Yes, the airlines will have to cough it up. They've had to do that for mode C, mode S, etc. The taxpayer had never paid for aircraft upgrades, the passengers do.
There ARE lock on the door, and there WERE lock on the door in 911. The terrorists didn't break the doors down, they knocked and the pilots opened them. It wasn't a failure of the locks or the doors, but a failure of everyone involved to maintain vigilance.
If they can't read what's already out there what's the use of writing any more? Read a Dale Brown novel for chrissake! In one of his books terrorists use jetliners to attack targets in the US, including the capitol. Can't get closer than that!
I agree with you, but it may make sense for the police to investigate online violent crimes as it may lead them to a real violent offender. Someone who rapes online may rape for real (or want to), someone who steals from you in a virtual world is more likely to steal in the real one. I don't think that the law should extend to a virtual world, but it could be considered a gold mine of information on people who use it.
If people use second life to do the things they feel too inhibited to do in their first life, might that not lead to them gaining the confidence to try those things if they are successful? Someone who successfully commits rape on second life might then decide to try it for real. Should the virtual rape be investigated to head off a real one?
The problem is that in order to have good security your product has to make a user or system do less, or have more of a management overhead. People don't like that, they'd rather have less trouble. Successful products MAKE you think they are providing security while bothering you as little as possible.
Or water, which is the biggest limitation on biofuels. It takes 10 times as much volume of water to grow corn. The water table has dropped significantly in the US in the past 50 years, farmers are having to drill deeper and deeper to find water. What sense is there to build a dependency on something where if there's a drought we will be hungry AND have no fuel? Two years of that would be enough to destroy America, and that is not an exageration. Why not use truly renewable sources such as wind and solar?
While biofuels are going to be important in the future, they aren't the answer. There isn't enough arable land, and more importantly water, to grow enough biofuel to satisfy the US's transport needs, which means we'll have to go elsewhere and then we'll just be trading one energy dependency for another.
The Department of Energy did a study that showed there was enough wind in North Dakota alone to fill the entire US's ENERGY needs, not just transportation. Nanotech in battery technology is showing huge promise in being able to store transport energy and be able to charge in seconds instead of hours. So why aren't we building windfarms and electric cars instead of encouraging South America to slash and burn their entire rainforest to grow sugarcane?
I agree, gaffer tape is great stuff. I used to use it in theater tech as it's very non-reflective, it looks cool, and tears nice and clean (which is a big concern when you're hanging by one hand off a 75 foot ladder). However it is about 4 times the price and harder to find.
Don't go backpacking without a 1/4 roll of duct tape. You can make splints and bandages out of it, bodge just about anything, oh - and patch up your laptop after you drop it in a hostel fight.
From experience Hotel = Laptop, Hostel = pad of paper
Don't forget that travel is about experience, not about having your nose stuck in a computer. If you're going to do that, stay home - it's cheaper.
But where does it end? If you take the agrument far enough they should be taxing monopoly money. There needs to be a better definition of a virtual asset. Right now, is there a clear difference between a share in a company and a virtual sword? Both are represented now as data, so both are technically virtual. Do you tax both, or do you make them different somehow? I vote for the latter, personally I don't want to fill out a W-whatever form every time I sell dragon scale armor!
The value of anything, including "real" currencies is the sum total of a shared perception. Online currencies _have_ value because they are perceived to have value by the users, like any other currency used. Anything that has value can be taxed. Why don't the online companies take a different tack and instead of charging straight fees charge a percentage of the value of a character's online worth? If you own nothing you don't pay much, if you own a lot you pay more
there's a lot of more promising techniques out there which would be much cheaper and easier to do. In order to cool the planet all you need to do is increase the earth's reflectivity, which doesn't have to be done in space. The object is to prevent photons from releasing their energy as heat. There's a many ways to do this:
- convert the light into electricity, ie. solar panels. - increase clouds. Clouds reflect photons instead of absorbing them as heat. If you increase clouds you increase reflectivity - Most heat comes from photons hitting the ground. If you cover enough earth with reflective material you'll increase the reflectivity of the earth. Think lots of white paint and mylar film. It sounds dumb but it's a low-tech solution that can be easily mass-produced.
The technology sounds interesting but it's pie in the sky, we should focus on developing methods of cooling the planet that don't rely on undeveloped technology as primary, while developing future technology as a backup.
I find sad that the spectacularly successful Apollo program that America spent so much money on was treated with such disrespect. It went from operational to museum in such a short time that all the knowledge of it was completely buried. What a waste that so little of it was passed to the younger generation of nasa engineers that now they're resorting to raiding museums just to get back to 1969 level technology. It's short-sightedness on a grand scale
Monoculture?! Try bad coding and bad management. There's plenty of propietary software out there that is excellent and secure, it's just done properly.
Isn't it gratifying and re-assuring to know that we have public officials who are intelligent and qualified enough to read an error page, and then savvy enough to: a) look up the company's web site, and then b) effectively and efficiently manage the problem to the satisfaction of all parties involved. We should bestow him with praises.
Rest assured people of Oklahoma, your IT is in good hands!
A while back the head of the US patent office declare it closed because according to him all possible inventions had been thought of, there was no room for any more innovation. The office was re-opened shortly after that moron had been removed. We're millions of patents past that now. It's an attitude of small-minded people, I'm looking forward to the future.
Hi Tropicflite. I take from your username that you live and work someplace warmer than me! I know what you mean about the GSM phones doing the da da da sounds, I've heard the same on my headset before. My point is that I've never seen them affect a VOR or ILS, I know people who have experimented (on the ground of course) holding all manner of cellphones up to their GPS antennas, all sorts of things and nothing has ever been interfered with. I'm sure that some things are interfered with but not in a way that could endanger a flight...
There's nothing more irritating for a pilot than to be told that an airplane is going to fall out of the sky becuase somebody's using a cellphone. That's total BS! I fly aircraft with advanced avionics regularly and I've never seen a single example where a mobile telephone left on will interfere with anything.
A modern jetliner has redundant GPS receivers, fuel systems, hydraulic systems, etc. If a 767 can run out of fuel and the pilot land the aircraft safely using non-powered backup instruments and almost no hydraulic power, which has happened, then some bonehead leaving their cellphone on isn't going to pose much of a problem.
We pilots have been using satnav systems much longer than car users, and we know about the tendency to have a "head-down" attitude where you are paying too much attention to what's happening inside and not enough to what you're about to collide with. For pilots the mantra is: Aviate Navigate Communicate
meaning that your first priority is to maintain positive control of the aircraft and situational awareness, next to figure out where you're going, last to talk to air traffic control. For driving it's exactly the same, except it would be "driviate, navigate, communicate".
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, the airlines will have to cough it up. They've had to do that for mode C, mode S, etc. The taxpayer had never paid for aircraft upgrades, the passengers do.
There ARE lock on the door, and there WERE lock on the door in 911. The terrorists didn't break the doors down, they knocked and the pilots opened them. It wasn't a failure of the locks or the doors, but a failure of everyone involved to maintain vigilance.
If they can't read what's already out there what's the use of writing any more? Read a Dale Brown novel for chrissake! In one of his books terrorists use jetliners to attack targets in the US, including the capitol. Can't get closer than that!
All the water in his body is gone!
I agree with you, but it may make sense for the police to investigate online violent crimes as it may lead them to a real violent offender. Someone who rapes online may rape for real (or want to), someone who steals from you in a virtual world is more likely to steal in the real one. I don't think that the law should extend to a virtual world, but it could be considered a gold mine of information on people who use it.
If people use second life to do the things they feel too inhibited to do in their first life, might that not lead to them gaining the confidence to try those things if they are successful? Someone who successfully commits rape on second life might then decide to try it for real. Should the virtual rape be investigated to head off a real one?
The problem is that in order to have good security your product has to make a user or system do less, or have more of a management overhead. People don't like that, they'd rather have less trouble. Successful products MAKE you think they are providing security while bothering you as little as possible.
Or water, which is the biggest limitation on biofuels. It takes 10 times as much volume of water to grow corn. The water table has dropped significantly in the US in the past 50 years, farmers are having to drill deeper and deeper to find water. What sense is there to build a dependency on something where if there's a drought we will be hungry AND have no fuel? Two years of that would be enough to destroy America, and that is not an exageration. Why not use truly renewable sources such as wind and solar?
While biofuels are going to be important in the future, they aren't the answer. There isn't enough arable land, and more importantly water, to grow enough biofuel to satisfy the US's transport needs, which means we'll have to go elsewhere and then we'll just be trading one energy dependency for another.
The Department of Energy did a study that showed there was enough wind in North Dakota alone to fill the entire US's ENERGY needs, not just transportation. Nanotech in battery technology is showing huge promise in being able to store transport energy and be able to charge in seconds instead of hours. So why aren't we building windfarms and electric cars instead of encouraging South America to slash and burn their entire rainforest to grow sugarcane?
I agree, gaffer tape is great stuff. I used to use it in theater tech as it's very non-reflective, it looks cool, and tears nice and clean (which is a big concern when you're hanging by one hand off a 75 foot ladder). However it is about 4 times the price and harder to find.
Don't go backpacking without a 1/4 roll of duct tape. You can make splints and bandages out of it, bodge just about anything, oh - and patch up your laptop after you drop it in a hostel fight.
From experience Hotel = Laptop, Hostel = pad of paper
Don't forget that travel is about experience, not about having your nose stuck in a computer. If you're going to do that, stay home - it's cheaper.
But where does it end? If you take the agrument far enough they should be taxing monopoly money. There needs to be a better definition of a virtual asset. Right now, is there a clear difference between a share in a company and a virtual sword? Both are represented now as data, so both are technically virtual. Do you tax both, or do you make them different somehow? I vote for the latter, personally I don't want to fill out a W-whatever form every time I sell dragon scale armor!
The value of anything, including "real" currencies is the sum total of a shared perception. Online currencies _have_ value because they are perceived to have value by the users, like any other currency used. Anything that has value can be taxed. Why don't the online companies take a different tack and instead of charging straight fees charge a percentage of the value of a character's online worth? If you own nothing you don't pay much, if you own a lot you pay more
He's never gonna get laid anyway, so why should he worry about it?
there's a lot of more promising techniques out there which would be much cheaper and easier to do. In order to cool the planet all you need to do is increase the earth's reflectivity, which doesn't have to be done in space. The object is to prevent photons from releasing their energy as heat. There's a many ways to do this:
- convert the light into electricity, ie. solar panels.
- increase clouds. Clouds reflect photons instead of absorbing them as heat. If you increase clouds you increase reflectivity
- Most heat comes from photons hitting the ground. If you cover enough earth with reflective material you'll increase the reflectivity of the earth. Think lots of white paint and mylar film. It sounds dumb but it's a low-tech solution that can be easily mass-produced.
The technology sounds interesting but it's pie in the sky, we should focus on developing methods of cooling the planet that don't rely on undeveloped technology as primary, while developing future technology as a backup.
I find sad that the spectacularly successful Apollo program that America spent so much money on was treated with such disrespect. It went from operational to museum in such a short time that all the knowledge of it was completely buried. What a waste that so little of it was passed to the younger generation of nasa engineers that now they're resorting to raiding museums just to get back to 1969 level technology. It's short-sightedness on a grand scale
Gentlemen, the way to get laid is to learn guitar.
Monoculture?! Try bad coding and bad management. There's plenty of propietary software out there that is excellent and secure, it's just done properly.
DOH! It's been slashdotted!
Isn't it gratifying and re-assuring to know that we have public officials who are intelligent and qualified enough to read an error page, and then savvy enough to: a) look up the company's web site, and then b) effectively and efficiently manage the problem to the satisfaction of all parties involved. We should bestow him with praises.
Rest assured people of Oklahoma, your IT is in good hands!
A while back the head of the US patent office declare it closed because according to him all possible inventions had been thought of, there was no room for any more innovation. The office was re-opened shortly after that moron had been removed. We're millions of patents past that now. It's an attitude of small-minded people, I'm looking forward to the future.
Hi Tropicflite. I take from your username that you live and work someplace warmer than me! I know what you mean about the GSM phones doing the da da da sounds, I've heard the same on my headset before. My point is that I've never seen them affect a VOR or ILS, I know people who have experimented (on the ground of course) holding all manner of cellphones up to their GPS antennas, all sorts of things and nothing has ever been interfered with. I'm sure that some things are interfered with but not in a way that could endanger a flight...
There's nothing more irritating for a pilot than to be told that an airplane is going to fall out of the sky becuase somebody's using a cellphone. That's total BS! I fly aircraft with advanced avionics regularly and I've never seen a single example where a mobile telephone left on will interfere with anything.
A modern jetliner has redundant GPS receivers, fuel systems, hydraulic systems, etc. If a 767 can run out of fuel and the pilot land the aircraft safely using non-powered backup instruments and almost no hydraulic power, which has happened, then some bonehead leaving their cellphone on isn't going to pose much of a problem.
We pilots have been using satnav systems much longer than car users, and we know about the tendency to have a "head-down" attitude where you are paying too much attention to what's happening inside and not enough to what you're about to collide with. For pilots the mantra is:
Aviate
Navigate
Communicate
meaning that your first priority is to maintain positive control of the aircraft and situational awareness, next to figure out where you're going, last to talk to air traffic control. For driving it's exactly the same, except it would be "driviate, navigate, communicate".
Took about 50 lines of basic code. You could get an audio casette drive for it. ahh the memories!