While your intentions may be the best, the consequences are likely worse. You have no idea what else you are leaving behind until it is too late.
Like anything, you weigh it up, and you may not always get it right. If someone with PTSD is so miserable that they would rather be dead (and will blow their brains out if you turn your back on them) then I think it's time to start considering things that you otherwise wouldn't consider.
The guy in your hitchcock story may well have killed himself years earlier if he hadn't invented his purple room, so has he really lost anything?
I also think there is a world of difference between losing someone you love and the other sorts of things that give a person the sort of PTSD that I'm thinking of.
It's a very very fine line, and you won't always get it right, but when you've tried all the 'proven' methods and nothing has worked, are you really doing the right thing by doing nothing else?
Lobotomy was one of these sorts of radical solutions - before anyone else mentions it. In the end, most of the time it did way more harm than good - there are a few spectacular exceptions to this but they are rare. It's still used today though in various forms - to cure some forms of epilepsy they can remove _half_ of your brain, assuming you are still young enough for the other half to take over.
The big problem with lobotomies (apart from the fact that they almost always didn't work) is that they became a "when all you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail" solution, and they'd do them when they really shouldn't have.
Epilepsy and anti-psychotic medications both can have some really unpleasant side effects, but of course in those cases the side effects are considered less unpleasant than the condition itself.
It's the same with this 'memory deleting drug', assuming it does what it says it does. At some point when the condition becomes bad enough, and when you've tried everything else (apart from the lobotomy:), you start thinking about giving this one a go.
The big problem is where they start thinking about prescribing it like ritalin (a very useful drug when prescribed correctly - if you haven't tried it I found the effect much like caffeine, and I know you all love that:)
Besides just the idea of tampering with memory being a *bad* thing, the notion of fooling with one of the fundamental ways we learn strikes me as a really bad idea.
Now suppose that you and your family were kidnapped from your home at gun point, and you had to watch while unspeakable things were done to them and to you.
One thing you would 'learn' (and have a terrifying anxiety attack in response to) is that sitting around in your own home with your family is an unsafe thing to be doing, because something really bad happened one day when you were doing that. That response would be completely useless and would make your life an absolute misery.
That's the sort of thing this drug could be useful in 'editing out'. 'editing out' the sort of 'that hurt me last time I did that so I won't do it again' memories is a stupid idea and I don't know why anyone would bring it up.
The nature of most people on Slashdot appears to be to figure out a way that a certain product could be used badly, assume that that is the only way it could be used, and then post a whole lot of comments to that effect.
It can work any way you want it to, as long as both parties agree. I would assume that if the software developer wants to retain copyright of the software then the fee would reflect that.
If someone approached us to develop a product that they needed, and we could see a market for the product, then an arrangement like a greatly reduced fee or a royalty split would definitely be a possibility.
I think the idea is to build facilities that produce nothing but "liquid wood", so it is a non issue for paper mills.
That sounds likely. I think that while paper mills are reasonably fussy about their source of wood, a 'liquid wood mill' would be far more liberal in what it could take as an input.
On a side note, people here comment that trees rotting releases CO2 into the atmosphere..while true on a small level, most of it ends locked up into biomass...and at geological timescales, into oil...
Don't rotting trees release other gasses too (methane?) that actually have a far higher greenhouse effect than CO2?
Exactly. Why is everyone so afraid of a user pays system? If I choose not to have a car, why should my taxes subsidize the rest of you??? I do have a car btw, and although I live around 10km from the office, I do around 800km a week of work related travel so the bicycle idea won't work for me. I tried it once and hayfever nearly killed me:(
In the past 15 years we've had some major road upgrades done around Melbourne (Australia) which were funded via the use of tolls. I think it's a great idea. The amount of petrol you save by using the tollways goes a good way towards the cost of the tollways themselves, and you get where you are going faster and more safely. Even better, I use these tollways once or twice a year and so pay next to nothing for them!
My biggest grumble is how we let big trucks trundle down the freeways when there is a perfectly good rail system running parallel to it.
The irony will be that all the pollution you are campaigning against will actually cushion the planet from such impacts and any resulting fragment will be no bigger than a chihuahua's head!
Yes. It's a pretty silly argument anyway - calling it something else doesn't change what it is, and if you believe it does then I know of some creatolutionary biologists who would like a word with you...
I fully believe the switches in that cabinet are still sitting there attempting to send 20Gbit/sec of traffic out trying to do something â" I just don't know what yet
We had something similar happen at a client site - a switch failed in a rack so we temporarily replaced it with an 8 port 'desktop' switch, and then a day later installed the proper replacement back in the rack. We didn't want any unnecessary downtime though so we linked them together and left instructions with the onsite guy to move all the connections from the desktop switch into the proper switch after hours. Which he did, including the cable that linked them together. The switch was in 'portfast' mode so any broadcast packet that got 'onto' the switch, stayed there:)
And you can't blame the arsonists for the heat. Hottest day ever.
However, if the news is trustworthy, the current fires are most all set by insane criminals.
We have a mix of causes: . lightning . trees falling on powerlines (very very windy that day) . carelessness (cigarette butts, power tools) . maliciousness
They have certainly found a few people who have caused a few fires due to the last two items and are looking for more. The really awful thing is people relighting fires after they have been brought under control - having seen the number of lives (human and animal) and all the suffering that goes with it, they go and relight them again.
Lighting fires for some people is an addictive behavior and they don't consider the consequences so the act isn't necessarily done with malicious intent, but that's just sick.
Australia has a particularly hot summer this winter
Worst. Understatement. Ever.
It got to 46 degrees C (114F) here two days ago, and temperatures all over southern Australia broke records. Over 100 people have died in fires and over 600 houses have been lost (in Victoria - i don't know about other states)
On the northern side of the country they are having some pretty bad floods.
"Passing the buck" is for cowards, no matter the direction
I think the idea of "passing the buck" wasn't as cowardly as you make out.
If you ask a superior verbally, and they say "we don't care and are happy for this to continue", then if the shit hits the fan they will plead ignorance.
If you ask the superior to put it in writing that they are aware of the situation and are happy for it to continue, then the chances are higher that something will be done. It's not just passing the buck.
cc'ing _their_ superior in the 'please confirm' email may get more response still, but may be a career limiting move.
Letting nature kill a few thousand is better than a human doing something that kills one who has a good lawyer.
Dead men don't sue. The family of the deceased might, but the best you'll get is a wrongful death.
A worse case scenario is that during one of these quakes someone spills hot coffee into their lap. I wouldn't want to be on the other end of _that_ lawsuit!
3000 light years means that we are seeing it as it was 3000 years ago. If you could get to the speed of light right now, it would be 3000 years until you got there (assuming that the relative distance between us is roughly constant). But you can't go that fast, you'd have to go a lot slower than that.
In the next 3000 years we are sure to develop much faster methods of travel, so will will overtake you (i'll wave as we pass) and when you get there all the hot alien babes will be taken.
However, this sure screws my plans to corrupt the air force pilots to get them to bomb random sites I generally dislike.. hmm after reflection maybe a virus for this AI would be easier!
This is the problem with a computer. Once you know how to hack a specific configuration/version of the AI, you can (probably) hack all of that model.
I wonder what the public opinion would be on opening the source to the AI vs keeping it secure via not showing it to anyone. The difference here being that you can't just reverse engineer it because you can't even get a copy of the binary... (and if you could, the military have bigger problems than someone reverse engineering their code)!
You would need much more than bricks, mortar, and an airtight coating to make a structurally sound, pressurized, living area.
Maybe. But if you built it underground and used these bricks to line your dugout then it would be substantially easier. I'm not sure if the ground is stable or not there, but you won't have any problems with fluctuating moisture content in clay soils!
Either way, if the need for bricks ever does come up on the moon, not having to bring them with you will make it possible.
Perhaps the mail client should have a feature enabled by default that warns if an exceptionally large number of messages are being sent and allow the option to cancel.
Change that to 'that warns if an exceptionally large number of messages are being sent and smack the user over the head with a LART if they don't click cancel' and i'll agree with you.
A large company should have an internal mailing list and/or intranet system that individual users can post messages to. Letting individual users send email to more than a few thousand users in one hit is madness. Especially if they are anything like our customers where they think it is a good idea to send a 10MB attachment to 500 users...
look over any paperwork for any class/university before signing it.
Would that be before or after your enrollment was accepted?
If before, then I don't see that you've got a case, unless the university really really wants you to attend. Your threat of bad publicity might not go that far...
If it's part way through your course when this contract is put in front of you and you are threatened with not being able to continue your course if you don't sign away your rights, then I could well imagine 'current affairs' type tv shows making a big deal about it...
The last few times a restaurant (or whatever) has tried to pull a stunt like that here in Australia, the breastfeeding advocacy groups held a 'feed in' where they get as many breastfeeding mothers as possible to go the restaurant and breastfeed their babies.
Slashdot Mirror
Like anything, you weigh it up, and you may not always get it right. If someone with PTSD is so miserable that they would rather be dead (and will blow their brains out if you turn your back on them) then I think it's time to start considering things that you otherwise wouldn't consider.
The guy in your hitchcock story may well have killed himself years earlier if he hadn't invented his purple room, so has he really lost anything?
I also think there is a world of difference between losing someone you love and the other sorts of things that give a person the sort of PTSD that I'm thinking of.
It's a very very fine line, and you won't always get it right, but when you've tried all the 'proven' methods and nothing has worked, are you really doing the right thing by doing nothing else?
Lobotomy was one of these sorts of radical solutions - before anyone else mentions it. In the end, most of the time it did way more harm than good - there are a few spectacular exceptions to this but they are rare. It's still used today though in various forms - to cure some forms of epilepsy they can remove _half_ of your brain, assuming you are still young enough for the other half to take over.
The big problem with lobotomies (apart from the fact that they almost always didn't work) is that they became a "when all you have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail" solution, and they'd do them when they really shouldn't have.
Epilepsy and anti-psychotic medications both can have some really unpleasant side effects, but of course in those cases the side effects are considered less unpleasant than the condition itself.
It's the same with this 'memory deleting drug', assuming it does what it says it does. At some point when the condition becomes bad enough, and when you've tried everything else (apart from the lobotomy :), you start thinking about giving this one a go.
The big problem is where they start thinking about prescribing it like ritalin (a very useful drug when prescribed correctly - if you haven't tried it I found the effect much like caffeine, and I know you all love that :)
Now suppose that you and your family were kidnapped from your home at gun point, and you had to watch while unspeakable things were done to them and to you.
One thing you would 'learn' (and have a terrifying anxiety attack in response to) is that sitting around in your own home with your family is an unsafe thing to be doing, because something really bad happened one day when you were doing that. That response would be completely useless and would make your life an absolute misery.
That's the sort of thing this drug could be useful in 'editing out'. 'editing out' the sort of 'that hurt me last time I did that so I won't do it again' memories is a stupid idea and I don't know why anyone would bring it up.
The nature of most people on Slashdot appears to be to figure out a way that a certain product could be used badly, assume that that is the only way it could be used, and then post a whole lot of comments to that effect.
It can work any way you want it to, as long as both parties agree. I would assume that if the software developer wants to retain copyright of the software then the fee would reflect that.
If someone approached us to develop a product that they needed, and we could see a market for the product, then an arrangement like a greatly reduced fee or a royalty split would definitely be a possibility.
That sounds likely. I think that while paper mills are reasonably fussy about their source of wood, a 'liquid wood mill' would be far more liberal in what it could take as an input.
Don't rotting trees release other gasses too (methane?) that actually have a far higher greenhouse effect than CO2?
Exactly. Why is everyone so afraid of a user pays system? If I choose not to have a car, why should my taxes subsidize the rest of you??? I do have a car btw, and although I live around 10km from the office, I do around 800km a week of work related travel so the bicycle idea won't work for me. I tried it once and hayfever nearly killed me :(
In the past 15 years we've had some major road upgrades done around Melbourne (Australia) which were funded via the use of tolls. I think it's a great idea. The amount of petrol you save by using the tollways goes a good way towards the cost of the tollways themselves, and you get where you are going faster and more safely. Even better, I use these tollways once or twice a year and so pay next to nothing for them!
My biggest grumble is how we let big trucks trundle down the freeways when there is a perfectly good rail system running parallel to it.
The irony will be that all the pollution you are campaigning against will actually cushion the planet from such impacts and any resulting fragment will be no bigger than a chihuahua's head!
Yes. It's a pretty silly argument anyway - calling it something else doesn't change what it is, and if you believe it does then I know of some creatolutionary biologists who would like a word with you...
We had something similar happen at a client site - a switch failed in a rack so we temporarily replaced it with an 8 port 'desktop' switch, and then a day later installed the proper replacement back in the rack. We didn't want any unnecessary downtime though so we linked them together and left instructions with the onsite guy to move all the connections from the desktop switch into the proper switch after hours. Which he did, including the cable that linked them together. The switch was in 'portfast' mode so any broadcast packet that got 'onto' the switch, stayed there :)
And you can't blame the arsonists for the heat. Hottest day ever.
We have a mix of causes:
. lightning
. trees falling on powerlines (very very windy that day)
. carelessness (cigarette butts, power tools)
. maliciousness
They have certainly found a few people who have caused a few fires due to the last two items and are looking for more. The really awful thing is people relighting fires after they have been brought under control - having seen the number of lives (human and animal) and all the suffering that goes with it, they go and relight them again.
Lighting fires for some people is an addictive behavior and they don't consider the consequences so the act isn't necessarily done with malicious intent, but that's just sick.
Worst. Understatement. Ever.
It got to 46 degrees C (114F) here two days ago, and temperatures all over southern Australia broke records. Over 100 people have died in fires and over 600 houses have been lost (in Victoria - i don't know about other states)
On the northern side of the country they are having some pretty bad floods.
I hate the internet. I can't tell if you missed the sarcasm of the parent post, or if I'm missing the sarcasm in your post.
Even worse, your first link is tagged as "this article is incomplete"...
I think the idea of "passing the buck" wasn't as cowardly as you make out.
If you ask a superior verbally, and they say "we don't care and are happy for this to continue", then if the shit hits the fan they will plead ignorance.
If you ask the superior to put it in writing that they are aware of the situation and are happy for it to continue, then the chances are higher that something will be done. It's not just passing the buck.
cc'ing _their_ superior in the 'please confirm' email may get more response still, but may be a career limiting move.
Yes but records only go back for a few thousand years, when the hall of records was mysteriously destroyed somehow.
(with apologies to the Simpsons)
Dead men don't sue. The family of the deceased might, but the best you'll get is a wrongful death.
A worse case scenario is that during one of these quakes someone spills hot coffee into their lap. I wouldn't want to be on the other end of _that_ lawsuit!
Yes. Yes it does.
Yes. Many people forget that some of their mice are actually pretty nice little devices. And their implementation of Solitaire is world class!
Either way, if we leave a few hundred years later than him, there is a good chance we'll have better technology and will overtake him on the way.
3000 light years means that we are seeing it as it was 3000 years ago. If you could get to the speed of light right now, it would be 3000 years until you got there (assuming that the relative distance between us is roughly constant). But you can't go that fast, you'd have to go a lot slower than that.
In the next 3000 years we are sure to develop much faster methods of travel, so will will overtake you (i'll wave as we pass) and when you get there all the hot alien babes will be taken.
This is the problem with a computer. Once you know how to hack a specific configuration/version of the AI, you can (probably) hack all of that model.
I wonder what the public opinion would be on opening the source to the AI vs keeping it secure via not showing it to anyone. The difference here being that you can't just reverse engineer it because you can't even get a copy of the binary... (and if you could, the military have bigger problems than someone reverse engineering their code)!
Maybe. But if you built it underground and used these bricks to line your dugout then it would be substantially easier. I'm not sure if the ground is stable or not there, but you won't have any problems with fluctuating moisture content in clay soils!
Either way, if the need for bricks ever does come up on the moon, not having to bring them with you will make it possible.
Change that to 'that warns if an exceptionally large number of messages are being sent and smack the user over the head with a LART if they don't click cancel' and i'll agree with you.
A large company should have an internal mailing list and/or intranet system that individual users can post messages to. Letting individual users send email to more than a few thousand users in one hit is madness. Especially if they are anything like our customers where they think it is a good idea to send a 10MB attachment to 500 users...
Citation needed.
According to wikipedia, Mickey Mouse is protected by trademark.
Would that be before or after your enrollment was accepted?
If before, then I don't see that you've got a case, unless the university really really wants you to attend. Your threat of bad publicity might not go that far...
If it's part way through your course when this contract is put in front of you and you are threatened with not being able to continue your course if you don't sign away your rights, then I could well imagine 'current affairs' type tv shows making a big deal about it...
The last few times a restaurant (or whatever) has tried to pull a stunt like that here in Australia, the breastfeeding advocacy groups held a 'feed in' where they get as many breastfeeding mothers as possible to go the restaurant and breastfeed their babies.