So if say, some idiot pulls out in front of you and you swerve or stop quickly, your insurance company will consider you a bad driver?
No, you would require a fairly severe mental defect to reach that conclusion.
If you brake hard more often than most people in that area at that time of day then it would be reasonable to consider that your driving skills leave something to be desired. It's not complicated.
I'd sign up for this. I consider myself a good driver and would be happy to put my money where my mouth is. Plus we have fairly hefty privacy laws in Australia so if they ever used my information for things other than what i'd signed up they would be in deep shit.
I think i've posted this before, but in Australia the laws have changed wrt warranty. If you purchased something of "significant value" and it broke after 18 months when you would reasonably expect it to last for longer (eg you bought a laptop for $500 and it failed after 18 months) then the fact that it only came with a 1 year warranty doesn't amount to anything from a legal point of view - the place you bought it from has to provide a repair or replacement.
Hopefully this will stop stores selling crappy merchandise that they know isn't going to last long, or at least they'll be more likely to sell stuff that also has a manufacturer warranty (which is in theory higher quality).
And wasn't CDMA a step backwards from AMPS, which was turned off in 2000? Apparently.
GSM was a huge step backwards from AMPS in terms of coverage once you got out of the city, and the analogue network was kept on much longer for this reason. It's stretching my memory a bit but I think CDMA was introduced after that to fill the gap, and so was perceived as a step forward from GSM, even though it wasn't as good as AMPS.
CDMA had better coverage in Australia outside of metropolitan areas, and when it was turned off to free up spectrum for the 3G network it was a big step backwards for a lot of people. Either the situation has improved since then or the affected population has given up complaining about it. I'm pretty sure the last CDMA cell was turned off here a while back.
I'm always confused when people talk about GSM though, as i've heard 3G referred to as a GSM protocol but 3G is just an evolution of CDMA... I guess we're stuck with the terminology though.
Ya know, we all make fun of them when they do obvious dumbshit like this, but how much of this is typical corporate CYA that always happens when somebody fucks up? I mean they ignored the guys learning to fly a plane and not land it which now looks pretty fucking stupid but at that time, when the only thing any terrorist had ever done with a plane was demand it take him to Cuba? Compared to what they had on their plates it probably wasn't seen as a big whoop.
I'm sure there is a lot of CYA going on these days, but it doesn't explain this one. I mean, if I just instructed my terrorist buddies to go and blow something up, then you come and get me after you've stopped my terrorist buddies. And you don't just go and get them, you watch them for a bit first so see if anyone looks like they are about to blow something up. That's the sort of ass covering they should be doing.
Except that wasn't really the question being asked. The challenge was to offer a proof to Scott Aaronson that will convince _him_ that quantum computers will never work. It doesn't have to be correct, just convincing.
Unless the guy has no ego at all this is still impossible though, just not for the reasons you think. It might have been easier if he hadn't put up the $100k...
In order to claim the reward specified, one would have to prove that the quantum theory as we understand it is false, by demonstrating a falsifying experiment. I don't know if that's particularly possible...
Don't you just have to prove that a real world implementation of a quantum computer is impossible? Quantum theory can go on existing, but maybe any machine that tries to exploit it is doomed to failure because of noise, error rates, and other factors. It kind of reminds me of someone describing a perpetual motion machine starting the description with "if we ignore friction for a moment" and then never getting around to un-ignoring it.
I'll quite happily volunteer that I took action against a bully, especially one who would call someone a whiner for standing up for themselves and others. A manager who is a bully is far worse for morale and productivity than the "whiner" who won't put up with his crap.
...in some place, late employees 'sometimes must sing a song like "I'm a Little Teapot," do a lap around the office building or pay a small fine.'
I guess there are lots of ways to get people laughing at you, which is what would happen if you tried to institute this at my workplace.
Yeah that might of worked in the depression where you'd do anything to keep your job and the labour laws were non-existent, but if anyone tried to pull that crap with me i'd be talking to a lawyer..
Rote learning used to be very important. Knowing something could save a lot of time looking things up, which is important when you're a doctor in an emergency room ("it it one leach or two to cure whooping cough?"). And testing knowledge is much easier than testing ability so guess which one got tested. These days finding information quickly is a solved problem so keeping raw information in your head is less important (although that's not an excuse to keep your head empty:)
I'm curious why you are a "former educator"? Seems a pity that someone who appears to have some passion for teaching isn't doing it anymore...
In Australia, teaching is heavily unionised so any attempt to reward teachers who do a better job than others is shouted down, and pay is basically just a function of years of service. The alternative leads easily to the system being gamed but what we're doing now isn't working...
Residential ISPs would be doing a service if they shut off a connection and routed all port 80 requests to a web page explaining to the consumer that they have been identified as belonging to a bot-net and are harming others through their continued inaction. Give them links to solutions. Allow some proxied access to Google maps to find Geek Squad or some shit. Upsell a service to come out to their home and fix the computer.
This is already being done and is getting more widespread, and when it's done well it's great, but the last time I helped someone fix up a spambot I then called the ISP and asked to be unblocked and they completely denied they were blocking, even though it was plainly obvious that it was happening.
There are a few blacklists around for infected PC's and more and more banks are refusing to let you log in if malicious activity has been detected coming from your IP address.
Until the botnet's become completely P2P with no central C&C server(s), detecting C&C traffic is easy enough that all ISP's should be doing it.
I don't think your idea is particularly insightful. The problem is that if the user was dumb enough to install malware in the first place, simply removing the malware won't fix things in the long term, so it's a hell of a risk to take for no long term gain. They might get a short term gain but they already got that without doing anything illegal.
Even the obvious solution of just nuking the PC's from orbit (only way to be sure!) won't solve anything. The user will just buy another PC and get it infected again.
The problem is the combination of a user stupid enough to get infected and not know it, combined with a computer that allows the user to install unsigned software. I want a computer that is completely locked down like an iPhone (eg Windows 8), with a toggle switch inside to unlock it for the rest of us. The switch wouldn't be particularly hard to find or anything, just an "i know what i'm doing" switch. I can't see any other way.
Well I got good new for you regardless. Since the earth is losing mass, the gravity will become weaker, resulting in lower numbers on your bathroom scale.:)
(Although it's probably not going to be so noticeable in the shortcut.)
And if you do notice a difference on the bathroom scales caused by the Earth losing slight amounts of mass, then you shouldn't need your wife to tell you you need to diet.
I wonder what they'll do 80-some years from now, when the rabbits are still around and unaffected by both diseases.
Well... in Australia we're 60 years on from the introduction of it and we still get waves of Myxomatosis that wipe just about all the rabbits out. First there are lots of rabbits, then there are lots of very sick rabbits, then there seem to be hardly any. The ones that survive are obviously the ones with immunity but that seems to wear off after multiple generations and another wave comes around and wipes them all out again.
Maybe it will be different in another 80 years but I don't really see why it would be.
Well they can print parts... you still need to assemble them. Good luck doing that with millions of them in only a few weeks.
So it's an assembler bot you need? They're a bit harder to assemble and it normally takes a woman 9 months to produce one and then lots of further work until it can actually assemble things itself, but with enough women you should be able to produce your assembler bot army in a few weeks.
I find it humorous that people talk about "an idea is not property", "information wants to be free", and "you can't own an idea", but then cite "First Sale". I'm sure they're not the same people but it still seems a bit silly.
You mean when nobody buys games anymore and just copies them freely so nothing new gets made? Yes that would be a sad day. For one we'd have to turn off our computers and go outside.
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So if say, some idiot pulls out in front of you and you swerve or stop quickly, your insurance company will consider you a bad driver?
No, you would require a fairly severe mental defect to reach that conclusion.
If you brake hard more often than most people in that area at that time of day then it would be reasonable to consider that your driving skills leave something to be desired. It's not complicated.
I'd sign up for this. I consider myself a good driver and would be happy to put my money where my mouth is. Plus we have fairly hefty privacy laws in Australia so if they ever used my information for things other than what i'd signed up they would be in deep shit.
Why not present the radio traffic time lapsed on the web?
A delay of up to an hour wouldn't hurt the news agencies that much and still would keep any criminals off track.
It also allows for the possibility to further delay or even cut traffic in special cases.
That last point could make for very interesting speculation when the airwaves suddenly go dead for unknown reasons.
"Oh damn. I just shot an unarmed little girl. She's bleeding everywhere. Call the ambulance, but first call dispatch and get this censored."
It is not wise to keep all your eggs in one basket. But it is probably too much to expect common sense from the hard drive industry.
25% isn't "all the eggs". Not even close.
I think i've posted this before, but in Australia the laws have changed wrt warranty. If you purchased something of "significant value" and it broke after 18 months when you would reasonably expect it to last for longer (eg you bought a laptop for $500 and it failed after 18 months) then the fact that it only came with a 1 year warranty doesn't amount to anything from a legal point of view - the place you bought it from has to provide a repair or replacement.
Hopefully this will stop stores selling crappy merchandise that they know isn't going to last long, or at least they'll be more likely to sell stuff that also has a manufacturer warranty (which is in theory higher quality).
And wasn't CDMA a step backwards from AMPS, which was turned off in 2000? Apparently.
GSM was a huge step backwards from AMPS in terms of coverage once you got out of the city, and the analogue network was kept on much longer for this reason. It's stretching my memory a bit but I think CDMA was introduced after that to fill the gap, and so was perceived as a step forward from GSM, even though it wasn't as good as AMPS.
CDMA had better coverage in Australia outside of metropolitan areas, and when it was turned off to free up spectrum for the 3G network it was a big step backwards for a lot of people. Either the situation has improved since then or the affected population has given up complaining about it. I'm pretty sure the last CDMA cell was turned off here a while back.
I'm always confused when people talk about GSM though, as i've heard 3G referred to as a GSM protocol but 3G is just an evolution of CDMA... I guess we're stuck with the terminology though.
Ya know, we all make fun of them when they do obvious dumbshit like this, but how much of this is typical corporate CYA that always happens when somebody fucks up? I mean they ignored the guys learning to fly a plane and not land it which now looks pretty fucking stupid but at that time, when the only thing any terrorist had ever done with a plane was demand it take him to Cuba? Compared to what they had on their plates it probably wasn't seen as a big whoop.
I'm sure there is a lot of CYA going on these days, but it doesn't explain this one. I mean, if I just instructed my terrorist buddies to go and blow something up, then you come and get me after you've stopped my terrorist buddies. And you don't just go and get them, you watch them for a bit first so see if anyone looks like they are about to blow something up. That's the sort of ass covering they should be doing.
Except that wasn't really the question being asked. The challenge was to offer a proof to Scott Aaronson that will convince _him_ that quantum computers will never work. It doesn't have to be correct, just convincing.
Unless the guy has no ego at all this is still impossible though, just not for the reasons you think. It might have been easier if he hadn't put up the $100k...
So I guess the proof would be that they do exist, but only if you don't observe one.
That might be truer than you think for quantum computers. They'll build one but every time they try to "observe" the answer it it will be corrupted.
In order to claim the reward specified, one would have to prove that the quantum theory as we understand it is false, by demonstrating a falsifying experiment. I don't know if that's particularly possible...
Don't you just have to prove that a real world implementation of a quantum computer is impossible? Quantum theory can go on existing, but maybe any machine that tries to exploit it is doomed to failure because of noise, error rates, and other factors. It kind of reminds me of someone describing a perpetual motion machine starting the description with "if we ignore friction for a moment" and then never getting around to un-ignoring it.
I broke into your house and put a lion in there yesterday. Check again. Or maybe it's wandered off... you should probably look under your bed too.
I'll quite happily volunteer that I took action against a bully, especially one who would call someone a whiner for standing up for themselves and others. A manager who is a bully is far worse for morale and productivity than the "whiner" who won't put up with his crap.
I'm not paid enough to be treated like shit.
That's the nice thing about a 15 minute meeting - most interruptions can be deferred.
I guess there are lots of ways to get people laughing at you, which is what would happen if you tried to institute this at my workplace.
Yeah that might of worked in the depression where you'd do anything to keep your job and the labour laws were non-existent, but if anyone tried to pull that crap with me i'd be talking to a lawyer..
Rote learning used to be very important. Knowing something could save a lot of time looking things up, which is important when you're a doctor in an emergency room ("it it one leach or two to cure whooping cough?"). And testing knowledge is much easier than testing ability so guess which one got tested. These days finding information quickly is a solved problem so keeping raw information in your head is less important (although that's not an excuse to keep your head empty :)
I'm curious why you are a "former educator"? Seems a pity that someone who appears to have some passion for teaching isn't doing it anymore...
In Australia, teaching is heavily unionised so any attempt to reward teachers who do a better job than others is shouted down, and pay is basically just a function of years of service. The alternative leads easily to the system being gamed but what we're doing now isn't working...
Residential ISPs would be doing a service if they shut off a connection and routed all port 80 requests to a web page explaining to the consumer that they have been identified as belonging to a bot-net and are harming others through their continued inaction. Give them links to solutions. Allow some proxied access to Google maps to find Geek Squad or some shit. Upsell a service to come out to their home and fix the computer.
This is already being done and is getting more widespread, and when it's done well it's great, but the last time I helped someone fix up a spambot I then called the ISP and asked to be unblocked and they completely denied they were blocking, even though it was plainly obvious that it was happening.
There are a few blacklists around for infected PC's and more and more banks are refusing to let you log in if malicious activity has been detected coming from your IP address.
Until the botnet's become completely P2P with no central C&C server(s), detecting C&C traffic is easy enough that all ISP's should be doing it.
I don't think your idea is particularly insightful. The problem is that if the user was dumb enough to install malware in the first place, simply removing the malware won't fix things in the long term, so it's a hell of a risk to take for no long term gain. They might get a short term gain but they already got that without doing anything illegal.
Even the obvious solution of just nuking the PC's from orbit (only way to be sure!) won't solve anything. The user will just buy another PC and get it infected again.
The problem is the combination of a user stupid enough to get infected and not know it, combined with a computer that allows the user to install unsigned software. I want a computer that is completely locked down like an iPhone (eg Windows 8), with a toggle switch inside to unlock it for the rest of us. The switch wouldn't be particularly hard to find or anything, just an "i know what i'm doing" switch. I can't see any other way.
Well I got good new for you regardless. Since the earth is losing mass, the gravity will become weaker, resulting in lower numbers on your bathroom scale. :)
(Although it's probably not going to be so noticeable in the shortcut.)
And if you do notice a difference on the bathroom scales caused by the Earth losing slight amounts of mass, then you shouldn't need your wife to tell you you need to diet.
I wonder what they'll do 80-some years from now, when the rabbits are still around and unaffected by both diseases.
Well... in Australia we're 60 years on from the introduction of it and we still get waves of Myxomatosis that wipe just about all the rabbits out. First there are lots of rabbits, then there are lots of very sick rabbits, then there seem to be hardly any. The ones that survive are obviously the ones with immunity but that seems to wear off after multiple generations and another wave comes around and wipes them all out again.
Maybe it will be different in another 80 years but I don't really see why it would be.
But who will eat the elephants when they become invasive?
I'm more worried about what they'll decide to eat instead of the gamba grass. What if they develop a taste for kangaroos... or kittens?
Yes it did. It didn't do the job perfectly, but the rabbit population has never returned to what it was pre-myxomatosis.
I doubt the bullet can do more than steer a few degrees... it certainly couldn't look behind itself.
But I assume all the enemy would need is a bunch of very bright LED's on a board around the intended target and the projectile would get confused...
Well they can print parts... you still need to assemble them. Good luck doing that with millions of them in only a few weeks.
So it's an assembler bot you need? They're a bit harder to assemble and it normally takes a woman 9 months to produce one and then lots of further work until it can actually assemble things itself, but with enough women you should be able to produce your assembler bot army in a few weeks.
First sale doctrine. QED.
I find it humorous that people talk about "an idea is not property", "information wants to be free", and "you can't own an idea", but then cite "First Sale". I'm sure they're not the same people but it still seems a bit silly.
And what happens when there is nothing else?
You mean when nobody buys games anymore and just copies them freely so nothing new gets made? Yes that would be a sad day. For one we'd have to turn off our computers and go outside.