Now if only Microsoft could find a way to embrace-and-extend the cellphone system, so that Microsoft phones only work right with other Microsoft phones, they might be able to do what they did on the desktop . . .
But . . . there IS a love story with Wyoh. Polygamy could be a hot seller in the modern ethos. And there ARE shootouts - unfortunately, brutal government suppression of civil unrest, but that's PC nowadays. And the Loonies DO throw rocks. So the Hollywood maceration machine will say, "Hey, we included lots of stuff from the original book, what are you complaining about?" while losing much of the meaning that readers got out of it. (By the way, American democracy used to be secretly socialist; just watch "Teahouse of the August Moon", in which the naive good officer insists that any profits from the town have been banked in a collective account to be shared equally like a family, and his superior shouts "But that's Communism!")
Let's see, just how badly could they mess this up . . . Well, I still have the paperback with the reversed artwork, showing Mannie with the WRONG ARM being cybernetic, so messing up a book has a long and storied history.
The obvious problem is that the story takes place over a multi-month or year-long period, which never comes across well in a movie. This would need a miniseries to do it justice.
The problem with "recognize based on content" is that the system has to *open* the file to read a *standardized* *header* to do this. Good luck getting people to standardize on a header for everything; there are multiple conflicting standards for pictures, and audio, and various other "containers" already. And does opening the file just to check content type count as a reference, or as a use? Or is system activity magically exempt from being counted? Extensions date back well before DOS, because they're simple and obvious and straightforward - not clever, not the best, not complete, but simple.
The use of "My Whatever" had one primary purpose: forcing the use of a space character in commonly used file references, thereby breaking any DOS-era program being used on Windows. Space characters had been a clear delimiter since mainframe days, including in CP/M and other mini and microcomputer programs. Windows permitted space characters in a file name, which was inconsistent enough (what was wrong with underscore?), and then encouraged - almost *forced* - the use of its default directories with embedded spaces in the name.
I also agree with others who have pointed out that it hides something that should not be hidden. If the default place for a user's data is "users\username\data", and the system prevents one username from accessing anotheruser's data, that's a good thing to understand.
Users aren't supposed to need to be technically literate, any more than automobile drivers should need to be mechanics or engineers or machinists or metallurgists. A lot of us get paid *specifically* to make this stuff simple enough for a child to use. The problem is that we've been so successful that the common user is not just passively clueless, but actively self-harming - just like the automobile industry making the *average* car equal to an old sports car without anyone suggesting that drivers should get a little more practice.
Maybe this is saying that you can't sue for something that hasn't happened yet - and, indirectly, that the law requiring protection of confidentiality (and penalizing failure) has no teeth, and that the limits against abusive overreach of law are allowing an end-run around the general intent.
Let's say you had a workman at your house, and they left the garage door unlocked when they were finished. If you come home and everything is fine, then there is no cause for legal action. If you come home and your house has been robbed, then first it's the robber's criminal act, and then maybe there's a civil action by your insurance company to get money from the workman's insurance company.
The hospital is seen as the *victim* of a theft, just as if a doctor's or psychiatrist's office were broken into for drugs and some records were stolen, rather than a *culprit* for "failing to maintain HIPAA confidentiality". YOU have to go after each person who does something illicit with the information; each marketer, each fraud instance, each problem, is individual. And since each of them is small individually, it's YOUR burden to chase them as a civil matter rather than a criminal matter that would get you some help from society (through the police agencies).
Because it's the same zillion-to-one chance, but as the jackpot goes up, the risk/reward ratio looks better. Or maybe it's the other risk of being the person who could have bought the winning ticket but didn't.
Maths is fun. So is game theory. Which do you choose, increasing the odds of getting more of the prize - without increasing the odds of getting the prize in the first place? or increasing the odds of getting the prize, without increasing the odds against having to share it? Two distinct issues.
I agree. Maybe this is just part of the overall requirement to be able to live well in a given area, which is part of the drive to adapt humans to have differences in different areas. Some regional cultures live on milk and cheese, others use no dairy products and have a higher incidence of intolerance. In former times there were more typical regional appearances, beyond the obvious wide differences in color and build and facial structure, down to national "looks" (and in addition to local natural selection, there was less travel and thus less genetic mixing). If the local diet is oversupplied or deficient in some mineral or vitamin, then certain body types and chemistries will be more prevalent.
"Oh, it must have happened automatically somehow, we had nothing to do with it . .." Of course, a real criminal would *also* love to have a way to remotely wipe a phone that had fallen into police hands. Oddly enough, the police and the criminals want the same thing here; fancy that . . .
The interviews show the true range of Stewart's abilities. He can talk to silly stars or serious people, and everyone in between, each at their own level, and give each an opportunity to shine. And clearly he's read up on each guest's work and background, even when he self-deprecatingly pleads ignorance.
Stewart is *not* delivering news; he is delivering commentary on the news, and commentary on other people's reporting of the news (particularly when people contradict themselves). To provide background for that commentary, he must mention the original news or original reporting. The fact that people don't even bother listening to the original news because they're content with whatever Stewart and his staff have edited from the day's firehose of information does not make Stewart a news source, and his insistence on that is what makes his editorial slant acceptable.
We have ice cream shops whose major marketing point is their choice of 31 flavors; we have an entire flavors & fragrances industry trying to make food taste as varied as possible. Humans don't all want the same flavor, because humans' chemistry isn't all the same. The simplest thing wrong with any single plan, be it the Food Pyramid or the Food Plate or any named diet, is that one single plan cannot possibly be right for everyone, all the time. Even the same individual's needs change depending on activity level and health and age and environment. One could define a best *process* for testing and analyzing what works best for each individual, but not a best diet.
This. It is the flip side of lawyers for anyone accused *under* 18 describing them as a "child" (even better, "just a child"), which doesn't fit well when the accusation is rape or battery, particularly when the 16- or 17-year-old "child" is on the football or wrestling team.
Repeat: I agree with you about the militarized police. I was a kid in the 1960s when the "special weapons and tactics" concept became common enough to get an acronym, and it was already scary then - even though it was happening because of some violent criminal activity. (I don't think it's corrupt; for corruption I point to the massive abuse of civil forfeiture. But it is excessive.) OTOH i think your suggestion of SWATting Congresspeople would be perpetrating a dual evil of misusing the militarized police we both object to, and recklessly endangering people just like the original character in this story. While I appreciate the goal of poetic justice, I would not lower myself to a level I despise in order to do it, because then I'd become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. (PS - I don't think your reply was a troll. A bit more extreme than my original call for execution, but at worst a devil's advocate position.)
"Help, I need police, there's an intruder in the house and I already heard him shoot the dog! so I'm sure he's got a gun! Please come quickly!" Preferably in a young voice. Maybe a few details about hearing Mom screaming and then crying . . . How many TV shows and movies start with those scenes?
I agree with you about the militarized police; but what you're suggesting is like dropping a loaded gun on the floor just to demonstrate how dangerous it might be. Someone could get killed by accident.
Why is everything a slippery slope for you people? Is it not possible that we find a middle way?
I wish, with all my heart, that we could always rely on reasonable people to take reasonable positions and make reasonable use of power. All it takes is for an unreasonable person to attain a position of power, or even for a reasonable person to be misled by unreasonable people controlling the flow of information, for power to be abused. Put this power in the hands of a reasonable person, and his successor (or two or three) could be a religious zealot or some other kind of fanatic. I categorically find the idea of "kiddie porn" vile and disgusting; and at the same time I'm willing to bet that many families have photos of naked babies, or children in the bathtub, or teens changing in a towel on the beach, that are purely childish mementos - except that by some technical literal criteria, the nudity and age could be counted as kiddie porn. Not to mention differing cultural standards: in the US a national magazine cover can show a girl in a teeny bikini but the slightest glimpse of nipple is forbidden, while in some countries a girl needn't bother with a top at all.
My 3-book Ballantine Books edition of LOTR sits on the shelf to my left. When I purchased it in 1970 or so and read that note on the back, there were barely computers as we know them today, let alone BBSes or the Net, or any kind of index. A few years later, the college science fiction club I co-founded circulated MIMEOGRAPHED COPIES of our sporadically-published newsletter with other clubs. (For those who never heard of mimeograph . . . use Google. For those who remember the intoxicating smell of mimeograph fluid, well, no explanation necessary.) Yes, children, there *was* a world before the Internet. And you.
The linked article uses the words "prank" and "prankster" multiple times. This is not ordering someone else a pizza; this is ordering someone else a large group of hair-trigger people carrying deadly weapons and expecting violence. People like this should be restrained or executed, not so much for what they have done, as for being the sort of people who would do it.
Both of NYC's airports are at the water's edge, with elongated runways on piers. Newark is within sight of the water. Many of the major airports on both coasts will have problems.
Claims regarding efficacy are not the point. (even though I agree with you about homeopathy.) The stuff should be what it says on the label, and the label should say what's in the stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
Now if only Microsoft could find a way to embrace-and-extend the cellphone system, so that Microsoft phones only work right with other Microsoft phones, they might be able to do what they did on the desktop . . .
But . . . there IS a love story with Wyoh. Polygamy could be a hot seller in the modern ethos. And there ARE shootouts - unfortunately, brutal government suppression of civil unrest, but that's PC nowadays. And the Loonies DO throw rocks. So the Hollywood maceration machine will say, "Hey, we included lots of stuff from the original book, what are you complaining about?" while losing much of the meaning that readers got out of it. (By the way, American democracy used to be secretly socialist; just watch "Teahouse of the August Moon", in which the naive good officer insists that any profits from the town have been banked in a collective account to be shared equally like a family, and his superior shouts "But that's Communism!")
Let's see, just how badly could they mess this up . . . Well, I still have the paperback with the reversed artwork, showing Mannie with the WRONG ARM being cybernetic, so messing up a book has a long and storied history.
The obvious problem is that the story takes place over a multi-month or year-long period, which never comes across well in a movie. This would need a miniseries to do it justice.
The problem with "recognize based on content" is that the system has to *open* the file to read a *standardized* *header* to do this. Good luck getting people to standardize on a header for everything; there are multiple conflicting standards for pictures, and audio, and various other "containers" already. And does opening the file just to check content type count as a reference, or as a use? Or is system activity magically exempt from being counted? Extensions date back well before DOS, because they're simple and obvious and straightforward - not clever, not the best, not complete, but simple.
And the icons are selected by . . . . you guessed it . . . the extension.
The use of "My Whatever" had one primary purpose: forcing the use of a space character in commonly used file references, thereby breaking any DOS-era program being used on Windows. Space characters had been a clear delimiter since mainframe days, including in CP/M and other mini and microcomputer programs. Windows permitted space characters in a file name, which was inconsistent enough (what was wrong with underscore?), and then encouraged - almost *forced* - the use of its default directories with embedded spaces in the name.
I also agree with others who have pointed out that it hides something that should not be hidden. If the default place for a user's data is "users\username\data", and the system prevents one username from accessing anotheruser's data, that's a good thing to understand.
Users aren't supposed to need to be technically literate, any more than automobile drivers should need to be mechanics or engineers or machinists or metallurgists. A lot of us get paid *specifically* to make this stuff simple enough for a child to use. The problem is that we've been so successful that the common user is not just passively clueless, but actively self-harming - just like the automobile industry making the *average* car equal to an old sports car without anyone suggesting that drivers should get a little more practice.
Maybe this is saying that you can't sue for something that hasn't happened yet - and, indirectly, that the law requiring protection of confidentiality (and penalizing failure) has no teeth, and that the limits against abusive overreach of law are allowing an end-run around the general intent.
Let's say you had a workman at your house, and they left the garage door unlocked when they were finished. If you come home and everything is fine, then there is no cause for legal action. If you come home and your house has been robbed, then first it's the robber's criminal act, and then maybe there's a civil action by your insurance company to get money from the workman's insurance company.
The hospital is seen as the *victim* of a theft, just as if a doctor's or psychiatrist's office were broken into for drugs and some records were stolen, rather than a *culprit* for "failing to maintain HIPAA confidentiality". YOU have to go after each person who does something illicit with the information; each marketer, each fraud instance, each problem, is individual. And since each of them is small individually, it's YOUR burden to chase them as a civil matter rather than a criminal matter that would get you some help from society (through the police agencies).
Because it's the same zillion-to-one chance, but as the jackpot goes up, the risk/reward ratio looks better. Or maybe it's the other risk of being the person who could have bought the winning ticket but didn't.
Maths is fun. So is game theory. Which do you choose, increasing the odds of getting more of the prize - without increasing the odds of getting the prize in the first place? or increasing the odds of getting the prize, without increasing the odds against having to share it? Two distinct issues.
Disagree - they are reduced by 100%. They go from something (however small) to nothing.
I agree. Maybe this is just part of the overall requirement to be able to live well in a given area, which is part of the drive to adapt humans to have differences in different areas. Some regional cultures live on milk and cheese, others use no dairy products and have a higher incidence of intolerance. In former times there were more typical regional appearances, beyond the obvious wide differences in color and build and facial structure, down to national "looks" (and in addition to local natural selection, there was less travel and thus less genetic mixing). If the local diet is oversupplied or deficient in some mineral or vitamin, then certain body types and chemistries will be more prevalent.
"Oh, it must have happened automatically somehow, we had nothing to do with it . . ." Of course, a real criminal would *also* love to have a way to remotely wipe a phone that had fallen into police hands. Oddly enough, the police and the criminals want the same thing here; fancy that . . .
The interviews show the true range of Stewart's abilities. He can talk to silly stars or serious people, and everyone in between, each at their own level, and give each an opportunity to shine. And clearly he's read up on each guest's work and background, even when he self-deprecatingly pleads ignorance.
Stewart is *not* delivering news; he is delivering commentary on the news, and commentary on other people's reporting of the news (particularly when people contradict themselves). To provide background for that commentary, he must mention the original news or original reporting. The fact that people don't even bother listening to the original news because they're content with whatever Stewart and his staff have edited from the day's firehose of information does not make Stewart a news source, and his insistence on that is what makes his editorial slant acceptable.
We have ice cream shops whose major marketing point is their choice of 31 flavors; we have an entire flavors & fragrances industry trying to make food taste as varied as possible. Humans don't all want the same flavor, because humans' chemistry isn't all the same. The simplest thing wrong with any single plan, be it the Food Pyramid or the Food Plate or any named diet, is that one single plan cannot possibly be right for everyone, all the time. Even the same individual's needs change depending on activity level and health and age and environment. One could define a best *process* for testing and analyzing what works best for each individual, but not a best diet.
This. It is the flip side of lawyers for anyone accused *under* 18 describing them as a "child" (even better, "just a child"), which doesn't fit well when the accusation is rape or battery, particularly when the 16- or 17-year-old "child" is on the football or wrestling team.
Repeat: I agree with you about the militarized police. I was a kid in the 1960s when the "special weapons and tactics" concept became common enough to get an acronym, and it was already scary then - even though it was happening because of some violent criminal activity. (I don't think it's corrupt; for corruption I point to the massive abuse of civil forfeiture. But it is excessive.) OTOH i think your suggestion of SWATting Congresspeople would be perpetrating a dual evil of misusing the militarized police we both object to, and recklessly endangering people just like the original character in this story. While I appreciate the goal of poetic justice, I would not lower myself to a level I despise in order to do it, because then I'd become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. (PS - I don't think your reply was a troll. A bit more extreme than my original call for execution, but at worst a devil's advocate position.)
"Help, I need police, there's an intruder in the house and I already heard him shoot the dog! so I'm sure he's got a gun! Please come quickly!" Preferably in a young voice. Maybe a few details about hearing Mom screaming and then crying . . . How many TV shows and movies start with those scenes?
I agree with you about the militarized police; but what you're suggesting is like dropping a loaded gun on the floor just to demonstrate how dangerous it might be. Someone could get killed by accident.
Why is everything a slippery slope for you people? Is it not possible that we find a middle way?
I wish, with all my heart, that we could always rely on reasonable people to take reasonable positions and make reasonable use of power. All it takes is for an unreasonable person to attain a position of power, or even for a reasonable person to be misled by unreasonable people controlling the flow of information, for power to be abused. Put this power in the hands of a reasonable person, and his successor (or two or three) could be a religious zealot or some other kind of fanatic. I categorically find the idea of "kiddie porn" vile and disgusting; and at the same time I'm willing to bet that many families have photos of naked babies, or children in the bathtub, or teens changing in a towel on the beach, that are purely childish mementos - except that by some technical literal criteria, the nudity and age could be counted as kiddie porn. Not to mention differing cultural standards: in the US a national magazine cover can show a girl in a teeny bikini but the slightest glimpse of nipple is forbidden, while in some countries a girl needn't bother with a top at all.
My 3-book Ballantine Books edition of LOTR sits on the shelf to my left. When I purchased it in 1970 or so and read that note on the back, there were barely computers as we know them today, let alone BBSes or the Net, or any kind of index. A few years later, the college science fiction club I co-founded circulated MIMEOGRAPHED COPIES of our sporadically-published newsletter with other clubs. (For those who never heard of mimeograph . . . use Google. For those who remember the intoxicating smell of mimeograph fluid, well, no explanation necessary.) Yes, children, there *was* a world before the Internet. And you.
The linked article uses the words "prank" and "prankster" multiple times. This is not ordering someone else a pizza; this is ordering someone else a large group of hair-trigger people carrying deadly weapons and expecting violence. People like this should be restrained or executed, not so much for what they have done, as for being the sort of people who would do it.
Both of NYC's airports are at the water's edge, with elongated runways on piers. Newark is within sight of the water. Many of the major airports on both coasts will have problems.
Claims regarding efficacy are not the point. (even though I agree with you about homeopathy.) The stuff should be what it says on the label, and the label should say what's in the stuff.