but not giving criminals the right to vote is very very wrong. It goes against the fundamental idea of democracy
Consent of the governed:
Government is a deal between the people and the leaders.
People: we will act according to your laws.
Leaders: we will make just laws for the good of all.
If a person breaks his part of the deal, he loses his ability to participate in government.
If a leader breaks his part of the deal, he loses his ability to participate in government as well.
Both could face jail time, and the politician will likely be voted out of office.
This means the government can remove the right to vote from whomever they like... so basically anyone who gains power... automatically becomes a dictator
Exactly! This is why our unstable government has lasted 200+ years... wait....
and their opinions/laws can never be removed
For the next four years...
In the end, it comes down to the fact that a felon has decided not to be a productive member of society, so heare no longer treated like one. Simple Justice.
He raises a good point. I'm a college freshman at one of the most wired campuses in America (Carnegie Mellon). I get NO SPAM since I'm on the campus account, and my packrat mentality has forced me to save all of my emails. I've deleted a (very) few, but have saved 2,200 +/- 50 since September. I am in Navy ROTC, have a long distance girlfriend, and some of my profs really like email. Between these three I've got a lot of "work related" mail. If I spent 3 minutes reading/responding to each of the 2,200 emails, then I've spent nearly 4.5 DAYS on email in the last 5.5 months.
It's interesting to think of where the time goes...
There are several nations out there (Japan, Russia, China) who are actively RESEARCHING nuclear technology. Japan is working on a system to reprocess spent nuclear fuel into something usable again. China is working on the pebble bed reactor we read about a few days ago. And the US is doing.... what?
Nuclear energy can be a good deal cleaner and more efficient than what we use today. But I guess old phobias die hard... "Its nuclear, that means its bad..."
The internet isn't a basic human right, but the freedom to communicate is. The net is restricted because it allows an individual to read foreign (capitalistic) ideas, communicate with the outside world (you mean they don't kill you for speaking against the government over there?) and organize anonymously.
Capitalism isn't a great system, but we have never had to build a wall around our country to keep people IN. You don't disappear here if you speak against the government, etc.
If" evil tyranny" involves killing all those who oppose you, restricting access to any media that disagrees with you (internet, tv, radio, newspaper...) and telling the masses that its all for their own good, then, I'm sorry, but China has a tyranny issue
We actually pay farmers not to produce food. America is capable of producing more than enough food to feed the planet, but WWI / WWII messed up our agricultre. Part of the reason for the Depression was that food production was at war levels during peace. Immediately after WWII the government began paying farmers NOT TO FARM so that they wouldn't be faced with that masive overproduction.
We should be weaning the agricultural community off of this, but instead our tax $ pay so that we can have more expensive food... Because that makes sense...
J&J was in a shear panic over that incident. And they did what they did because they felt the company was dead if they did not. Bottom line. Nothing more nothing less.
Quite frankly, I don't really care why J&J recalled Tylenol (though Tamara Kaplan of Pennsylvania State University implies in the above article that the executives of J&J were genuinely remorseful) the fact of the matter is that they recalled it in under a week. Kaplan says:
"As the plan was constructed, Johnson & Johnson's top management put customer safety first, before they worried about their companies profit and other financial concerns...This was unusual for a large corporation facing a crisis...An article by Jerry Knight, published in The Washington Post on October 11, 1982, said, "Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a disaster."... Many executives attribute the success of the comeback to the quick actions of the corporation at the onset of the Tylenol crisis. They think that if Johnson & Johnson had not been so direct in protecting the public interest, Tylenol capsules would not have reemerged so easily."
Whether J&J's motives were altruistic or selfish, in this incident they acted with the public good in mind, and that is what matters. The blanket statement that "All companies" act in selfishly all the time is clearly false. As is one that proposes altruism on behalf of all companies.
If you look at the article a few days ago on Google's prize money for creative ideas, you'll realize that Google gives more to its employees in bonuses than its founders make. The two founders make a few Million a year (2M-4M), and the company gives out 12 Million to employees on successful products every quarter. This does not make Google a perfect company, but it certainly is not the soulless, horrible organization you describe all companies as.
While I certainly understand that not every company thinks exclusively of the public good, what I was intending to show is that if a company does act for public good, it does well.
When J&J moved to protect its customers, its customers responded by trusting it. MCI has shown that it does not have my interest at heart. I don't trust MCI. Bottom line.
Note: I'm stealing this for Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior's Strategy for Success. Don't sue me Dickie, I gave you credit.
To paraphrase an anecdote used as an example in Dickie's book :
Johnson and Johnson's Corporate credo lists J&J's responsibilities in this order 1) to the consumer 2) to the employees 3) to the community 4) to the shareholders (meaning to making money.)
When Tylenol (a J&J product) was tampered with in Chicago, resulting in the deaths of several people, the local police advised J&J that it was an isolated incident, and that a recall was not necessary.
J&J recalled anyway (a $350 million process) and consumers flocked back to Tylenol when it was reintroduced to the market with new tamper proof packaging. Since consumers had proof that J&J cared about them, J&J ended up making money.
The moral of the story is that caring about your consumers may be less profitable in the short run but that in the long run companies that put the consumer first do better. It's obvious to me that MCI does not put the consumer first. Point 4 on the J&J credo is point 1 in MCI's strategy. MCI just lost one customer.
Keep the disk in a case when not in use, and put a d-skin on it http://www.d-skin.com/home.html. The case will keep it from being snapped in half, and the d-skin will keep it from scratching.
My only question is how much will this cost? Even if the disk itself is cheap, the content would be incredible. How much would it be to buy 200 movies, even if they are on the same disk?
Many posters have addressed the idea of child pornography, but it's not just a matter of images hidden inside of images. By going through the 1s and 0s that make up an image a written message can be composed.
Method:
An image is built of bytes representing shades of colors. If you go through and change the least significant bit of each byte you can encode a message. Note: this is achieved without substantially changing the image.
Example:
10001000 becomes 10001001
Significance:
If two people were to set up a system, like "go to site XYZ on every 3rd Friday and download the pic of the day," it would be nearly impossible to track them. An agent in the field checks the image, noting the value of the last bit of each byte. Stringing these values together he creates a message. Two individuals can communicate from across the world without anyone else suspecting.
This can be used for anything:
1) Terrorists coordinating timed attacks
2) Americans selling national security secrets to foreign powers.
3) Communication between intelligence community agents (ours or theirs).
Land of the free yes, but all three of the above uses are illegal.
A spammer operates by creating an email address (meaninglessLetteres@provider.com) sending out thousands of emails with it, and then getting a new email. This prevents everyone from being able to block the sender.
What if you were required to give a physical street address to set up an email account? Say they asked for your street address when you register, and two days later you get your first password in the mail.
Then if someone reports that they are getting spam from meaninglessLetters@provider.com the email provider can have them shut down, and their physical street address can be blacklisted. No more passwords will be mailed to that address.
How often do you change addresses? This would be a slight inconvenience for most of us, but it could cripple spammers...
Funny, I thought Home School kids did well because their teachers actually care about them....
Seriously, a computer (in a classroom or any other environment) is neither inherently good nor inherently evil. Some of the most informative lectures I have ever had have been on PowerPoint. Some of the most useless classes I have even attended have been in a computer lab.
In the end, students need to be introduced to computers as soon as possible, and teachers need to engage their students, how they do it is unimportant. It's the teacher's job to find out how to do both.
From statistical plotting in Mathematics, to PowerPoint presentations in business, to every application in any Engineering field, computers are a fact of adult life. Children today will need to be computer literate, but they will also need to be able to interact with their peers, balance a checkbook, and communicate through written word and speech.
A teacher's job is to create an atmosphere where learning is possible. Computers need to be a part of the environment, but they should not be the entirety of it.
Have you read "The Cuckoo's Egg"?
http://mostlyfiction.com/adventure/stoll.htm/
Someone hacked the DoD using this method during the Cold War. It was a pretty good read, even if you're not a CS geek.
Slashdot Mirror
So is having an affair. Keep your pants zipped, and then don't worry about having your wife spy on you.
Consent of the governed: Government is a deal between the people and the leaders.
People: we will act according to your laws.
Leaders: we will make just laws for the good of all.
If a person breaks his part of the deal, he loses his ability to participate in government. If a leader breaks his part of the deal, he loses his ability to participate in government as well.
Both could face jail time, and the politician will likely be voted out of office.
This means the government can remove the right to vote from whomever they like... so basically anyone who gains power... automatically becomes a dictator
Exactly! This is why our unstable government has lasted 200+ years... wait....
and their opinions/laws can never be removed
For the next four years...
In the end, it comes down to the fact that a felon has decided not to be a productive member of society, so heare no longer treated like one. Simple Justice.
I've only been reading slashdot since the end of January... but I've probably "wasted" weeks already!
It's interesting to think of where the time goes...
Nuclear energy can be a good deal cleaner and more efficient than what we use today. But I guess old phobias die hard... "Its nuclear, that means its bad..."
Capitalism isn't a great system, but we have never had to build a wall around our country to keep people IN. You don't disappear here if you speak against the government, etc.
If" evil tyranny" involves killing all those who oppose you, restricting access to any media that disagrees with you (internet, tv, radio, newspaper...) and telling the masses that its all for their own good, then, I'm sorry, but China has a tyranny issue
We should be weaning the agricultural community off of this, but instead our tax $ pay so that we can have more expensive food... Because that makes sense...
We'll just flick the lights on and off and see if those crazy Germans run into stuff!
WWII ended 50 years ago... Unless they start hiding terrorist camps in the Black Forest, they probably have nothing to worry about.
Slashdot: News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
This is list is:
1) News for nerds. Hence the interest, and the 100+ postings.
2) Something that matters. Especially if you live in Poland...
J&J was in a shear panic over that incident. And they did what they did because they felt the company was dead if they did not. Bottom line. Nothing more nothing less.
Quite frankly, I don't really care why J&J recalled Tylenol (though Tamara Kaplan of Pennsylvania State University implies in the above article that the executives of J&J were genuinely remorseful) the fact of the matter is that they recalled it in under a week. Kaplan says:
"As the plan was constructed, Johnson & Johnson's top management put customer safety first, before they worried about their companies profit and other financial concerns...This was unusual for a large corporation facing a crisis...An article by Jerry Knight, published in The Washington Post on October 11, 1982, said, "Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a disaster."... Many executives attribute the success of the comeback to the quick actions of the corporation at the onset of the Tylenol crisis. They think that if Johnson & Johnson had not been so direct in protecting the public interest, Tylenol capsules would not have reemerged so easily."
Whether J&J's motives were altruistic or selfish, in this incident they acted with the public good in mind, and that is what matters. The blanket statement that "All companies" act in selfishly all the time is clearly false. As is one that proposes altruism on behalf of all companies.
If you look at the article a few days ago on Google's prize money for creative ideas, you'll realize that Google gives more to its employees in bonuses than its founders make. The two founders make a few Million a year (2M-4M), and the company gives out 12 Million to employees on successful products every quarter. This does not make Google a perfect company, but it certainly is not the soulless, horrible organization you describe all companies as.
While I certainly understand that not every company thinks exclusively of the public good, what I was intending to show is that if a company does act for public good, it does well.
When J&J moved to protect its customers, its customers responded by trusting it. MCI has shown that it does not have my interest at heart. I don't trust MCI. Bottom line.
To paraphrase an anecdote used as an example in Dickie's book :
Johnson and Johnson's Corporate credo lists J&J's responsibilities in this order 1) to the consumer 2) to the employees 3) to the community 4) to the shareholders (meaning to making money.)
When Tylenol (a J&J product) was tampered with in Chicago, resulting in the deaths of several people, the local police advised J&J that it was an isolated incident, and that a recall was not necessary.
J&J recalled anyway (a $350 million process) and consumers flocked back to Tylenol when it was reintroduced to the market with new tamper proof packaging. Since consumers had proof that J&J cared about them, J&J ended up making money.
The moral of the story is that caring about your consumers may be less profitable in the short run but that in the long run companies that put the consumer first do better. It's obvious to me that MCI does not put the consumer first. Point 4 on the J&J credo is point 1 in MCI's strategy. MCI just lost one customer.
My only question is how much will this cost? Even if the disk itself is cheap, the content would be incredible. How much would it be to buy 200 movies, even if they are on the same disk?
Does it cost $$ to get a mailbox with Mailboxes etc.? If the cost of Spamming goes up, and demand for spam remains the same, then spam goes down.
Method: An image is built of bytes representing shades of colors. If you go through and change the least significant bit of each byte you can encode a message. Note: this is achieved without substantially changing the image.
Example: 10001000 becomes 10001001
Significance: If two people were to set up a system, like "go to site XYZ on every 3rd Friday and download the pic of the day," it would be nearly impossible to track them. An agent in the field checks the image, noting the value of the last bit of each byte. Stringing these values together he creates a message. Two individuals can communicate from across the world without anyone else suspecting.
This can be used for anything: 1) Terrorists coordinating timed attacks 2) Americans selling national security secrets to foreign powers. 3) Communication between intelligence community agents (ours or theirs).
Land of the free yes, but all three of the above uses are illegal.
What if you were required to give a physical street address to set up an email account? Say they asked for your street address when you register, and two days later you get your first password in the mail.
Then if someone reports that they are getting spam from meaninglessLetters@provider.com the email provider can have them shut down, and their physical street address can be blacklisted. No more passwords will be mailed to that address.
How often do you change addresses? This would be a slight inconvenience for most of us, but it could cripple spammers...
Seriously, a computer (in a classroom or any other environment) is neither inherently good nor inherently evil. Some of the most informative lectures I have ever had have been on PowerPoint. Some of the most useless classes I have even attended have been in a computer lab.
In the end, students need to be introduced to computers as soon as possible, and teachers need to engage their students, how they do it is unimportant. It's the teacher's job to find out how to do both.
From statistical plotting in Mathematics, to PowerPoint presentations in business, to every application in any Engineering field, computers are a fact of adult life. Children today will need to be computer literate, but they will also need to be able to interact with their peers, balance a checkbook, and communicate through written word and speech.
A teacher's job is to create an atmosphere where learning is possible. Computers need to be a part of the environment, but they should not be the entirety of it.
Have you read "The Cuckoo's Egg"? http://mostlyfiction.com/adventure/stoll.htm/ Someone hacked the DoD using this method during the Cold War. It was a pretty good read, even if you're not a CS geek.