I always make that point too. Prostate cancer is as prevalent in males as breast cancer is in females, and kills about the same number of people too.
But for some reason there isn't the same concern for it.
Simple explanation: We ALL (women and men alike) love breasts, so breast cancer seems extra horrible. We think about prostates a LOT less, so prostate cancer gets less attention. Seriously. No one notices if some species of slime mold or an ugly crustacean goes extinct, but we set aside protected habitat for cute, furry animals and butterflies.
nd saw the reflection of their suspect in the person's eyeball, and were able to identify the suspect from this.
There must have been, what, 8 pixels representing her eye in the original image. That's some awesome enhancement technology.
To me, this doesn't even seem like it would require an expert's level of understanding for one to laugh at such portrayals of technology. I remember using things overhead projectors, crappy copiers, and photographic enlargers when I was much younger, and it was pretty obvious that if the information isn't there, you can't create it by further magnifying the source. I was a kid, and no one had to explain this to me - it just makes sense. I guess most people would rather say, "Oh wow, that's amazing", than say, "This is insulting my intelligence because it isn't even remotely possible".
ere's an honest question: Ignoring the cost, just what is it that you think is so much better about Windows 2000 compared to XP?
My entire supposition was based on the fact that cost was irrelevant. Perhaps I wasn't real clear on this, as everyone seems to have missed it
Okay, how 'bout this for a great reason not to run XP over 2000 (and certainly the most common one): I already have 2000 installed on my machine(s) and it does everything I need; 2000 was available, i tried it, and it ain't [too] broke yet, so I'm not going to "fix" it by upgrading, which could only lead to problems.
Initial cost is not necessarily even a factor in choosing software/OS. Sure, I could buy a $400 air compressor, a $200 nail gun, and some assorted accessories, but if I only need to put a roof on my shed, "upgrading" beyond my trusty 16oz rip claw hammer would just be dumb.
There just happens to be CCTV displays in the same room! yay! She manages to find full-face security footage of a guard on one of these displays (lucky!), and zooms it (say 10,000X) so just the eye is showing. No, really.
Of course!!! The new CCTV security cameras with $20,000 lenses and super-HD recording are not common yet, but just wait! Kind of like in Bladerunner when they zoom in on a reflection in a picture and magicalley "enhance" it to get something usable, only that was futuristic and somewhat believable, at the time.
Maybe you COULD disarm a nuke with a WinCE PDA, if the nuke had a "kill" toggle switch and you threw the PDA at it just right. This is probably about as realistic as any other way to use such a PDA for this use. Or maybe an uber-hacked PDA (i.e. the outer case and screen of a WinCE PDA with more capable guts, a real OS, and a WinCE look-a-like gui.)
Maybe they should spend less time counting people and more time counting their computers. Or perhaps we should have a US Census Bureau's Computers Census Bureau. In any case, that sounds like an awful big loss of taxpayer computers, not to mention the data and the costs inherent in duplicating lost information.
Hopefully at some stage people start **paying** for stuff that is valuable to them. Unfortunately people grab what they can get for free.
Having good roads is very valuable, and you would not have those if they were not paid for. They are typically paid for by taxes because most people would not voluntarily dip into their pockets to pay for roads etc.
For the most part, I agree with you, especially that the solution to the problem may not be intuitive. Maybe key developers (at least) of free, open-source software ahould be paid by some means. I've paid for software in the past and been largely disappointed by much of it, though I've donated little (some, but not much) to FOSS projects. I suspect the same is true for most linux, Firefox, Open Office, etc. users. We need a system to encourage continued and increased development.
But your analogy to roads and taxes is a bit lacking for me, as I live in Akron, Ohio, where we pay especially hefty taxes (some of the highest in the US, all taxation considered) but still don't have roads so much as vast expanses of pot holes with occasional stretches of reworked pavement, and our horrible public schools are still funded in a manner that has been declared unconstitutional by the courts.
Arrr.... Today be not "Be a pirate day," tis "talk like a pirate day"!!!! So, me scurvy dog, the Flyin' Spaghetti Monster be not so amused as ye think't. It be a day for Peter Saaarrrrsgaarrrrd movies more'an a day for beatin' global warmin'n!!!
Where are my mod points when I need them? Mod the parent to this UP, please. That's exactly the point I've been making: super easy and not cost-prohibitive to include printed results withn electronic voting machines, so why wouldn't you? Every vote being counted correctly is the foundation of our society, so why wouldn't you take every possible step to be sure it is done correctly? Who is hiding what?
Can solitaire count? If so, it knocks Civilization off the list and bumps Tetris down. I know this thread is kind of silly, but I am pretty sure my list makes the most sense. Pacman was a major societal phenomenon, as was Super Mario, while Doom was the real jumping-off point for the FPS, Tetris was like crack but cheaper and worse for your social life, and Civilization was simply an amazing game and something really fresh that challenged all sorts of people - a game for adults and non-gamers.
A top ten list should also include The Legend of Zelda, Mortal Kombat, some version of Madden NFL, and Subspace/Continuum, and maybe even Quake, Halo, Counter Strike, or something newer in the FPS realm, though I'm less sure that these mean as much to as many people (especially Subspace/Continuum, though I STILL play in Trenchwars, even after probably close to ten years).
Hmm. This argument is sound and very well-reasoned, but I don't quite buy it. It works if you consider the two consoles and their projected markets to be identical. But with the PS3 being a more capable machine aimed more at hardcore gamers, and the Wii being a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers, you have to take more into account than release date. Even if SOny moves the PS3 relases date back to 2008, developers will still support it, and people will still buy it.
Nintendo may "win" in the short run, but I would bet money that the PS3 will soon generate more game sales, in terms of units sold and units sold per console. Sure, some of what would be the PS3 market might buy a Wii, but most of them are not afraid to fork over big bills so they'll buy a PS3 when it comes out anyway. If anything, the suggested scenario will only play to SOny's favor for the 2007 holiday season: he PS3 will be THE release of the year since it will be better (not adjusting for the crazy price, obviously), and it will be new. When it comes time to think about another generation of consoles, I bet we'll look back at the PS3 as the most popular of its generation, though it will certainly not be as dominant as was the PS2.
Or, maybe build quality and reliability will bite it in the ass and I'll look like a damn fool. I just can't count the PS3 out because of a late release, since there's still tons of buzz about it and it looks good (though expensive).
DISCLAIMER: I own a PS2 but am not likely to buy any of the newer consoles within the next two years, as I am not a big gamer and favor the PC as a gaming platform. The price for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (projected) are way too high for me. I will NOT shell out $60 for a game, period. (At least not until inflation drives my salary up a bit and I find a game that can do my laundry.)
I forgot to mention that the friends I mention, and myself, are all white American citizens who speak English as a first language, and most of our travel is within the US. So the
"profiling" we've seen seems to be based on age (35), sex (male), flying alone (vs. with a companion), and whether bags are checked. I've also flown one-way (and driven home) and been selected 100% of those times, though that is not something I've done much. This is all post-9/11.
I must agree with those who think the "random" selections are in fact something less than random. I don't fly a ton, but a few friends and I have noticed a possible trend. For instance, men under 35 travelling alone without checked baggage seem very likely (I don't have any stats, sorry) to be "randomly" selected for additional security screening. There have been times when I haven't even begun to reach the end of the line when I'm approached by security and asked to step aside. In our experience, none of the several of us have been selected when checking baggage or travelling with a woman. However, travelling alone without checking a bag means almost 100% chance of being picked, at least for us.
Personally, this is fine with me, as it is the exact type of profiling that SHOULD be done. I've also found that I tend to get through security quicker this way than having to wait in line. I'd prefer not to have my carry-on searched, but I have nothing to hide, and getting on an airplane with 100 or more other people with a bomb or other contraband is certainly not a right. If these searches ever really begin to bother me, I have an answer: I'll drive.
They talk in circles and can't provide any definite explanations as to how something like this would work.
My friend said this really and truly does work awesome. I'm going to buy his personal energy setup for $39, as soon as I buy his "Tornado under the hood", some copper golf bracelets, a new copy of Windows XP, and some Spanish Fly drops (which should work great with the DIY hypnosis kit I saw in the back of a reputable magazine). I'd explain how this works, but I have to run - gotta go get my free lunch before they run out, sorry.
You'd also end up with many more dead cops, and much more sympathy for those criminals. If the penalty for dealing pot or prostitution was death or life in prison, I for one would offer safe haven and protection to pot dealers and prostitutes.
We already have more cops killed every year in the US than in all other Western nations combined, even with our harsher criminal penalties. Thanks for making my point for me!
Yes, he should, because that means he is a participant of organized crime (as well as being a hypocrite). That is by his logic though, not mine. I could argue that him speeding in a 35mph zone constitutes a premeditated act against common laws (he got in his car, started it, and proceeded to drive at reckless speeds -- lock him up!!), so he should have the benefit of NO doubt.
That's just silly though, as are our penalties for "victimless" crimes. Sure, crack smokers are getting into lots of trouble because they smoke crack, but their underlying problem is being poor, dumb, and destitute. If we, as a society, can prevent them from ever being these things, they'll probably never make the bad choice to hit the rock in the first place.
As for obviously thought-out crimes like identity theft and running botnets for profit, come on, these people are obviously smart and obviously greedy. They have valuable skills but CHOOSE to use them for evil rather than good because being middle-class isn't good enough for them. Different game here. Fuck'em, lock 'em up.
Huh? In some jurisdictions, depending on the quantity, selling pot can net you many years in prison. I have no idea what you are talking about, whether you mean you would protect simple pot dealers (for which I can't blame you) or that you would like to see pot dealers in prison (which seems like a waste of valuable resources). Please elaborate.
Even in places where there are serious penalties for selling pot, demand and supply have remained high (no pun intended). Pot may alter some people's lives a bit (as can overeating, watching lots of television, reading too many sci-fi novels and chosing to do many other things that are "unproductive"), and it may appear most frequently in poor neighborhoods, but pot is known amongst all socioeconomic groups and doesn't kill anyone, so I see no point in cracking down on it. Doing so has never been proven to eliminate or lessen crime in general.
As for prostitution, most hookers are uneducated women who feel they can make more money and be happier turning tricks than working at legitimate minimum wage jobs. I wish they didn't feel a need to sell their bodies, but what else can they do? Making $200 a week at a legit job doesn't pay the bills of the most modest family. More than anything, I feel bad for these people and that they have to resort to "criminal" means to live a still very hard life.
I still don't understand why people think we need longer jail/prison sentences. Doing as "little" as a few years, 6 months, or even a few weeks time would surely alter every aspect of my life, which is true for most people, as well. Even 30 days in the ocunty jail would cause me to lose my job, my home, and most of my possessions, so increasing the penalty for a crime to a year or two wouldn't be much more effective than a month in the clink. But if I really think I can get away with something, I might still do it, either way. (Not me personally, just talking hypothetically.)
As for restrictions on people in poor neighborhoods, as suggested? That stinks of Soviet Russia and modern North Korea. We have lots of crime in the US, but we also have a Constitution. Crime sucks, but our freedom is what makes this the greatest country in the world. Economic descrimination is as horrible as any other form of descrimination. If you want to eliminate ghetto crime, eliminate the ghettos.
This discussion was really about botnets and associated crime, for which there are already criminal penalties. But as I said, no one is catching these folks with any regularity, and until we do the length of prison terms makes absolutely no difference.
There should be tougher laws on people who break in the computers. It should be equal to breaking and entering people's houses.
Tough laws work given their enforcement (I meant, once caught, got 10 years of gang-infested prison time, people will look at the keyboard in a different way).
As the US criminal justice system proves every day, stiff penalties for crimes do not necessarily act as effective deterrents. We have embarassingly high violent crime rates in the US, despite the penalties being more harsh than in most of Europe and many other places. Until the certainty of apprehension becomes greater (i.e. unless potential criminals think they'll get caught) we'll continue to have high crime rates. I suspect the same applies to computer-based crimes; for-profit hackers don't care about the jail time since they are usually not caught to begin with.
You could make the penalty for all crimes death by hanging, but if you have no cops catching people, or even knowing where and how to do so, you'll still have crime.
I understand what you are saying: yes, most/. content essentially amounts to links to outside information. But here we have a very nice collection of news that matters to us (or me, at least). Last time I checked (er, I'm just guessing),/. doesn't have a staff of paid investigative reporters who travel the world, so why would you expect more than a bunch of carefully selected links? The significant commentary and expansions come in the comments after something is posted, when we can all contribute.
This may be largely news from BBC, CNN, NPR, etc., but I don't have all day to scour those sources for the tech/CS/etc. news I want to read. That's why I have/.
Miller was a leftist, right up until 9/11. Immediately afterwards he was a champion of the right.
To put it plainly, the terrorists scared him into becoming a conservative. Therefore, he's a coward and has no credibility in my eyes whatsoever.
I'm not sure calling Miller a coward is entirely correct. This would imply that he is able to make rational decisions but over-values potential threats against him. To be more correct, he's simply an idiot. I hope we are not comparing Colbert to Miller, since Colbert's takes are always satitical and often laugh-out-loud hilarious, while Miller's "material" has always been indicative of him simply being an angry, hateful person. Sure, they both attempt to mate humor with politics, but the similarities end there, and I've always found Miller to be a hack who skates by on his poorly-deserved reputation of being edgy.
Clearly, as this is only a partial list of my absolute necessities, we need more than eight cores. That doesn't leave any for looking at pr0n, bittorrent pr0n downloads, Norton internet seurity, itunes, or all the spyware and adware i like to run. I'm holding out for 32 cores.
I have a 32' lcd TV from Samsung and I've been really impressed.
I'd be very impressed to have a 32-foot lcd TV, as well. I knew Samsung was starting to make some big ones, but jeez, I'd have to get a bigger house for one of those bad boys.
Are bacterial formats supported in linux yet? I'm sticking with Windoze until linux really does everything it should do, like play my entire DVD collection from one disk. My Ubuntu box also still hasn't learned voice recognition yet, even though I swear at it a lot, and it has yet to wash my car, even once.
Slashdot Mirror
Simple explanation: We ALL (women and men alike) love breasts, so breast cancer seems extra horrible. We think about prostates a LOT less, so prostate cancer gets less attention. Seriously. No one notices if some species of slime mold or an ugly crustacean goes extinct, but we set aside protected habitat for cute, furry animals and butterflies.
To me, this doesn't even seem like it would require an expert's level of understanding for one to laugh at such portrayals of technology. I remember using things overhead projectors, crappy copiers, and photographic enlargers when I was much younger, and it was pretty obvious that if the information isn't there, you can't create it by further magnifying the source. I was a kid, and no one had to explain this to me - it just makes sense. I guess most people would rather say, "Oh wow, that's amazing", than say, "This is insulting my intelligence because it isn't even remotely possible".
Okay, how 'bout this for a great reason not to run XP over 2000 (and certainly the most common one): I already have 2000 installed on my machine(s) and it does everything I need; 2000 was available, i tried it, and it ain't [too] broke yet, so I'm not going to "fix" it by upgrading, which could only lead to problems.
Initial cost is not necessarily even a factor in choosing software/OS. Sure, I could buy a $400 air compressor, a $200 nail gun, and some assorted accessories, but if I only need to put a roof on my shed, "upgrading" beyond my trusty 16oz rip claw hammer would just be dumb.
Of course!!! The new CCTV security cameras with $20,000 lenses and super-HD recording are not common yet, but just wait! Kind of like in Bladerunner when they zoom in on a reflection in a picture and magicalley "enhance" it to get something usable, only that was futuristic and somewhat believable, at the time.
Maybe you COULD disarm a nuke with a WinCE PDA, if the nuke had a "kill" toggle switch and you threw the PDA at it just right. This is probably about as realistic as any other way to use such a PDA for this use. Or maybe an uber-hacked PDA (i.e. the outer case and screen of a WinCE PDA with more capable guts, a real OS, and a WinCE look-a-like gui.)
Maybe they should spend less time counting people and more time counting their computers. Or perhaps we should have a US Census Bureau's Computers Census Bureau. In any case, that sounds like an awful big loss of taxpayer computers, not to mention the data and the costs inherent in duplicating lost information.
For the most part, I agree with you, especially that the solution to the problem may not be intuitive. Maybe key developers (at least) of free, open-source software ahould be paid by some means. I've paid for software in the past and been largely disappointed by much of it, though I've donated little (some, but not much) to FOSS projects. I suspect the same is true for most linux, Firefox, Open Office, etc. users. We need a system to encourage continued and increased development.
But your analogy to roads and taxes is a bit lacking for me, as I live in Akron, Ohio, where we pay especially hefty taxes (some of the highest in the US, all taxation considered) but still don't have roads so much as vast expanses of pot holes with occasional stretches of reworked pavement, and our horrible public schools are still funded in a manner that has been declared unconstitutional by the courts.
Arrr.... Today be not "Be a pirate day," tis "talk like a pirate day"!!!! So, me scurvy dog, the Flyin' Spaghetti Monster be not so amused as ye think't. It be a day for Peter Saaarrrrsgaarrrrd movies more'an a day for beatin' global warmin'n!!!
scrub ye the decks yo' black mask wearin' scallywag!
Yar, ye salty sea dog! He be askin' for a keelhaulin'!!!
Where are my mod points when I need them? Mod the parent to this UP, please. That's exactly the point I've been making: super easy and not cost-prohibitive to include printed results withn electronic voting machines, so why wouldn't you? Every vote being counted correctly is the foundation of our society, so why wouldn't you take every possible step to be sure it is done correctly? Who is hiding what?
1. Pacman
2. Super Mario Bros
3. Doom
4. Tetris
5. Civilization
Can solitaire count? If so, it knocks Civilization off the list and bumps Tetris down. I know this thread is kind of silly, but I am pretty sure my list makes the most sense. Pacman was a major societal phenomenon, as was Super Mario, while Doom was the real jumping-off point for the FPS, Tetris was like crack but cheaper and worse for your social life, and Civilization was simply an amazing game and something really fresh that challenged all sorts of people - a game for adults and non-gamers.
A top ten list should also include The Legend of Zelda, Mortal Kombat, some version of Madden NFL, and Subspace/Continuum, and maybe even Quake, Halo, Counter Strike, or something newer in the FPS realm, though I'm less sure that these mean as much to as many people (especially Subspace/Continuum, though I STILL play in Trenchwars, even after probably close to ten years).
Nintendo may "win" in the short run, but I would bet money that the PS3 will soon generate more game sales, in terms of units sold and units sold per console. Sure, some of what would be the PS3 market might buy a Wii, but most of them are not afraid to fork over big bills so they'll buy a PS3 when it comes out anyway. If anything, the suggested scenario will only play to SOny's favor for the 2007 holiday season: he PS3 will be THE release of the year since it will be better (not adjusting for the crazy price, obviously), and it will be new. When it comes time to think about another generation of consoles, I bet we'll look back at the PS3 as the most popular of its generation, though it will certainly not be as dominant as was the PS2.
Or, maybe build quality and reliability will bite it in the ass and I'll look like a damn fool. I just can't count the PS3 out because of a late release, since there's still tons of buzz about it and it looks good (though expensive).
DISCLAIMER: I own a PS2 but am not likely to buy any of the newer consoles within the next two years, as I am not a big gamer and favor the PC as a gaming platform. The price for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (projected) are way too high for me. I will NOT shell out $60 for a game, period. (At least not until inflation drives my salary up a bit and I find a game that can do my laundry.)
I forgot to mention that the friends I mention, and myself, are all white American citizens who speak English as a first language, and most of our travel is within the US. So the "profiling" we've seen seems to be based on age (35), sex (male), flying alone (vs. with a companion), and whether bags are checked. I've also flown one-way (and driven home) and been selected 100% of those times, though that is not something I've done much. This is all post-9/11.
Personally, this is fine with me, as it is the exact type of profiling that SHOULD be done. I've also found that I tend to get through security quicker this way than having to wait in line. I'd prefer not to have my carry-on searched, but I have nothing to hide, and getting on an airplane with 100 or more other people with a bomb or other contraband is certainly not a right. If these searches ever really begin to bother me, I have an answer: I'll drive.
My friend said this really and truly does work awesome. I'm going to buy his personal energy setup for $39, as soon as I buy his "Tornado under the hood", some copper golf bracelets, a new copy of Windows XP, and some Spanish Fly drops (which should work great with the DIY hypnosis kit I saw in the back of a reputable magazine). I'd explain how this works, but I have to run - gotta go get my free lunch before they run out, sorry.
We already have more cops killed every year in the US than in all other Western nations combined, even with our harsher criminal penalties. Thanks for making my point for me!
That's just silly though, as are our penalties for "victimless" crimes. Sure, crack smokers are getting into lots of trouble because they smoke crack, but their underlying problem is being poor, dumb, and destitute. If we, as a society, can prevent them from ever being these things, they'll probably never make the bad choice to hit the rock in the first place.
As for obviously thought-out crimes like identity theft and running botnets for profit, come on, these people are obviously smart and obviously greedy. They have valuable skills but CHOOSE to use them for evil rather than good because being middle-class isn't good enough for them. Different game here. Fuck'em, lock 'em up.
Even in places where there are serious penalties for selling pot, demand and supply have remained high (no pun intended). Pot may alter some people's lives a bit (as can overeating, watching lots of television, reading too many sci-fi novels and chosing to do many other things that are "unproductive"), and it may appear most frequently in poor neighborhoods, but pot is known amongst all socioeconomic groups and doesn't kill anyone, so I see no point in cracking down on it. Doing so has never been proven to eliminate or lessen crime in general.
As for prostitution, most hookers are uneducated women who feel they can make more money and be happier turning tricks than working at legitimate minimum wage jobs. I wish they didn't feel a need to sell their bodies, but what else can they do? Making $200 a week at a legit job doesn't pay the bills of the most modest family. More than anything, I feel bad for these people and that they have to resort to "criminal" means to live a still very hard life.
As for restrictions on people in poor neighborhoods, as suggested? That stinks of Soviet Russia and modern North Korea. We have lots of crime in the US, but we also have a Constitution. Crime sucks, but our freedom is what makes this the greatest country in the world. Economic descrimination is as horrible as any other form of descrimination. If you want to eliminate ghetto crime, eliminate the ghettos.
This discussion was really about botnets and associated crime, for which there are already criminal penalties. But as I said, no one is catching these folks with any regularity, and until we do the length of prison terms makes absolutely no difference.
As the US criminal justice system proves every day, stiff penalties for crimes do not necessarily act as effective deterrents. We have embarassingly high violent crime rates in the US, despite the penalties being more harsh than in most of Europe and many other places. Until the certainty of apprehension becomes greater (i.e. unless potential criminals think they'll get caught) we'll continue to have high crime rates. I suspect the same applies to computer-based crimes; for-profit hackers don't care about the jail time since they are usually not caught to begin with.
You could make the penalty for all crimes death by hanging, but if you have no cops catching people, or even knowing where and how to do so, you'll still have crime.
This may be largely news from BBC, CNN, NPR, etc., but I don't have all day to scour those sources for the tech/CS/etc. news I want to read. That's why I have /.
I'm not sure calling Miller a coward is entirely correct. This would imply that he is able to make rational decisions but over-values potential threats against him. To be more correct, he's simply an idiot. I hope we are not comparing Colbert to Miller, since Colbert's takes are always satitical and often laugh-out-loud hilarious, while Miller's "material" has always been indicative of him simply being an angry, hateful person. Sure, they both attempt to mate humor with politics, but the similarities end there, and I've always found Miller to be a hack who skates by on his poorly-deserved reputation of being edgy.
Clearly, as this is only a partial list of my absolute necessities, we need more than eight cores. That doesn't leave any for looking at pr0n, bittorrent pr0n downloads, Norton internet seurity, itunes, or all the spyware and adware i like to run. I'm holding out for 32 cores.
I'd be very impressed to have a 32-foot lcd TV, as well. I knew Samsung was starting to make some big ones, but jeez, I'd have to get a bigger house for one of those bad boys.
Are bacterial formats supported in linux yet? I'm sticking with Windoze until linux really does everything it should do, like play my entire DVD collection from one disk. My Ubuntu box also still hasn't learned voice recognition yet, even though I swear at it a lot, and it has yet to wash my car, even once.