the chips and the software without relying on MS or Intel to tell us it is all okay. Sure, that doesn't make **everything** safe, but it gets a lot closer.
I think you are pretty much right on target. An errant USB stick with malicious firmware could easily wait until it is plugged into a machine on a network with the desired domain name before releasing a small virus. It is not implausible, nor hard to understand this attack vector. That USB stick might be in the form of a cheap MP3 player.
Without spraying details all over, there are many more ways to get a small piece of code inside a very secure facility, after which it's game on for the IDS system.
Even if nothing is found in the wild like this, fear of it might indeed push DRM et al into all manner of devices.
On the short list: Secure facilities should not be allowing electronic devices into their facilities. period. if they want to stay secure. No DRM should be trusted to fully do this job in such instances of security like are required for the Pentagon, military bases etc.
Adding DRM to commercial and personal use devices will NOT... repeat NOT increase security.
What you say is interesting, but dogs didn't seem to do the trick so it looks like there is more to it. If in fact you are right and it's just the stress release at work, there is hope for robotic pets to do the same thing once they are designed appropriately. It should also work with certain kinds of dogs too, as well as other pets. I still say the final verdict is still out on this.
Anyone see that joke/story that shows speaking English is what kills you early? I think the causation link is a bit weak, even if they can't find define it so well here. Apparently having dogs doesn't have the same effect. Cats (well all animals) are known to carry certain virus types and germs. I'm thinking that is the real thing at issue here. I didn't see if kissing the cat had anything to do with the results either. There are so many things that could fall into play here. I hope they figure out how to bottle whatever it is, free or cheaply as owning a cat.
Better yet, I hope they figure out that cat's kill off something that otherwise leads to heart attack risks and that leads to even better preventative medicines. Meanwhile, I've got two cats and three dogs so I'm not sure where that leaves me for risk?
Poor writing is one thing. The talk that there is not enough people going into science and math fields of endeavor after college might simply be a symptom of something more distasteful indicated in the article. Of course, there is the financial to consider, but there is also something else. If you thought all your work would be politicized and you left as a pawn in someone's politics, would you be happy about it? Would that inspire you to study hard to work in that field?
When there is general distrust of a group of people, all that is left to motivate others to follow their footsteps is pure greed. Lets face it, scientists are not in the top 500 richest people in the world, now are they?
The reverse side of that coin is that there is no positive image of such groups, and this is just another look at the negative. Psychology at work. It takes real dedication to commit to some field of employment that everyone thinks is corrupt or devoid of reward. Much easier to imagine yourself as a WWE wrestler than an astrophysicist when you are young. What is pointed out in a backhand way is that we are discouraging the young by no smacking down the bad ones now.
While I tend to agree with you, it would be stupid on the part of MS to hobble openGL because it will only make Windows look sucky. The news for nerds crowd on the Internet (not just/.) will ensure that *ANY* Linux drivers get vicarious face time with the masses and hobbling that experience is like a huge marketing blunder on the scale of the Sony rootkit without so much of the legal problems.
One thing that I like, recently it is not a case of Linux and Solaris having to be as good as MS, but a case of hmmm lets just see which performs better without the a priori conclusion that everyone has to keep up with MS.
I think that very soon, if not now, we can start thinking of MS as an angel with a tarnished halo, if I can put it so gently?
We are slowly moving in to an era of REAL competition, where all OSs are competing for the leading edge and the masses waiting for news each quarter of who is winning rather than everyone not really caring since no other OS is as good as MS. At that point, I think you can clearly and safely declare a win for F/OSS. A battle win if not the war.
If you stop to think about how science has advanced in the last 20 years your brain, like mine, might explode. DNA, human genome, genetic medical treatments, dark matter, hawking radiation, quantum related developments... all leading up to 2012? There are people alive right now that when they were born, germs were unknown never mind planes, space travel, dark matter, and something as small as an atom. Mind you, there are few like that still alive, but there are. At no time in history has information advanced so much in so short a time. The Internet has helped play a part in that also.
Should quantum computing become reality, perhaps we will have 400000x current computing power on our desktops. At that point, voice recognition becomes reality, huge data stores become reality and usable. Things like this could push the information age into a whole new era.
I know you are exactly right because I watched Star Trek. In the movie when Scotty was trying to show earth engineers how to make see through aluminum to hold the wales with, he took to the keyboard like a pro when talking into the mouse would not work! So, even in the 23rd century we will have keyboards.
Nice way to keep the mean spirited issue at hand. You piss me off. I'm thinking that anyone whose web site is powered by Joomla http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Joomla!_License_Guidelines/ might actually take the hint if you kindly... KINDLY... ask them to produce the data in ODF formats.
Some of the people involved with this institution are well read and intelligent individuals. Talking like an asshat about them is not exactly an encouragement after all.
The content was put in a modifiable format, that's half the way there.
In case "Canada's non-profit and independent Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics" is reading their press, here are some suggestions:
Well, on the one hand, it's free so you can't complain too much and on the other hand is a glove... er, well, perhaps these very nice folks that donated their time and resources for this project might also come out with version 2 in ODF formats.
Can we get some volunteers to send them OpenOffice? and some training materials? Perhaps some of those that would just complain might put together a nice email with links or send them some CDs?
I have no clue why you were moded off-topic... wtf?
You are right, and now that there will be fewer law enforcement officers around, and kids know where the cameras are... well, you can imagine where the crimes will happen now, right? Anywhere but in front of the cameras.
Can I patent the business process used for this decision? step one - unholster gun step two - ensure that it is loaded step three - aim at your own foot step four - hold a press conference to announce your new plan step five - shoot your foot... step six - make tougher anticrime measures^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H profit
But... but... I think there are some really good points to be drawn from this:
- It doesn't take SWAT teams to do a lot of common police work - Taser guns are not a requirement for all situations - Just a little more visibility from what used to be called a 'beat cop' would help make our streets quite a bit safer. "move along now" no arrest needed, no police state required.... and finally - Small government that encourages communities to help themselves often works out to the betterment of said community. Note, I'm not encouraging vigilantes, or large scale activities of this sort, but this is obviously doing some good, it should not be discouraged.
Police Major Lane Hagin says the robot is definitely a different crime-fighting idea. "There's no problem with the robot going up and down the street or being visible or any of the other things it does -- with the exception of spraying water on people."
Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens." I thought you could... bet it costs less than a taser gun and training too.
Assault? That seriously puts kids and the super soaker company in serious trouble? WTF?
Seriously, assault? Perhaps, since the robot is black, it should only presume to act like the black night in Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' movie?... don't run away, you coward! Come back, I'll burn you to death with my spotlight......
Well, at least he didn't say that P2P would put pornography in the hands of the children... oh wait
Well, at least the kiddie-porn people would be stopped if there was no file sharing... right?
Well, at least Ms Spears would be able to pay her medical bills if there were no file sharing... there, we can all rest happy now.
WTF? This is just an attempt to make it seem ok to filter some things. Slowly but surely they will work on filtering everything for us so we won't have to worry about criminals - except those who work as legislators.
Actually, I don't think the ship has sailed, as you say. We (I say that with trepidation) talked about MS slowly going down the drain some months ago. Even the MS haters didn't want to hear that kind of thing said. The trouble is that MS has been consistently doing things ever since that will help push them down the drain. It matters not how you look at MS these days, they are not doing so well. It's very difficult to keep going once you hit the top of the heap - The only direction is down in all directions. They can't buy Google or Yahoo. MSN is toast. It's just not looking good.
To say that this is the beginning is not inappropriate. The beginning of a world where MS does not have a stranglehold on all things related to computing. It may have cost Novell quite a bit to figure it out, but they did, and in admitting as much they set an example for others to use in deciding their own personal courses.
Lately, more and more people are taking up some variant of GNU/Linux and writing off any investment they have in MS only software that won't run under Wine. I feel confident enough to say that we'll see more business/countries/education systems/people saying good bye to MS forever... or at least until they who will remain in Redmond decide to create something worth switching back for.
I tend to agree with your sentiment but I thought Libel and Slander were what we called politics in non-election years?
As for kiddie-porn etc. I don't think that such broad labeling actually defines 'tangible harm to others' as you imply that it must?
I'm not sticking up for people that do harm to others, just saying that I'm still waiting for proof that all forms of kiddie porn cause tangible harm. As for etc. that you mentioned, I have some questions about that too. There were a number of powerful people that thought Larry Flint was doing tangible harm. Whether you like his products or not did not stop him from protecting your 1st amendment rights.
As for a new 'bill of rights' - absofuckinglutely not. The reason is simple. The current constitutional ammendments are written pretty well. What is wrong is how they are interpreted by lawmakers and courts. Any new set will be just as poorly interpreted. What we NEED is clear understanding of how they apply to new technologies. But then we have the problem of politicians being in charge of that sort of thing. That whole lobbyist thing is a large part of why the bill of rights is being abused now.
Everyone else has already pointed out the obvious flaws in such a system, but if done correctly, it could actually reduce street level traffic, reduce smog problems, and a bunch of other things, but the mail your ex-boss a bomb problem is pretty scary.
Slashdot Mirror
You were expecting dating experts on /. ??? WTF?
Walk into high school math class at 9:45, pop quiz says the teacher, reads the questions, pausing for 30 seconds after each one, computer whirring in the corner, at 10:05 the teacher announces "Well, since 6 of you failed today we are going to study xyz"
Once communication is set to bits and bytes things can go a lot faster. At least in some circumstances. Speed dating might get a whole new power setting from this and some vital sign stats.
I can see quite a few things changing radically when you don't have to the have the social clutter of one person talking at a time.
those conversations at work that start out "did you see show_xyz last night?"
Television is about to get more customizable, whether you believe this is a good thing or not, if YouTube makes itself available to anyone that can plug in a box like a Tivo, well that means joe six pack will watch more YouTube.
Wonder what the response of the MPAA and others related will be? Outlaw YouTube on television screens?
and if they hack your pace maker, you had better have a will.
Nevermind that, the burning question is will Clinton use this to scare us out of voting for McCain? He should be due for a pace maker soon if he doesn't already have one.
The nice thing is that when the new president is elected it does NOT mean that Bush is free and clear. He would have to be pardoned by the new president to avoid jail or worse. If the spying is brought to light, and is as bad as some believe, the WhiteHouse is in some serious shit. They won't go down without a fight. There will be blood. It's not quite as simple as Watergate where the guilty could be kept on one side of the aisle.
That is exactly why I'm following the developments of open hardware efforts. I'm hoping they are quite successful. Then we can all know (vicariously maybe) what is in both the chips and the software without relying on MS or Intel to tell us it is all okay. Sure, that doesn't make **everything** safe, but it gets a lot closer.
I think you are pretty much right on target. An errant USB stick with malicious firmware could easily wait until it is plugged into a machine on a network with the desired domain name before releasing a small virus. It is not implausible, nor hard to understand this attack vector. That USB stick might be in the form of a cheap MP3 player.
Without spraying details all over, there are many more ways to get a small piece of code inside a very secure facility, after which it's game on for the IDS system.
Even if nothing is found in the wild like this, fear of it might indeed push DRM et al into all manner of devices.
On the short list: Secure facilities should not be allowing electronic devices into their facilities. period. if they want to stay secure. No DRM should be trusted to fully do this job in such instances of security like are required for the Pentagon, military bases etc.
Adding DRM to commercial and personal use devices will NOT... repeat NOT increase security.
Here is my new online ID: Tim Couch
Just wait to see what I say next.....
What you say is interesting, but dogs didn't seem to do the trick so it looks like there is more to it. If in fact you are right and it's just the stress release at work, there is hope for robotic pets to do the same thing once they are designed appropriately. It should also work with certain kinds of dogs too, as well as other pets. I still say the final verdict is still out on this.
Anyone see that joke/story that shows speaking English is what kills you early? I think the causation link is a bit weak, even if they can't find define it so well here. Apparently having dogs doesn't have the same effect. Cats (well all animals) are known to carry certain virus types and germs. I'm thinking that is the real thing at issue here. I didn't see if kissing the cat had anything to do with the results either. There are so many things that could fall into play here. I hope they figure out how to bottle whatever it is, free or cheaply as owning a cat.
Better yet, I hope they figure out that cat's kill off something that otherwise leads to heart attack risks and that leads to even better preventative medicines. Meanwhile, I've got two cats and three dogs so I'm not sure where that leaves me for risk?
Poor writing is one thing. The talk that there is not enough people going into science and math fields of endeavor after college might simply be a symptom of something more distasteful indicated in the article. Of course, there is the financial to consider, but there is also something else. If you thought all your work would be politicized and you left as a pawn in someone's politics, would you be happy about it? Would that inspire you to study hard to work in that field?
When there is general distrust of a group of people, all that is left to motivate others to follow their footsteps is pure greed. Lets face it, scientists are not in the top 500 richest people in the world, now are they?
The reverse side of that coin is that there is no positive image of such groups, and this is just another look at the negative. Psychology at work. It takes real dedication to commit to some field of employment that everyone thinks is corrupt or devoid of reward. Much easier to imagine yourself as a WWE wrestler than an astrophysicist when you are young. What is pointed out in a backhand way is that we are discouraging the young by no smacking down the bad ones now.
Well, that was my take
While I tend to agree with you, it would be stupid on the part of MS to hobble openGL because it will only make Windows look sucky. The news for nerds crowd on the Internet (not just /.) will ensure that *ANY* Linux drivers get vicarious face time with the masses and hobbling that experience is like a huge marketing blunder on the scale of the Sony rootkit without so much of the legal problems.
One thing that I like, recently it is not a case of Linux and Solaris having to be as good as MS, but a case of hmmm lets just see which performs better without the a priori conclusion that everyone has to keep up with MS.
I think that very soon, if not now, we can start thinking of MS as an angel with a tarnished halo, if I can put it so gently?
We are slowly moving in to an era of REAL competition, where all OSs are competing for the leading edge and the masses waiting for news each quarter of who is winning rather than everyone not really caring since no other OS is as good as MS. At that point, I think you can clearly and safely declare a win for F/OSS. A battle win if not the war.
You mean to tell me that the RIAA are NOT the only ones who launch big music careers?
Somebody better tell them quick, surely this means the end of their business model?
http://www.riaaradar.com/ is a place to look for other artists that are not associated with the RIAA if you are interested.
If you stop to think about how science has advanced in the last 20 years your brain, like mine, might explode. DNA, human genome, genetic medical treatments, dark matter, hawking radiation, quantum related developments... all leading up to 2012? There are people alive right now that when they were born, germs were unknown never mind planes, space travel, dark matter, and something as small as an atom. Mind you, there are few like that still alive, but there are. At no time in history has information advanced so much in so short a time. The Internet has helped play a part in that also.
Should quantum computing become reality, perhaps we will have 400000x current computing power on our desktops. At that point, voice recognition becomes reality, huge data stores become reality and usable. Things like this could push the information age into a whole new era.
I know you are exactly right because I watched Star Trek. In the movie when Scotty was trying to show earth engineers how to make see through aluminum to hold the wales with, he took to the keyboard like a pro when talking into the mouse would not work! So, even in the 23rd century we will have keyboards.
Nice way to keep the mean spirited issue at hand. You piss me off. I'm thinking that anyone whose web site is powered by Joomla http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Joomla!_License_Guidelines/ might actually take the hint if you kindly... KINDLY... ask them to produce the data in ODF formats.
Some of the people involved with this institution are well read and intelligent individuals. Talking like an asshat about them is not exactly an encouragement after all.
The content was put in a modifiable format, that's half the way there.
In case "Canada's non-profit and independent Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics" is reading their press, here are some suggestions:
Start here http://www.openoffice.org/
ARSTechnica http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2006/3/21/3278
http://www.osrc.org.pk/content/view/248/96/
http://www.fsfeurope.org/
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/10/apple-adds-supp.html
http://www.e-cology.ca/canfloss/report/CANfloss_Report.pdf
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments
And this search is interesting reading http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2Bodf+software+training+canada+education&btnG=Search
Well, on the one hand, it's free so you can't complain too much and on the other hand is a glove... er, well, perhaps these very nice folks that donated their time and resources for this project might also come out with version 2 in ODF formats.
Can we get some volunteers to send them OpenOffice? and some training materials? Perhaps some of those that would just complain might put together a nice email with links or send them some CDs?
I have no clue why you were moded off-topic... wtf?
...
You are right, and now that there will be fewer law enforcement officers around, and kids know where the cameras are... well, you can imagine where the crimes will happen now, right? Anywhere but in front of the cameras.
Can I patent the business process used for this decision?
step one - unholster gun
step two - ensure that it is loaded
step three - aim at your own foot
step four - hold a press conference to announce your new plan
step five - shoot your foot
step six - make tougher anticrime measures^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H profit
But... but... I think there are some really good points to be drawn from this:
... and finally
- It doesn't take SWAT teams to do a lot of common police work
- Taser guns are not a requirement for all situations
- Just a little more visibility from what used to be called a 'beat cop' would help make our streets quite a bit safer. "move along now" no arrest needed, no police state required.
- Small government that encourages communities to help themselves often works out to the betterment of said community. Note, I'm not encouraging vigilantes, or large scale activities of this sort, but this is obviously doing some good, it should not be discouraged.
Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens." I thought you could... bet it costs less than a taser gun and training too.
Assault? That seriously puts kids and the super soaker company in serious trouble? WTF?
Seriously, assault? Perhaps, since the robot is black, it should only presume to act like the black night in Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' movie?
Well, at least he didn't say that P2P would put pornography in the hands of the children... oh wait
Well, at least the kiddie-porn people would be stopped if there was no file sharing... right?
Well, at least Ms Spears would be able to pay her medical bills if there were no file sharing... there, we can all rest happy now.
WTF? This is just an attempt to make it seem ok to filter some things. Slowly but surely they will work on filtering everything for us so we won't have to worry about criminals - except those who work as legislators.
Actually, I don't think the ship has sailed, as you say. We (I say that with trepidation) talked about MS slowly going down the drain some months ago. Even the MS haters didn't want to hear that kind of thing said. The trouble is that MS has been consistently doing things ever since that will help push them down the drain. It matters not how you look at MS these days, they are not doing so well. It's very difficult to keep going once you hit the top of the heap - The only direction is down in all directions. They can't buy Google or Yahoo. MSN is toast. It's just not looking good.
To say that this is the beginning is not inappropriate. The beginning of a world where MS does not have a stranglehold on all things related to computing. It may have cost Novell quite a bit to figure it out, but they did, and in admitting as much they set an example for others to use in deciding their own personal courses.
Lately, more and more people are taking up some variant of GNU/Linux and writing off any investment they have in MS only software that won't run under Wine. I feel confident enough to say that we'll see more business/countries/education systems/people saying good bye to MS forever... or at least until they who will remain in Redmond decide to create something worth switching back for.
I tend to agree with your sentiment but I thought Libel and Slander were what we called politics in non-election years?
As for kiddie-porn etc. I don't think that such broad labeling actually defines 'tangible harm to others' as you imply that it must?
I'm not sticking up for people that do harm to others, just saying that I'm still waiting for proof that all forms of kiddie porn cause tangible harm. As for etc. that you mentioned, I have some questions about that too. There were a number of powerful people that thought Larry Flint was doing tangible harm. Whether you like his products or not did not stop him from protecting your 1st amendment rights.
As for a new 'bill of rights' - absofuckinglutely not. The reason is simple. The current constitutional ammendments are written pretty well. What is wrong is how they are interpreted by lawmakers and courts. Any new set will be just as poorly interpreted. What we NEED is clear understanding of how they apply to new technologies. But then we have the problem of politicians being in charge of that sort of thing. That whole lobbyist thing is a large part of why the bill of rights is being abused now.
security through obscurity does NOT work.
Can we not get them fined for being publicly stupid as a bag of hammers?
No offense meant to those hammers who are reading this post, or who may have a hammer waiting for them at home.
That was funny! Alas, I have no mod points.
Everyone else has already pointed out the obvious flaws in such a system, but if done correctly, it could actually reduce street level traffic, reduce smog problems, and a bunch of other things, but the mail your ex-boss a bomb problem is pretty scary.