At least in the United States, most areas have a sales tax that completely negates this. Very few stores add the sales tax into the price before you get to the register. So with a 5% tax, a $1.00 item costs $1.05. A $4.95 item would cost $5.20.
But as long as you have social security, there needs to be an account number.
No disagreement there. I just object to the existence of the system in the first place, and challenge anyone to find Constitutional grounds for such a system.
Perhaps I'm just paranoid. I'd much rather have an openly admitted to system of monitoring everyone than to have the covert systems of monitoring only those whom the government wishes to target.
No, I'm with you on that one. Ideally, no monitoring, but I think we all know it is happening, and will continue to happen. I just don't like giving another inch to the government on anything. They just take miles, and miles, and miles...
Well, since you're responding to a post of mine on slashdot, I'm sure they do:).
Well, there is one alternative that rarely gets mentioned, but is worth investigating:
Antarctica.
Advantages:
Remote
No population to speak of
Oil(?)
Sun
Disadvantages:
Would really piss off other countries
Cold. Really fucking cold.
Limited supply of caffeine
So, here is a very brief, expensive plan:
(This is a work of fiction. Tom Clancy comes up with better plans, and he doesn't plan on doing any of it, either)
A lot of money. Well into the billions.
Two very large cargo ships
One very large passenger ship
Refugees, various, in large quantities
Lots of people
Lots of equipment
Lots of food, cattle, seeds
Valuable intellectual property of some sort. New revolutionary product (world changing), medical breakthrough (cancer or AIDS cure), or even a very scary weapon (not as good for public support)
Some terrorists
1) Subterfuge and distraction on a global scale. The implementation is left as an exercise for the reader.
2) Storm Antarctica in early summer. Offload as many refugees as possible, play the global sympathy game. Saturate the press with information one day after beginning. Gain public support.
3) Announce formation of a new nation, accepting all political refugees, all the unwanted of society. Keep shipping them in. Announce that intellectual property will be released for free after UN recognition, will not be otherwise. Keep IP somewhere very safe, preferably not on site.
4) As large scale dome construction is not likely viable immediately, find caves or start digging. Get into the ground somehow. Mining equipment, explosives, whatever is necessary. Create a liveable environment.
5) Exploit available resources to construct more permanent habitat. Preference with current technology is a temperature controlled dome. Start with one for the crops, go from there. Simple, sustainable hydroponic farms, a la Heinlein and marijuana cultivators.
6) Dig in, and dig in hard. Build, expand as fast as possible. Bet on the fact that you won't be nuked, as that would be a waste of future exploitable land. Be friendly, but be very cautious for the first year.
7) Enjoy your new nation.
This is, as mentioned, the very brief version, but it does give a rough outline of what could be a workable plan to take the last piece of unused land on earth.
There is absolutely no evidence to support the idea that an advanced, yet mostly isolated culture on Earth, sometime in the past, progressed to the point where they decided to leave the planet.
Then again, there is nothing to prove that they didn't, either.
I'm not suggesting this, of course, but I do enjoy thinking about it from time to time. It would explain a number of things.
Oddly enough, when Altavista first came online, I used it frequently for trying to resolve DLL conflicts. Probably more than I used it for anything else.
Sad to think that I can now find just about anything on the internet, and it all started because I had to support Windows 3.x.
But it is nice to think that I was running Linux as my primary box in my office in 1995, using lynx to browse as I debugged my new Windows 95 installation on my other box.
Just food for thought for the younger admins out there: DLL hell was the largest part of my job at many sites. Believe it or not, it has gotten much better in recent years. Think of video drivers messing up fax software, network drivers killing the accounting package, and video conferencing software killing the spreadsheet program. As sick as it sounds, Win 9x is a dream to support by comparison.
4:30 in the morning, I must be getting delusional.:)
Information is power. The more information the government has about people, the more power they will have. Be it blackmail or some other form of control, they already know too much, and it will only get worse. I don't like it, but I do accept it.
But we don't need to let the government help out the process, either. First step - social security numbers. Most people give them away whenever they are asked. Even video store applications commonly as for social security numbers. People blindly use that number as a form of identification. If they want to be that stupid, let them. But why are we paying for it?
I can not think of one reason I need a social security number, or should be given one. Yes, I have one, because my parents applied for one, and I can't work without one. But why? The promise is that one day, I will get old, and the government will give me money to retire. First off, that will never happen. I will never see a dime of what I give them. Not unless the US goes completely into socialism. Second, I don't want to participate. I am happy to take care of my own retirement. If I get disabled and can't work, the goverment doesn't need to pay me. There is not one valid reason that I need to be identified by a number.
So we finance this government tracking system every day, and you say that we aren't heading towards totalitarianism? We help the government track us, and we help companies track us. As I said earlier, information is power, and we keep adding to that information. Computing power is now at the point where it is trivial to track just about everything. Cameras in public will just add to this whole mess.
Just for you liberals out there - no, I don't believe in any form of government support, be it welfare, food stamps, retirement. I do put my money where my mouth is - I lived at far below the poverty level when I was stricken with a serious illness. I'm thinking of selling a ramen noodle cookbook. You can do some amazing things with them.
This is an argument that goes back to around 1776 or so, but the fact is that the federal government does not have the right to be passing these laws. Due to the interstate commerce clause, and lax federal judges, they have been getting away with things for far too long. No matter what you think of federal vs. state, the US government violates our own Constitution on a daily basis.
Food for thought - gun control laws. If the federal government had as many restrictions on the first amendment as they do the second, we would have had a revolution by now. The fourth is disappearing, as is the fifth. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, whatever, all people in the US should be able to see that we don't even follow our own laws.
But you're right. People do care more about sports scores. I avoid local TV news, because the top story generally has something to do with the home sports team. Followed by a teaser about which food or drug will now kill you, or save you. Anyone else want to leave this planet?
However, there is now a record of who was where, and when. The more systems added, the more records.
Right now, with just a social security number (in the US), you can get a complete job and credit history, medical records, criminal background, home address, phone number, etc. Some of these things might be in a gray area of the law, but they are still quite easy to find. If an individual can find them, you can be sure the government can, too.
So add these systems everywhere, link those in with DMV databases with pictures, and now your face will instantly pull up all available information on you. You walk into a store, and they know what you are likely there to buy, what you can afford, your payment history on loans, and everything else about you. The technology is already there to do all of this, as most people that read/. are well aware. This just speeds up the road to totalitarianism.
I think you miss some of the points of libertarianism. Let me just rebutt your argument for now.
One of the basic precepts of the libertarian philosphy is adherance to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is all there, in plain English, for anyone to read. The tenth amendment is the trump card here, it basically tells the federal government to go screw itself; it isn't allowed to do much of anything.
So if the federal government can't do anything, this is left as in issue for the states. Pushing one bill through Congress is one thing, pushing the same bill through 50 states is something else entirely. For instance - if South Carolina decides that all computers must have some sort of digital rights system built in, OSS people, computer manufacturers, etc. will not work in South Carolina. They will lose the revenue of those industries. Due to free trade within the states, they can relocate to another state, and still sell their product. South Carolia loses those industries, another state picks them up. Competition is the key here.
Let the states fight it out, and we all win. It is easier for individuals and small interests to act at a state level, and the effects of crazy laws such as this one would be minimized. Many state constitutions are very restrictive, also, and that is yet another benefit. When it becomes more difficult for the government to enact arbitrary laws such as this, there will be less arbitrary laws.
Just a WAG here, but it could be that may virus writers just write them for fun and fame. Write a quick virus, put in your name or the name of something you are interested in, send it off to the virus labs from an anon account, and you are in a virus database ad infinitum. No real harm done.
Costco. The heavy duty shelving, not the cheap stuff Ikea carries. I use it for my servers, for my entertainment center, and I even have a fish tank and plants on one set. I've also built a few planters for my parents, with 4 48" natural spectrum flourescent tubes per shelf. About $70 for the shelves, four 48" racks with wheels. I think they are rated at 500 pounds per shelf. Never had a problem with them.
One thing, though. Don't follow the instructions on putting them together. Take one shelf, put it upside down on the floor. Assemble the tubes, put them into the upside down shelf. Put your first shelf near the bottom, put the next one wherever you like, pick up the whole thing and remove the upside down shelf. I can get a set together in under 10 minutes this way.
Only on Slashdot would this rate a 4, while the parent sits at 2.
It seems most people missed the point. The federal government simply does not have the right to fund anything. I don't care what your pet projects are, they simply do not have the authority.
Part of government's function is to deal with the fact that we're living in a society and have to have a better way of getting along than just the law of the jungle. Centralized government clearly isn't the answer, but neither is a loose geographic agglomeration of 300,000,000 independent countries.
No, that is what the states are there for. Please read the tenth amendment to the Constitution. Then read it again.
Flourescents don't have to be so bad. People (maintenance people especially) seem to forget that they become more annoying as time passes. Also, 34 watt tubes are becoming more common. If you have a few bucks to waste, pick up some 40 watt natural spectrum flourescents. They run about $7-$10 per tube, and they make a world of difference. I have four of them in my office, filtered through a fishtank to get around the flourescent/monitor flicker problem. They really brighten up the place.
Something has to push 3D graphics to be faster and better. It might as well be id. I, for one, am happy that I can pick up a GeForce II for $50 at the local computer store. My TNT2 runs Q3 fine, though.
How in the hell did this get moderated up? This thing is active, and will remain active, until EVERY IIS server has been patched. Whether or not the patch even works correctly remains to be seen.
We'll be seeing this thing for months.
From one of my servers:
Report generated on August 10, 2001 at 03:08
59 Code Red
525 Code Red II
584 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 09, 2001 at 03:08
76 Code Red
613 Code Red II
689 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 08, 2001 at 03:08
107 Code Red
578 Code Red II
685 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 07, 2001 at 03:08
124 Code Red
419 Code Red II
543 Total attacks.
Okay, people keep saying it isn't a problem, the news doesn't know what to say about it, but I can confirm, it is a problem. More of a pain in the ass. Cisco DSL modems are still vulnerable, because people don't realize it is code red locking them up. Infected IIS servers are all over the place, and I keep getting more scans every day.
On my web server (with multiple IPs), 689 probes yesterday. 613 of those were Code Red II. 685 the day before (578 were CRII). 543 the day before that (419 CRII). 433 the day before that (224 CRII).
So, simply put, Code Red II is worse than Code Red, and getting more so. Who cares what it does to the servers, right now, it is a major pain in the ass.
Ever tried explaining to a client that their network is down because of a worm that infects web servers? And no, I didn't install those Ciscos, I would have brought CBOS up to date if I had.
I'm all for user preference and all that, but that 'swizzle stick' has a big advantage. Very fine control. When used properly, you can even edit pictures using the Gimp with ease. Yes, it takes some getting used to. But think about it this way: a touch pad tries to map the screen to a small surface (the pad), using a large pointer (your finger).
Don't want to start a flame war. I admit the things can take some getting used to, and touchpads are more intuitive. But once you've mastered the nipple, you'll never go back.
Code Red hasn't really been blown out of proportion. Yes, the media gets it wrong, and people keep asking me if they have to worry about it, but it is out there, and it is a pain in the ass.
I've been monitoring my web server (Apache) since this thing started back up. It has 16 public IP addresses, and I've been checked 390 times in the past 20 hours. Add another 200 or so yesterday, and you'll realize that this thing is spreading.
Aside from IIS, it also can lock up some Cisco DSL modems, and HP printers. Unfortunately for me, a lot of my customers have Cisco DSL modems. Unfortunately for them, I'm not the one that installed them.
Slashdot Mirror
At least in the United States, most areas have a sales tax that completely negates this. Very few stores add the sales tax into the price before you get to the register. So with a 5% tax, a $1.00 item costs $1.05. A $4.95 item would cost $5.20.
But as long as you have social security, there needs to be an account number.
No disagreement there. I just object to the existence of the system in the first place, and challenge anyone to find Constitutional grounds for such a system.
Perhaps I'm just paranoid. I'd much rather have an openly admitted to system of monitoring everyone than to have the covert systems of monitoring only those whom the government wishes to target.
No, I'm with you on that one. Ideally, no monitoring, but I think we all know it is happening, and will continue to happen. I just don't like giving another inch to the government on anything. They just take miles, and miles, and miles...
Well, since you're responding to a post of mine on slashdot, I'm sure they do :).
Probably. Not suprised, but still bothered.
Well, there is one alternative that rarely gets mentioned, but is worth investigating:
Antarctica.
Advantages:
Remote
No population to speak of
Oil(?)
Sun
Disadvantages:
Would really piss off other countries
Cold. Really fucking cold.
Limited supply of caffeine
So, here is a very brief, expensive plan:
(This is a work of fiction. Tom Clancy comes up with better plans, and he doesn't plan on doing any of it, either)
A lot of money. Well into the billions.
Two very large cargo ships
One very large passenger ship
Refugees, various, in large quantities
Lots of people
Lots of equipment
Lots of food, cattle, seeds
Valuable intellectual property of some sort. New revolutionary product (world changing), medical breakthrough (cancer or AIDS cure), or even a very scary weapon (not as good for public support)
Some terrorists
1) Subterfuge and distraction on a global scale. The implementation is left as an exercise for the reader.
2) Storm Antarctica in early summer. Offload as many refugees as possible, play the global sympathy game. Saturate the press with information one day after beginning. Gain public support.
3) Announce formation of a new nation, accepting all political refugees, all the unwanted of society. Keep shipping them in. Announce that intellectual property will be released for free after UN recognition, will not be otherwise. Keep IP somewhere very safe, preferably not on site.
4) As large scale dome construction is not likely viable immediately, find caves or start digging. Get into the ground somehow. Mining equipment, explosives, whatever is necessary. Create a liveable environment.
5) Exploit available resources to construct more permanent habitat. Preference with current technology is a temperature controlled dome. Start with one for the crops, go from there. Simple, sustainable hydroponic farms, a la Heinlein and marijuana cultivators.
6) Dig in, and dig in hard. Build, expand as fast as possible. Bet on the fact that you won't be nuked, as that would be a waste of future exploitable land. Be friendly, but be very cautious for the first year.
7) Enjoy your new nation.
This is, as mentioned, the very brief version, but it does give a rough outline of what could be a workable plan to take the last piece of unused land on earth.
I think my upstream provider might already be filtering .mars. I don't get any spam from them right now.
I'm probably also missing the messages that tell us why they keep shooting down our probes. Anyone have them archived?
There is absolutely no evidence to support the idea that an advanced, yet mostly isolated culture on Earth, sometime in the past, progressed to the point where they decided to leave the planet.
Then again, there is nothing to prove that they didn't, either.
I'm not suggesting this, of course, but I do enjoy thinking about it from time to time. It would explain a number of things.
Oddly enough, when Altavista first came online, I used it frequently for trying to resolve DLL conflicts. Probably more than I used it for anything else.
:)
Sad to think that I can now find just about anything on the internet, and it all started because I had to support Windows 3.x.
But it is nice to think that I was running Linux as my primary box in my office in 1995, using lynx to browse as I debugged my new Windows 95 installation on my other box.
Just food for thought for the younger admins out there: DLL hell was the largest part of my job at many sites. Believe it or not, it has gotten much better in recent years. Think of video drivers messing up fax software, network drivers killing the accounting package, and video conferencing software killing the spreadsheet program. As sick as it sounds, Win 9x is a dream to support by comparison.
4:30 in the morning, I must be getting delusional.
Information is power. The more information the government has about people, the more power they will have. Be it blackmail or some other form of control, they already know too much, and it will only get worse. I don't like it, but I do accept it.
But we don't need to let the government help out the process, either. First step - social security numbers. Most people give them away whenever they are asked. Even video store applications commonly as for social security numbers. People blindly use that number as a form of identification. If they want to be that stupid, let them. But why are we paying for it?
I can not think of one reason I need a social security number, or should be given one. Yes, I have one, because my parents applied for one, and I can't work without one. But why? The promise is that one day, I will get old, and the government will give me money to retire. First off, that will never happen. I will never see a dime of what I give them. Not unless the US goes completely into socialism. Second, I don't want to participate. I am happy to take care of my own retirement. If I get disabled and can't work, the goverment doesn't need to pay me. There is not one valid reason that I need to be identified by a number.
So we finance this government tracking system every day, and you say that we aren't heading towards totalitarianism? We help the government track us, and we help companies track us. As I said earlier, information is power, and we keep adding to that information. Computing power is now at the point where it is trivial to track just about everything. Cameras in public will just add to this whole mess.
Just for you liberals out there - no, I don't believe in any form of government support, be it welfare, food stamps, retirement. I do put my money where my mouth is - I lived at far below the poverty level when I was stricken with a serious illness. I'm thinking of selling a ramen noodle cookbook. You can do some amazing things with them.
This is an argument that goes back to around 1776 or so, but the fact is that the federal government does not have the right to be passing these laws. Due to the interstate commerce clause, and lax federal judges, they have been getting away with things for far too long. No matter what you think of federal vs. state, the US government violates our own Constitution on a daily basis.
Food for thought - gun control laws. If the federal government had as many restrictions on the first amendment as they do the second, we would have had a revolution by now. The fourth is disappearing, as is the fifth. Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, whatever, all people in the US should be able to see that we don't even follow our own laws.
But you're right. People do care more about sports scores. I avoid local TV news, because the top story generally has something to do with the home sports team. Followed by a teaser about which food or drug will now kill you, or save you. Anyone else want to leave this planet?
UCITA in the states
Point taken.
/. are well aware. This just speeds up the road to totalitarianism.
However, there is now a record of who was where, and when. The more systems added, the more records.
Right now, with just a social security number (in the US), you can get a complete job and credit history, medical records, criminal background, home address, phone number, etc. Some of these things might be in a gray area of the law, but they are still quite easy to find. If an individual can find them, you can be sure the government can, too.
So add these systems everywhere, link those in with DMV databases with pictures, and now your face will instantly pull up all available information on you. You walk into a store, and they know what you are likely there to buy, what you can afford, your payment history on loans, and everything else about you. The technology is already there to do all of this, as most people that read
I think you miss some of the points of libertarianism. Let me just rebutt your argument for now.
One of the basic precepts of the libertarian philosphy is adherance to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is all there, in plain English, for anyone to read. The tenth amendment is the trump card here, it basically tells the federal government to go screw itself; it isn't allowed to do much of anything.
So if the federal government can't do anything, this is left as in issue for the states. Pushing one bill through Congress is one thing, pushing the same bill through 50 states is something else entirely. For instance - if South Carolina decides that all computers must have some sort of digital rights system built in, OSS people, computer manufacturers, etc. will not work in South Carolina. They will lose the revenue of those industries. Due to free trade within the states, they can relocate to another state, and still sell their product. South Carolia loses those industries, another state picks them up. Competition is the key here.
Let the states fight it out, and we all win. It is easier for individuals and small interests to act at a state level, and the effects of crazy laws such as this one would be minimized. Many state constitutions are very restrictive, also, and that is yet another benefit. When it becomes more difficult for the government to enact arbitrary laws such as this, there will be less arbitrary laws.
Just a WAG here, but it could be that may virus writers just write them for fun and fame. Write a quick virus, put in your name or the name of something you are interested in, send it off to the virus labs from an anon account, and you are in a virus database ad infinitum. No real harm done.
Costco. The heavy duty shelving, not the cheap stuff Ikea carries. I use it for my servers, for my entertainment center, and I even have a fish tank and plants on one set. I've also built a few planters for my parents, with 4 48" natural spectrum flourescent tubes per shelf. About $70 for the shelves, four 48" racks with wheels. I think they are rated at 500 pounds per shelf. Never had a problem with them.
One thing, though. Don't follow the instructions on putting them together. Take one shelf, put it upside down on the floor. Assemble the tubes, put them into the upside down shelf. Put your first shelf near the bottom, put the next one wherever you like, pick up the whole thing and remove the upside down shelf. I can get a set together in under 10 minutes this way.
It seems most people missed the point. The federal government simply does not have the right to fund anything. I don't care what your pet projects are, they simply do not have the authority.
Part of government's function is to deal with the fact that we're living in a society and have to have a better way of getting along than just the law of the jungle. Centralized government clearly isn't the answer, but neither is a loose geographic agglomeration of 300,000,000 independent countries.
No, that is what the states are there for. Please read the tenth amendment to the Constitution. Then read it again.
Most likely because of fiber in the lines. Ashburn area? You are SOL in most places around there. Thank Verizon for that one.
While Mozilla has been under development:
Business plans have been written, VC found, businesses opened, millions made and millions lost.
We have sent probes to Mars, only to be shot down by the Martians.
Hundreds of species have gone extinct. Most of which were yet to be discovered.
People have met, married, and divorced.
I went from a shell account to SDSL. Of course, I still use the shell account.
There was peace in the Middle East. Sort of. I think.
The Olympics. More than once.
A president got blown by an intern, and we've stopped talking about it on a daily basis.
Another intern has disappeared, and we might have stopped talking of her by the time we reach 1.0.
So is it just me, or does this project seem like it is taking an insane amount of time to complete??
Flourescents don't have to be so bad. People (maintenance people especially) seem to forget that they become more annoying as time passes. Also, 34 watt tubes are becoming more common. If you have a few bucks to waste, pick up some 40 watt natural spectrum flourescents. They run about $7-$10 per tube, and they make a world of difference. I have four of them in my office, filtered through a fishtank to get around the flourescent/monitor flicker problem. They really brighten up the place.
Something has to push 3D graphics to be faster and better. It might as well be id. I, for one, am happy that I can pick up a GeForce II for $50 at the local computer store. My TNT2 runs Q3 fine, though.
How in the hell did this get moderated up? This thing is active, and will remain active, until EVERY IIS server has been patched. Whether or not the patch even works correctly remains to be seen.
We'll be seeing this thing for months.
From one of my servers:
Report generated on August 10, 2001 at 03:08
59 Code Red
525 Code Red II
584 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 09, 2001 at 03:08
76 Code Red
613 Code Red II
689 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 08, 2001 at 03:08
107 Code Red
578 Code Red II
685 Total attacks.
Report generated on August 07, 2001 at 03:08
124 Code Red
419 Code Red II
543 Total attacks.
Okay, people keep saying it isn't a problem, the news doesn't know what to say about it, but I can confirm, it is a problem. More of a pain in the ass. Cisco DSL modems are still vulnerable, because people don't realize it is code red locking them up. Infected IIS servers are all over the place, and I keep getting more scans every day.
On my web server (with multiple IPs), 689 probes yesterday. 613 of those were Code Red II. 685 the day before (578 were CRII). 543 the day before that (419 CRII). 433 the day before that (224 CRII).
So, simply put, Code Red II is worse than Code Red, and getting more so. Who cares what it does to the servers, right now, it is a major pain in the ass.
Ever tried explaining to a client that their network is down because of a worm that infects web servers? And no, I didn't install those Ciscos, I would have brought CBOS up to date if I had.
I'm all for user preference and all that, but that 'swizzle stick' has a big advantage. Very fine control. When used properly, you can even edit pictures using the Gimp with ease. Yes, it takes some getting used to. But think about it this way: a touch pad tries to map the screen to a small surface (the pad), using a large pointer (your finger).
Don't want to start a flame war. I admit the things can take some getting used to, and touchpads are more intuitive. But once you've mastered the nipple, you'll never go back.
Look at his street address...
Let's just say that a certain DSL provider ships the Cisco 678s with web enabled, and an old CBOS. They will soon be changing that, obviously.
Code Red hasn't really been blown out of proportion. Yes, the media gets it wrong, and people keep asking me if they have to worry about it, but it is out there, and it is a pain in the ass.
I've been monitoring my web server (Apache) since this thing started back up. It has 16 public IP addresses, and I've been checked 390 times in the past 20 hours. Add another 200 or so yesterday, and you'll realize that this thing is spreading.
Aside from IIS, it also can lock up some Cisco DSL modems, and HP printers. Unfortunately for me, a lot of my customers have Cisco DSL modems. Unfortunately for them, I'm not the one that installed them.
391 now. It just keeps getting faster.
Don't think I've seen the 'set nat add ent 10.0.0.2'. Could you explain?
Fortunately, my 678 had 2.4.1 on it when I got it. Flashing the bios in one of those things can be a risky venture.