Okay, once the M$-bashing has died down, can someone have a think about the subtle implications of this? IPv6 adoption is going to be heavily stunted by this inadequacy if it isn't fixed pretty pronto - and even if it is fixed, with the other problems v6 is having, will anyone actually try trusting it? Not for some time, I suspect.
Vista adoption is going to increase - it's a sad fact, and I can't see anyone denying it. Therefore IPv6 is going to experience stunted uptake from this blow.
The one benefit I can see is that anybody who really does see worthwhile benefits in adopting IPv6 will say "bugger M$, there are hundreds of Open Source solutions that support this without issue out of the box". Maybe this could have a positive impact on OSS uptake in the long-term.
Curses! It's a good thing I'm commenting on your comment, and not on a news item. Otherwise I'd run the risk of being sued for every mod-point I've got.
... but what if the fire isn't near a train route!??!
You'll forgive me for not caring to read the article, but it's a Roland Piquepaille job. Is that wrong of me?
It's here! Web 2.0 is HERE!!!
on
Photosynth Demo
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I can honestly say, without hyperbole, that this is the first time all those promises of what the web can really do - interconnectivity, automatic synaptic contextual linking, user generated content, and god-damned cleverness - have finally come together into something which is un-fucking-believable!!
All those next-stage, new-wave, super-hyped ideas that generated enough excitement to get a survivable user-base just kind of passed me by, because they only ever seemed to be minor amplifications of what we already had. But this... this is something totally new. And utterly, utterly incredible!
I'm so excited by this it's making me feel sick! TECHNOLOGY! INTERWEB! I take it all back - forgive me for my lack of faith! I LOVE YOU!
And by the way, that "content only limited by how many pixels are on the screen" idea has been a long time coming, and I'm deeply happy that someone's solved it. I could never understand why we use raster-imaging for computer games because it's a squillion times quicker than ray-tracing, but nobody had applied the same idea to other applications. Now I feel justified in wondering, and I'm so pleased with the result!
This was the very first thing I thought on reading the summary - "So that's why RAM has come down so much this year!". I had a fairly decent matched pair of 1GB DDRII 6400 sticks sat in my shopping basket at a well-known online retailer. I wanted to buy it in April, but though "nah, I have more important things to buy right now". When I checked again in May it had dropped in price by nearly 50%.
Never thought I'd say it, but: Thank God for Vista.
Sorry, but this makes Big Government sound more like a massively privileged private-sector business than any other article I've read in ages.
If they're taxing the tubes, does any commerce that goes through them get marked up, thus hiking prices for the consumer? I mean, fantastic, well done Uncle Sam - you've discovered a new and massive source of revenue, which incidentally buggers a large and growing element in your economy! Way to combat the national debt and fight the next dotcom bubble-burst.
And, more importantly, I'd like to know how this affects other countries. How many key internet services are run from or through the US? ICANN, DNS etc... all this and net-neutrality too. Why does the world seem slightly more fucked up every time you get up in the morning?
Wiki it, for pity's sake. (Okay, hardly scientific research, but...)
For what it's worth:
Research & engineering has reduced startup time from 8 hours to more like a few minutes
There are several automotive companies (Delphi, BMW, Rolls-Royce) looking into the use of SOFCs
Hydrogen fuel-cells are a false economy on their own - they are for energy STORAGE, not generation. SOFCs however are very, very efficient generators, and portable to boot. They're just also incredibly expensive ATM.
Okay, that last one wasn't from wikipedia, but it needed saying.
Because saying "hate" sounds slightly less pathetic than saying "am irrationally afraid of".
Besides that, the whole issue about spiders controlling fly-population is a bit of a bizarre myth. They do have an impact, but it's barely perceptible. Populations reach an equilibrium on the basis of available resources (usually food and territory) rather than predatory impact, especially in such a stable and ancient food-table as spiders and flies. There really is no reason to "like" spiders, so I feel no guilt about hating them.
But yes, I'm a big girl when it comes to anything with more than four legs.
My cat does this with spiders. Once he's got one of the hairy buggers pinned, he just sits there and waits for it to make a dash for "freedom". Then he chews another leg off it, and goes back to waiting.
Whenever I see this happen, I'm torn between horror at the grisly spectacle of such torture, and the guilty pleasure of seeing something I hate being toyed with so cruelly. If I can live with it in my own home, I can live with it in the media market...
Ah, CRBs! The things I could tell you about CRBs... I used to deal with them all the time in HR, and the CRB Bureau is atrocious. Dyslexia and chronic stupidity must have been a condition of employment in their data-entry positions.
That being said, the CRB disclosures are about safety - specifically child-safety - which I believe is fair enough in principle. They really only check criminal convictions and police records of repeated allegations etc in the districts of which you've been a resident, and I think this is a perfectly reasonable example of the Child Protection Act overriding the Data Protection Act. As you say, if you haven't been caught you won't be flagged - although allegations can be noted on your disclosure - but you have to ask what the alternative is. They're an imperfect measure for an imperfect world, and much better than the List 99 checks they used to do instead.
Anyway, the thing that really made me laugh about CRBs...? When I was a signatory, it wasn't seen as necessary to have me CRB checked...
I'm not flag-waving here or anything, but the UK's law is fortunately a lot more biased towards the applicant when it comes to discrimination.
Proactive anti-discrimination law only covers six key areas of discrimination (sex, race, age, disability etc), but these laws demand that firms take positive action to prevent the possibility of such discrimination, whether it be deliberate, incidental, cultural, systemic, institutionalised etc. As such the firm must be able to prove that they took every step to prevent discrimination if it ever comes up in court, or they are liable.
However, having such proactive laws in these specific areas is not enough, as discrimination can be exercised in a number of other areas and in subtle ways. Therefore the law makes clear what areas are acceptable for discrimination (in the literal sense) between applicants/candidates for a job. It pretty much boils down to merit: candidates must be selected on the grounds of their ability to do the job, whether that be qualifications, experience, testing or whatever. If an applicant feels that there may have been a discriminatory decision made on any other grounds, the firm has to be able to defend their decisions in court/tribunal/whatever by providing evidence that their decisions were reasonable.
There are legal exceptions to this, but they are quite specific and usually down to health & safety or security, or sometimes public reputation in certain high-level positions. In truth, the practices become more discriminatory the higher-up you go, where laws seem to be more flexible (the very epitome of "privilege"), but for 99% of the population there is no way such "checking" as fingerprinting, financial records, blood samples or anything else would ever be used, nor even contemplated, in case somebody decided to question the practices in court.
One final point on that note, though. A friend of mine applied to work for the Civil Service (powerful, unelected working body of Central Government). She got through all the main tests and interviews, and her final interview was quite invasive. One thing she was asked, which always stuck in my mind, was something along the lines of "Do you feel that you participate in any activities which might leave you open to blackmail to any degree?". I think sexual practices and drug-taking were mentioned as possibilities. I've never heard of anyone being asked that kind of question in an interview before. I can say from experience that she's a massive sexual deviant, and none of her friends or family know, but she felt that she was okay-enough with them finding out to answer "No".
She got the job, anyway.
Disclaimer: I work for local government, where they tend to be more careful about obeying the law and not getting sued...
It's understandable, yes, but the ambiguity only resolves itself if you have enough prior knowledge to make the correct assumption. In this case the story means to say that the fact of the post's availability on Yahoo is an irony, not that the post is available in an ironic fashion, but the meaning could be either.
I'll admit that this case was a minor irritation, but it just seemed to be the icing on the day's many-layered cake of errors in submissions. As a "copyeditor", surely the use of "their" instead of "there" (or vice versa) makes you cringe. I'm irked at the apparent downward trend recently seen in the quality and accuracy of language used in submitted stories.
Perhaps you should volunteer to vet stories for Slashdot...?
You have a services-based internet? Mines based on tubes.
On an off-topic note: still ironically available? So they're still available for ironic purposes? The comma is your friend, editors. I've even seen "there" instead of "their" in an earlier story, and the trend seems to be deepening.
If the editors are going to keep submissions in limbo for hours before they post them, they could at least do us the common courtesy of proof-reading them for mistakes of grammar, spelling, punctuation and such. If it's "stuff that matters", don't make it difficult to read by buggering with the conventions of written English. Thanks.
While I understand your withering commentary on the outcome from the perspective of the jury, you're forgetting the impact on law.
Case law is about precedent, and if Marie Lindor can have this case thrown out of court on grounds of technological fact, it will snap a big string in the bow of th **AA. They won't be able to use this particular ruse - one of their biggest - any longer in the courts, as anyone who takes a case defending someone against such a suit will simply be able to throw this case in.
Suddenly, fighting the **AA becomes a lot easier and cheaper, and it's Game Over as far as strong-arm, expensive litigation goes - the "Industry's" biggest weapon.
I think your comments regarding the jury are valid, but your conclusions are not.
Incremental development, not a new idea
on
Nanoscale Analysis Labs
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Just for those few who didn't already know and can't be arsed to RTFA, the lab-on-a-chip (LOC) idea has been around for years now. It's virtually a scientific field all of its own, and even has a journal.
This is an interesting development in LOC tech - I'm glad to hear about it - but the post makes it sound like a potential bloody paradigm-shift or something.
I can appreciate that this is interesting speculation - a possibly new if unlikely angle on an established set of facts - but... well, isn't that our job? This isn't science, or a new discovery, or a new application of knowledge, or...
Look, it's just a random throwing-it-out-there speculation. That's what comments are for in Slashdot, surely - not actual stories!
Many people have commented on how they're nervous about making their protest in case they get put on the Naughty List. Why hasn't anybody mentioned what an utterly, terrifyingly portentous fear that is to have??
People are talking about fear of losing their freedom. When a significant part of the ordinarily anti-authoritarian/. crowd is already afraid of the governmental repercussions they may incur for even voicing disagreement (when invited to do so, no less) with such proposals... well, I have to say, the battle seems already lost. The way people are talking, I'm surprised the story wasn't tagged itsatrap...
In my (admittedly vague) opinion, the most significant step towards becoming a fascist police-state is when anybody may be held on suspicion (of whatever) without a substantial prima facie case, ie suspected-until-proven-innocent. Anti-terrorism laws have that pinned down for anyone who doesn't look American enough (trolling, sorry), but ID schemes like this are a big step in the same direction for everyone else.
I fear for you, America, I really do. And for us in the UK, for that matter.
Slashdot Mirror
Vista adoption is going to increase - it's a sad fact, and I can't see anyone denying it. Therefore IPv6 is going to experience stunted uptake from this blow.
The one benefit I can see is that anybody who really does see worthwhile benefits in adopting IPv6 will say "bugger M$, there are hundreds of Open Source solutions that support this without issue out of the box". Maybe this could have a positive impact on OSS uptake in the long-term.
By the way, this reply is copyrighted.
You'll forgive me for not caring to read the article, but it's a Roland Piquepaille job. Is that wrong of me?
All those next-stage, new-wave, super-hyped ideas that generated enough excitement to get a survivable user-base just kind of passed me by, because they only ever seemed to be minor amplifications of what we already had. But this... this is something totally new. And utterly, utterly incredible!
I'm so excited by this it's making me feel sick! TECHNOLOGY! INTERWEB! I take it all back - forgive me for my lack of faith! I LOVE YOU!
And by the way, that "content only limited by how many pixels are on the screen" idea has been a long time coming, and I'm deeply happy that someone's solved it. I could never understand why we use raster-imaging for computer games because it's a squillion times quicker than ray-tracing, but nobody had applied the same idea to other applications. Now I feel justified in wondering, and I'm so pleased with the result!
Never thought I'd say it, but: Thank God for Vista.
If they're taxing the tubes, does any commerce that goes through them get marked up, thus hiking prices for the consumer? I mean, fantastic, well done Uncle Sam - you've discovered a new and massive source of revenue, which incidentally buggers a large and growing element in your economy! Way to combat the national debt and fight the next dotcom bubble-burst.
And, more importantly, I'd like to know how this affects other countries. How many key internet services are run from or through the US? ICANN, DNS etc... all this and net-neutrality too. Why does the world seem slightly more fucked up every time you get up in the morning?
Sorry, I'm done. You can mod me down now.
For what it's worth:
- Research & engineering has reduced startup time from 8 hours to more like a few minutes
- There are several automotive companies (Delphi, BMW, Rolls-Royce) looking into the use of SOFCs
- Hydrogen fuel-cells are a false economy on their own - they are for energy STORAGE, not generation. SOFCs however are very, very efficient generators, and portable to boot. They're just also incredibly expensive ATM.
Okay, that last one wasn't from wikipedia, but it needed saying.Besides that, the whole issue about spiders controlling fly-population is a bit of a bizarre myth. They do have an impact, but it's barely perceptible. Populations reach an equilibrium on the basis of available resources (usually food and territory) rather than predatory impact, especially in such a stable and ancient food-table as spiders and flies. There really is no reason to "like" spiders, so I feel no guilt about hating them.
But yes, I'm a big girl when it comes to anything with more than four legs.
My cat does this with spiders. Once he's got one of the hairy buggers pinned, he just sits there and waits for it to make a dash for "freedom". Then he chews another leg off it, and goes back to waiting.
Whenever I see this happen, I'm torn between horror at the grisly spectacle of such torture, and the guilty pleasure of seeing something I hate being toyed with so cruelly. If I can live with it in my own home, I can live with it in the media market...
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it... or just flunk.
Seriously though: non-news item. It's the Daily Mail.
See, this is why Slashdotters have a reputation for not getting any. See that statement you just made? Yeah, statements like that.
I would, but her boyfriend would kill me (the prude). I don't want to compound my (or her) culpability with web-borne proof...
Ah, CRBs! The things I could tell you about CRBs... I used to deal with them all the time in HR, and the CRB Bureau is atrocious. Dyslexia and chronic stupidity must have been a condition of employment in their data-entry positions.
That being said, the CRB disclosures are about safety - specifically child-safety - which I believe is fair enough in principle. They really only check criminal convictions and police records of repeated allegations etc in the districts of which you've been a resident, and I think this is a perfectly reasonable example of the Child Protection Act overriding the Data Protection Act. As you say, if you haven't been caught you won't be flagged - although allegations can be noted on your disclosure - but you have to ask what the alternative is. They're an imperfect measure for an imperfect world, and much better than the List 99 checks they used to do instead.
Anyway, the thing that really made me laugh about CRBs...? When I was a signatory, it wasn't seen as necessary to have me CRB checked...
Proactive anti-discrimination law only covers six key areas of discrimination (sex, race, age, disability etc), but these laws demand that firms take positive action to prevent the possibility of such discrimination, whether it be deliberate, incidental, cultural, systemic, institutionalised etc. As such the firm must be able to prove that they took every step to prevent discrimination if it ever comes up in court, or they are liable.
However, having such proactive laws in these specific areas is not enough, as discrimination can be exercised in a number of other areas and in subtle ways. Therefore the law makes clear what areas are acceptable for discrimination (in the literal sense) between applicants/candidates for a job. It pretty much boils down to merit: candidates must be selected on the grounds of their ability to do the job, whether that be qualifications, experience, testing or whatever. If an applicant feels that there may have been a discriminatory decision made on any other grounds, the firm has to be able to defend their decisions in court/tribunal/whatever by providing evidence that their decisions were reasonable.
There are legal exceptions to this, but they are quite specific and usually down to health & safety or security, or sometimes public reputation in certain high-level positions. In truth, the practices become more discriminatory the higher-up you go, where laws seem to be more flexible (the very epitome of "privilege"), but for 99% of the population there is no way such "checking" as fingerprinting, financial records, blood samples or anything else would ever be used, nor even contemplated, in case somebody decided to question the practices in court.
One final point on that note, though. A friend of mine applied to work for the Civil Service (powerful, unelected working body of Central Government). She got through all the main tests and interviews, and her final interview was quite invasive. One thing she was asked, which always stuck in my mind, was something along the lines of "Do you feel that you participate in any activities which might leave you open to blackmail to any degree?". I think sexual practices and drug-taking were mentioned as possibilities. I've never heard of anyone being asked that kind of question in an interview before. I can say from experience that she's a massive sexual deviant, and none of her friends or family know, but she felt that she was okay-enough with them finding out to answer "No".
She got the job, anyway.
Disclaimer: I work for local government, where they tend to be more careful about obeying the law and not getting sued...
I'll admit that this case was a minor irritation, but it just seemed to be the icing on the day's many-layered cake of errors in submissions. As a "copyeditor", surely the use of "their" instead of "there" (or vice versa) makes you cringe. I'm irked at the apparent downward trend recently seen in the quality and accuracy of language used in submitted stories.
Perhaps you should volunteer to vet stories for Slashdot...?
God Dammit! Missed an apostrophe. It may be a poor example, but that is irony.
On an off-topic note: still ironically available? So they're still available for ironic purposes? The comma is your friend, editors. I've even seen "there" instead of "their" in an earlier story, and the trend seems to be deepening.
If the editors are going to keep submissions in limbo for hours before they post them, they could at least do us the common courtesy of proof-reading them for mistakes of grammar, spelling, punctuation and such. If it's "stuff that matters", don't make it difficult to read by buggering with the conventions of written English. Thanks.
Case law is about precedent, and if Marie Lindor can have this case thrown out of court on grounds of technological fact, it will snap a big string in the bow of th **AA. They won't be able to use this particular ruse - one of their biggest - any longer in the courts, as anyone who takes a case defending someone against such a suit will simply be able to throw this case in.
Suddenly, fighting the **AA becomes a lot easier and cheaper, and it's Game Over as far as strong-arm, expensive litigation goes - the "Industry's" biggest weapon.
I think your comments regarding the jury are valid, but your conclusions are not.
This is an interesting development in LOC tech - I'm glad to hear about it - but the post makes it sound like a potential bloody paradigm-shift or something.
Maybe it was the employees who tipped the vote, thereby exercising their latent evilness in the only free arena they have - stock options!
Look, it's just a random throwing-it-out-there speculation. That's what comments are for in Slashdot, surely - not actual stories!
[rant]
Many people have commented on how they're nervous about making their protest in case they get put on the Naughty List. Why hasn't anybody mentioned what an utterly, terrifyingly portentous fear that is to have??
People are talking about fear of losing their freedom. When a significant part of the ordinarily anti-authoritarian /. crowd is already afraid of the governmental repercussions they may incur for even voicing disagreement (when invited to do so, no less) with such proposals... well, I have to say, the battle seems already lost. The way people are talking, I'm surprised the story wasn't tagged itsatrap...
In my (admittedly vague) opinion, the most significant step towards becoming a fascist police-state is when anybody may be held on suspicion (of whatever) without a substantial prima facie case, ie suspected-until-proven-innocent. Anti-terrorism laws have that pinned down for anyone who doesn't look American enough (trolling, sorry), but ID schemes like this are a big step in the same direction for everyone else.
I fear for you, America, I really do. And for us in the UK, for that matter.
First, you compile Wine to run in Vista...
AACS: Game over, kid. You can't beat me.
Blogger: Yeah... well maybe I can't. But we can.
AACS: Give it up kid! Just give. it. up.
Ah, those crazy hacker kids.
Ah, so Global Warming is evidence that the mice are looking to boost their clockspeed...