I'm fairly certain Slashdot uses highly-trained chimps as editors. They're much cheaper, and easier to clean up after! Unfortunately, they don't catch a lot of spelling errors.
Very suspicious that his death coincides with his birthday and the release of Darkstar... does anyone else suspect that this might be a huge publicity stunt? Certainly sales of his albums are going to go through the roof, just as they did when Michael Jackson died. On the other hand, Darkstar is actually dark enough that it is believable that the person creating it did so knowing he was going to die of cancer. No question Bowie was a great songwriter, performer, and actor.
Fingerprint? Do you know how many failures I go through every time I try to use the fingerprint reader to unlock my phone? You know the fingerprint readers in phones don't work if your finger is wet or dirty? I'd love to see a way to make operation of a firearm restricted to a single person, but I don't think it can be done 100% reliably with current tech. DNA locking would likely be even slower than fingerprint reading. The most reliable method would probably be to require a bracelet to be worn to unlock the gun, and that's probably not 100% reliable and quick either.
Bar bar for modifying the constitution is prohibitively high, by design. The Equal Rights Amendment, which just wanted the constitution to say that women have the exact same rights as men (sounds pretty straight forward, doesn't it?)... failed. No issues as divisive as gun control could possibly pass muster for a constitutional amendment. The only good thing to come from Obama's Executive Action on this is that congress might get off their collective butts and set clear and unambiguous rules as to exactly what can and cannot be done via Executive Action. I'd like to see the power of both Conservative and Liberal presidents limited. The intent of the office of President was to have Emergency Powers (which must later be ratified by the legislature), not to set bureaucratic guidelines.
If they are actually reliable, I'd see any technology that would remove the cop's standard excuse of "I thought he was trying to grab my gun and shoot me with it, so I shot him!" as a big win. Probably something that should be mandated for law enforcement, but again, only if it really works.
What Linux distro do I run on this, to save me from paying $100 for Windows 10? How difficult is it to install an OS on this box? (USB stick install, I assume).
Sure, Perl writes terse programs... but to me, valid Perl code is indistinguishable from line noise! Unfortunately, I haven't done any Java code in over 10 years (I once taught a Java class). Apparently I should be brushing up on it.
By the way, I believe Java is not a mandatory requirement for Android apps, it just helps in making them portable.
Sperm linger in the canal past the point of the valve. It would probably require a couple weeks to allow the sperm to clear after turning the valve off to ensure this was 100% effective. Of course, the sperm count would be greatly reduced just by turning the valve off, but not to zero.
The executive order is an attempt to fix the instant background check system, which is something that should have been done a long time ago. Case in point: I pawned my pistol. To get it back out of pawn, they had to run a background check on me... which took over a month to complete! (We won't go into the stupidity of requiring a background check before returning my own property to me). Lesson learned: don't pawn firearms!
I subscribe to the theory that when you break the laws of a country (i.e. by distributing child porn), you should forfeit the right to be protected by those same laws. I would like to think they got warrants for any intrusion into client computers. Yes, we need very clearly stated rules about what law enforcement is allowed to do, and those rules need to be updated increasingly frequently as technology changes.
Simple costs/benefits analysis indicates it is far more productive to audit rich people than poor people. That's just common sense, not discrimination against the rich.
Us technologically advanced rednecks use chainsaws to take out the power grid... much faster and more satisfying! If use an axe, your beer usually gets warm before you finish taking down the pole.
In windows, it it possible to disable all USB interfaces so no USB drives can be plugged in. That, and MAC address filtering on the local network switch should make it difficult to connect equipment to the airgapped local network, shouldn't it? I worked for a company that was so paranoid they actually disabled USB on all computers. I didn't tell them that anybody could easily plug in a laptop or unsecured router to the Ethernet and copy all their data anyway, precisely because I didn't want them implementing MAC address filtering and making my job a lot harder.
I'm still not clear on why anybody thinks it's ok to connect computers that control the power grid to the Internet. Can somebody help me out on this? Sure, smart meters would connected to the net, so you could hack the billing side of the utility. But the actual powerplant and switching station controls? If you're going to control remote switches over the 'net, wouldn't you use a secure tunnel?
Good idea, but Elon Musk has quite a vested interest: he wants to be the Intel of battery technology. Anything that drives up the demand for electric vehicle batteries puts money in his pocket. On the plus side, anything that drives down the price/performance ratio of electric vehicle batteries is a net win for the planet. I'm just not sure forcing the adoption of a technology before it would otherwise be economically feasible is actually a win. Given time, batteries will probably be the best energy storage mechanism. I don't understand why Toyota is pushing hydrogen to hard, as it currently stands, it has about half the efficiency as batteries.
I agree, I'm surprised nobody has tried the constant-speed diesel to charge electric car approach yet -- unless the "hybrid" buses are doing exactly that.
How much do the Mercedes BlueTec engines pollute? I don't think "clean diesel" is the oxymoron, I think "cheap clean diesel" is the oxymoron. Do the nitrous oxide scrubbers added to the exhaust work or not? I also think that when Volkswagen "fixes" the problem by reprogramming these vehicles to always run in low-emissions mode (which greatly reduced fuel economy), there will be a huge black market for replacement chips that go back to the original behavior -- get great fuel economy, but pollute!
If that's what it's designed to do, than it is not working as designed. Direct democracy would mean everybody voting their own pocketbook, as opposed to the current system of everyone voting for the person who tells the best lies about benefiting their own pocketbook... not really a substantial difference, and perhaps removing a layer of blatant dishonesty would improve the system.Even with direct democracy, you need people that can be trusted to frame the issues for the voters. Given how dishonest the politicians are now, it may be just as easy to mislead people. Direct democracy doesn't allow for compromise and quid-pro-quo dealmaking; not sure if that is an advantage or disadvantage.
I think the 2-party system is seriously flawed when the parties can lock out people like Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders. Why not move from representative democracy to direct democracy now that we have the technology in place? Would it be more or less susceptible to corruption than the current system? The electoral college is a curious anachronism, a remnant of times when it took days to collect votes and transport them all to one place, so at least some of the current system is seriously outdated. Is it possible to make it instant but still secure? One form of security would be to allow each voter to verify their vote online after the fact. Any other ideas?
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I'm fairly certain Slashdot uses highly-trained chimps as editors. They're much cheaper, and easier to clean up after! Unfortunately, they don't catch a lot of spelling errors.
Very suspicious that his death coincides with his birthday and the release of Darkstar... does anyone else suspect that this might be a huge publicity stunt? Certainly sales of his albums are going to go through the roof, just as they did when Michael Jackson died. On the other hand, Darkstar is actually dark enough that it is believable that the person creating it did so knowing he was going to die of cancer. No question Bowie was a great songwriter, performer, and actor.
Fingerprint? Do you know how many failures I go through every time I try to use the fingerprint reader to unlock my phone? You know the fingerprint readers in phones don't work if your finger is wet or dirty? I'd love to see a way to make operation of a firearm restricted to a single person, but I don't think it can be done 100% reliably with current tech. DNA locking would likely be even slower than fingerprint reading. The most reliable method would probably be to require a bracelet to be worn to unlock the gun, and that's probably not 100% reliable and quick either.
Bar bar for modifying the constitution is prohibitively high, by design. The Equal Rights Amendment, which just wanted the constitution to say that women have the exact same rights as men (sounds pretty straight forward, doesn't it?)... failed. No issues as divisive as gun control could possibly pass muster for a constitutional amendment. The only good thing to come from Obama's Executive Action on this is that congress might get off their collective butts and set clear and unambiguous rules as to exactly what can and cannot be done via Executive Action. I'd like to see the power of both Conservative and Liberal presidents limited. The intent of the office of President was to have Emergency Powers (which must later be ratified by the legislature), not to set bureaucratic guidelines.
If they are actually reliable, I'd see any technology that would remove the cop's standard excuse of "I thought he was trying to grab my gun and shoot me with it, so I shot him!" as a big win. Probably something that should be mandated for law enforcement, but again, only if it really works.
What Linux distro do I run on this, to save me from paying $100 for Windows 10? How difficult is it to install an OS on this box? (USB stick install, I assume).
I am absolutely flabbergasted that anyone would insinuate that the honorable Kim Jong Ill would actually LIE about something like this!
Sure, Perl writes terse programs... but to me, valid Perl code is indistinguishable from line noise! Unfortunately, I haven't done any Java code in over 10 years (I once taught a Java class). Apparently I should be brushing up on it. By the way, I believe Java is not a mandatory requirement for Android apps, it just helps in making them portable.
You'd prefer a Jewish carpenter? (I believe that's called the "rhythm method" of birth control.)
More scared of switching it ON by accident!
Where do you get "steal wool" from? ...nevermind!
Your wife AND your mistress will love you for it!
Sperm linger in the canal past the point of the valve. It would probably require a couple weeks to allow the sperm to clear after turning the valve off to ensure this was 100% effective. Of course, the sperm count would be greatly reduced just by turning the valve off, but not to zero.
The executive order is an attempt to fix the instant background check system, which is something that should have been done a long time ago. Case in point: I pawned my pistol. To get it back out of pawn, they had to run a background check on me... which took over a month to complete! (We won't go into the stupidity of requiring a background check before returning my own property to me). Lesson learned: don't pawn firearms!
I subscribe to the theory that when you break the laws of a country (i.e. by distributing child porn), you should forfeit the right to be protected by those same laws. I would like to think they got warrants for any intrusion into client computers. Yes, we need very clearly stated rules about what law enforcement is allowed to do, and those rules need to be updated increasingly frequently as technology changes.
Simple costs/benefits analysis indicates it is far more productive to audit rich people than poor people. That's just common sense, not discrimination against the rich.
I lived with a con artist too, but I usually referred to her as "my wife".
Us technologically advanced rednecks use chainsaws to take out the power grid... much faster and more satisfying! If use an axe, your beer usually gets warm before you finish taking down the pole.
In windows, it it possible to disable all USB interfaces so no USB drives can be plugged in. That, and MAC address filtering on the local network switch should make it difficult to connect equipment to the airgapped local network, shouldn't it? I worked for a company that was so paranoid they actually disabled USB on all computers. I didn't tell them that anybody could easily plug in a laptop or unsecured router to the Ethernet and copy all their data anyway, precisely because I didn't want them implementing MAC address filtering and making my job a lot harder.
I'm still not clear on why anybody thinks it's ok to connect computers that control the power grid to the Internet. Can somebody help me out on this? Sure, smart meters would connected to the net, so you could hack the billing side of the utility. But the actual powerplant and switching station controls? If you're going to control remote switches over the 'net, wouldn't you use a secure tunnel?
Good idea, but Elon Musk has quite a vested interest: he wants to be the Intel of battery technology. Anything that drives up the demand for electric vehicle batteries puts money in his pocket. On the plus side, anything that drives down the price/performance ratio of electric vehicle batteries is a net win for the planet. I'm just not sure forcing the adoption of a technology before it would otherwise be economically feasible is actually a win. Given time, batteries will probably be the best energy storage mechanism. I don't understand why Toyota is pushing hydrogen to hard, as it currently stands, it has about half the efficiency as batteries.
I agree, I'm surprised nobody has tried the constant-speed diesel to charge electric car approach yet -- unless the "hybrid" buses are doing exactly that.
How much do the Mercedes BlueTec engines pollute? I don't think "clean diesel" is the oxymoron, I think "cheap clean diesel" is the oxymoron. Do the nitrous oxide scrubbers added to the exhaust work or not? I also think that when Volkswagen "fixes" the problem by reprogramming these vehicles to always run in low-emissions mode (which greatly reduced fuel economy), there will be a huge black market for replacement chips that go back to the original behavior -- get great fuel economy, but pollute!
If that's what it's designed to do, than it is not working as designed. Direct democracy would mean everybody voting their own pocketbook, as opposed to the current system of everyone voting for the person who tells the best lies about benefiting their own pocketbook... not really a substantial difference, and perhaps removing a layer of blatant dishonesty would improve the system.Even with direct democracy, you need people that can be trusted to frame the issues for the voters. Given how dishonest the politicians are now, it may be just as easy to mislead people. Direct democracy doesn't allow for compromise and quid-pro-quo dealmaking; not sure if that is an advantage or disadvantage.
I think the 2-party system is seriously flawed when the parties can lock out people like Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders. Why not move from representative democracy to direct democracy now that we have the technology in place? Would it be more or less susceptible to corruption than the current system? The electoral college is a curious anachronism, a remnant of times when it took days to collect votes and transport them all to one place, so at least some of the current system is seriously outdated. Is it possible to make it instant but still secure? One form of security would be to allow each voter to verify their vote online after the fact. Any other ideas?