Ah, yes, the old "Security through obscurity" argument.
The problem with your reasoning is that, as compuing power increases, and as computers get better at stereotypically human tasks, such as facial recognintion, you'll need fewer and fewer people to monitor more and more of the public. Already, we have the technology for computer identification through facial features alone, so once you're spotted by an automated camera, you can be tracked by any other camera within the system.
How long will it be before a government official can run a simple SQL query to get an "over the shoulder" view of your activities of the past day, week, month, or year.
And for those of you who say that's ok, because "I have nothing to hide", what about your friends? And what about their friends? With increased monitoring technology, the government can keep track of inter-personal relations like never before, opening the door for guilt-by-association on a grand scale.
No its not. In a free market, you have a large number of consumers (buyers) and a large number of producers. In the current market, you have a large number of producers, and 2 buyers: Walmart and EB/Gamestop. How anyone can call this a free market is beyond me. It doesn't matter that there are a large number of end users (e.g. gamers). These 2 companies control the distribution network, and as far as a game publisher is concerned, WalMart and EB are the buyers, not gamers.
Re:No lawsuits for the big guys?
on
Apple vs Bloggers
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Freedom of speech isn't the same thing as freedom from consequences - reasonable or otherwise.
Yes it is. If you say or write something offensive to me, I do not have a right to take you to court, and neither does the government.
The issue here is that some types of speech are excepted from the ususal free speech rules. Trade secrets, libel/slander, and hate speech (in some cases) are examples. This guy's speech happened to fall into one of the above categories, and therefore he is open to legal action.
Any solution general enough to be blind to the context of implementation would either be so slim that you'd have to add context-specific information to it in order to get anything done, or so fat that it'd try to be everything to everybody and would end up being nothing to nobody.
/*Thats why I like Arch Linux. You start with essentially nothing, and are in complete control of everything as you build up to what you want.*/
Your response highlights the problem. The only distros that allow meaningful choice are the ones geared towards advanced users (Arch, Gentoo, Debain, etc.). The distros for regular users go ahead and install much more than is necessary (in the name of choice).
How about a distro that installs a set of sensible defaults. Example: either Gnome or KDE (but not both) for the desktop, OpenOffice (or AbiWord) for productivity, VLC for video and, of course, the standard gcc packages for development and compilation of 3rd party software. Note that I left out almost all dev-tools and libraries, and lots of other command line utilities. There's no reason that we should be installing this stuff unless its a dependency for something we *do* want. GCC, in this case, is the exception that proves the rule. Then, if I want something else, I can pull it off the CDs (or the internet where available).
Since the GP claims to use "Tamil" he probably has basic (highly unlikely) knowledge of Hindi and no knowledge of Bengali.
Since the grandparent's post was in well formed English, I find your comment perplexing. Mayhaps he was researching Indian language support for non-English users?
Rockets explode on launch. OS'es are cracked and crash upon release. But CPUs and other logic chips rarely make headlines with such spectacular failures once tested and distributed in products.
One reason could be that microprocessors do so little compared with operating systems. While operating systems have hundreds, or even thousands of libraries, all of which must be debugged and cross-tested, a microprocessor has, at worst, a few hundred instructions whose results are all rather clearly spelled out in the design. Also, in the case that some instructions are found to generate inaccurate results, one can design compilers that work around the issue by not using the affected portions of the chip.
Take a page out of NASA's early history and just keep putting them up until you get it right.
That works when you've got essentially unlimited funding, like NASA got in the '60s. However, SpaceX, being a privately funded company has to get it right a lot faster than NASA before its contract pool dries up.
The book basically says that you should have proper estimating techniques so that you have then necessary number of programmers initially. Adding more programmers to a project already in progress makes it later, because of the time wasted getting the new workers up to speed.
/*OR you can write down exactly what his being said on a computer, without listening actively to it so you understand it - and then go on without having learned anything and without having gained any knowledge - safely knowing that all that really happened in the classrom was data litterally being copied from the teacher to your laptop - without being copied to your brain.*/
As opposed to the data being copied from the teacher to your paper without being copied to your brain?
Notetaking on pen and paper doesn't necessarily guarantee active thinking either.
/*There have been companies that have based their business model on the above (Quarterdeck is a good example) and while I understand they can't expect to stay in business forever, it isn't "fair" that they should be driven out of business by a recalcitrant monopoly that uses its market position to eclipse their efforts.*/
How is this an "unfair use of monopoly power"? If I make aftermarket seatbelts for cars, and the manufacturer upgrades its cars to have seatbelts standard, who am I to complain?
Purchasing copyrighted material is nothing more than a "lifetime rental fee".
You also get the right to give your license away to someone else. If I get a book, I can resell it after reading it. If I get a Windows CD, I cannot resell it, because there is no way of "disabling" my Windows license.
Social security numbers being used for ID. I thought it was, when social security was enacted, against the law for social security numbers to be used for anything else besides social security.
As far as I know, that law is still on the books, but enforcement is so low that everyone goes ahead and uses your Social Security number for identification anyway. The most egregious example is a bank website that uses it for your username. So, whenever you log on to view your account online, you're exposing your social security number for all to see.
Its a great concept, but you're defeated by the fact that IP doesn't keep track of location very well. If you're a local advertiser, you don't want to spend money showing your wares to someone a hundred miles away. Until there's a scheme that will link your physical and network locations you'll have trouble convincing advertisers. And even then, how do you keep track of mobile devices? If I live in Chicago and I access online content on my laptop in LA, do I get local ads from Chicago, or LA?
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, yes, the old "Security through obscurity" argument.
The problem with your reasoning is that, as compuing power increases, and as computers get better at stereotypically human tasks, such as facial recognintion, you'll need fewer and fewer people to monitor more and more of the public. Already, we have the technology for computer identification through facial features alone, so once you're spotted by an automated camera, you can be tracked by any other camera within the system.
How long will it be before a government official can run a simple SQL query to get an "over the shoulder" view of your activities of the past day, week, month, or year.
And for those of you who say that's ok, because "I have nothing to hide", what about your friends? And what about their friends? With increased monitoring technology, the government can keep track of inter-personal relations like never before, opening the door for guilt-by-association on a grand scale.
That's called the free market.
No its not. In a free market, you have a large number of consumers (buyers) and a large number of producers. In the current market, you have a large number of producers, and 2 buyers: Walmart and EB/Gamestop. How anyone can call this a free market is beyond me. It doesn't matter that there are a large number of end users (e.g. gamers). These 2 companies control the distribution network, and as far as a game publisher is concerned, WalMart and EB are the buyers, not gamers.
Freedom of speech isn't the same thing as freedom from consequences - reasonable or otherwise.
Yes it is. If you say or write something offensive to me, I do not have a right to take you to court, and neither does the government.
The issue here is that some types of speech are excepted from the ususal free speech rules. Trade secrets, libel/slander, and hate speech (in some cases) are examples. This guy's speech happened to fall into one of the above categories, and therefore he is open to legal action.
Any solution general enough to be blind to the context of implementation would either be so slim that you'd have to add context-specific information to it in order to get anything done, or so fat that it'd try to be everything to everybody and would end up being nothing to nobody.
/*Thats why I like Arch Linux. You start with essentially nothing, and are in complete control of everything as you build up to what you want.*/
Your response highlights the problem. The only distros that allow meaningful choice are the ones geared towards advanced users (Arch, Gentoo, Debain, etc.). The distros for regular users go ahead and install much more than is necessary (in the name of choice).
How about a distro that installs a set of sensible defaults. Example: either Gnome or KDE (but not both) for the desktop, OpenOffice (or AbiWord) for productivity, VLC for video and, of course, the standard gcc packages for development and compilation of 3rd party software. Note that I left out almost all dev-tools and libraries, and lots of other command line utilities. There's no reason that we should be installing this stuff unless its a dependency for something we *do* want. GCC, in this case, is the exception that proves the rule. Then, if I want something else, I can pull it off the CDs (or the internet where available).
Have you tried CrossOver Office?
Since the GP claims to use "Tamil" he probably has basic (highly unlikely) knowledge of Hindi and no knowledge of Bengali.
Since the grandparent's post was in well formed English, I find your comment perplexing. Mayhaps he was researching Indian language support for non-English users?
Other than Japan, where has MiniDisc succeeded, as compared with flash/hard-drive mp3 players?
How about I make a first generation analog copy and just use digital copying from then on?
Really, who cares if there are multiple versions installed?
If there is a security vulnerability, do you want to track down all the appropriate files and patch them?
Rockets explode on launch. OS'es are cracked and crash upon release. But CPUs and other logic chips rarely make headlines with such spectacular failures once tested and distributed in products.
One reason could be that microprocessors do so little compared with operating systems. While operating systems have hundreds, or even thousands of libraries, all of which must be debugged and cross-tested, a microprocessor has, at worst, a few hundred instructions whose results are all rather clearly spelled out in the design. Also, in the case that some instructions are found to generate inaccurate results, one can design compilers that work around the issue by not using the affected portions of the chip.
Even still, not all flaws are caught. Look at the Pentium division flaw.
Take a page out of NASA's early history and just keep putting them up until you get it right.
That works when you've got essentially unlimited funding, like NASA got in the '60s. However, SpaceX, being a privately funded company has to get it right a lot faster than NASA before its contract pool dries up.
They decided to throw all of that work away and re-started Vista from scratch based on XP SP2.
I thought that they were basing Vista on Windows Server 2003...
The book basically says that you should have proper estimating techniques so that you have then necessary number of programmers initially. Adding more programmers to a project already in progress makes it later, because of the time wasted getting the new workers up to speed.
Many superconductors need to be cooled with liquid helium.
/*OR you can write down exactly what his being said on a computer, without listening actively to it so you understand it - and then go on without having learned anything and without having gained any knowledge - safely knowing that all that really happened in the classrom was data litterally being copied from the teacher to your laptop - without being copied to your brain.*/
As opposed to the data being copied from the teacher to your paper without being copied to your brain?
Notetaking on pen and paper doesn't necessarily guarantee active thinking either.
/*There have been companies that have based their business model on the above (Quarterdeck is a good example) and while I understand they can't expect to stay in business forever, it isn't "fair" that they should be driven out of business by a recalcitrant monopoly that uses its market position to eclipse their efforts.*/
How is this an "unfair use of monopoly power"? If I make aftermarket seatbelts for cars, and the manufacturer upgrades its cars to have seatbelts standard, who am I to complain?
Not only does Opera 9 look great, but it passes the Acid2 test as well, something that Firefox has not yet achieved.
I have a very hard time believing XP users will do the same and throw out their OEM systems when Vista arrives.
Given Vista's obscene hardware requirements, I have a hard time believing otherwise.
Purchasing copyrighted material is nothing more than a "lifetime rental fee".
You also get the right to give your license away to someone else. If I get a book, I can resell it after reading it. If I get a Windows CD, I cannot resell it, because there is no way of "disabling" my Windows license.
Hear that? That was the sound of the grandparent's point sailing above your head.
He's mentioned 1983 deliberately, because, while things aren't as bad as 1984 yet they're on their way to becoming that way.
Social security numbers being used for ID. I thought it was, when social security was enacted, against the law for social security numbers to be used for anything else besides social security.
As far as I know, that law is still on the books, but enforcement is so low that everyone goes ahead and uses your Social Security number for identification anyway. The most egregious example is a bank website that uses it for your username. So, whenever you log on to view your account online, you're exposing your social security number for all to see.
Is this another Coelacanth?
Its a great concept, but you're defeated by the fact that IP doesn't keep track of location very well. If you're a local advertiser, you don't want to spend money showing your wares to someone a hundred miles away. Until there's a scheme that will link your physical and network locations you'll have trouble convincing advertisers. And even then, how do you keep track of mobile devices? If I live in Chicago and I access online content on my laptop in LA, do I get local ads from Chicago, or LA?
He was just being sarcastic dude...