Was anyone expecting FEMA to just suddenly pull its head out of its ass? There weren't any real consequences imposed after their abortion of a performance in Louisiana so why would they do anything differently? Until we hold those fuckers directly, and personally, accountable for their actions we aren't going to see any changes. Lock up the director and some of the managers for 5 years for contributing to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people and maybe we'll see some intelligent work being done over there.
Yes. That was one tiny town with a population of less than 500 and it was basically a few elected officials being silly and making a political statement by trying to pass some kind of ordinance.
If voters aren't even going to take the time to learn the difference between two parties with vaguely similar names then what are we supposed to do? The problem isn't that the parties are named similarly, the problem is that people are stupid and spend more time deciding what to wear in the morning than they do deciding who to vote for. The only solution to that is to not let stupid people vote. This generally starts as "let's just make a test to make sure that people have spent at least 5 minutes researching the issues" but inevitably turns into someone abusing the system in order to rig the vote.
It's often been said that the best argument against democracy is five minutes with the average voter, and it's true, most people are dumber than a sack of hammers. But no other system of government can practically function for more than five minutes without someone abusing their power to great extent.
That's a terrible assumption. First of all, private organizations use money unwisely all the time. It's just that no one makes a big deal about it because "well, it's their own money, they can waste it if they want." They aren't actually any better than public organizations.
Secondly, most schools don't actually waste money. The schools you see spending shitloads of money on fancy laptops for students or things like that are almost always in rich neighborhoods which are swimming in money. They've covered all their necessary expenses (i.e. enough desks for everyone, plenty of textbooks, etc.) but they have money left over, so they spend it on luxuries. Nothing wrong with that. When a school does this and isn't in a wealthy neighborhood, you'll find that the expenses were covered by a private donation. In this case, someone donates money to the school and states that the money may ONLY be used to purchase fancy equipment. The school couldn't use the money on textbooks or school renovations even if they wanted to.
This is pretty obvious. Will we see another post tomorrow about the magical alt+f4 shortcut to quickly close windows? How about the super-secret ctrl+alt+delete shotcut that allows you to get to a hidden menu where you can log off, lock the computer, or even open the task manager!
I know that people often complain about slashdot going downhill, but this time I think it really has.
First of all, your request shouldn't be made over email. If it's an insecure link then the key might be compromised. You're going to have to go into their office and ask them for their key on a flash drive or similar media. Or, you're going to have to grab it from a keyserver that you've verified in a similar way. Keep in mind that anyone can register a public key under any name and add it to whatever keyserver they wish, so you need to make sure that the key you grab doesn't belong to an imposter.
If you're thinking that you don't need to do this "because, really, how likely is it that someone has compromised the link?" then you can just send your personal data in the clear. After all, if it's unlikely that the key will be compromised then it's just as unlikely that your data will be compromised.
Of course, you should probably be ready for this organization to give you funny looks when you ask for the key. When you finally do get the key, if they even have one, then be prepared for "your email did not come through properly and looks like a bunch of jumbled characters. Please resend it." If the secretary doesn't know what the public key is or how to get it then how likely do you think it is that anyone else in the organization knows what it is? Maybe some guy in IT knows what it is, but he probably isn't in the business of running around to everyone's computer to decrypt their email.
This can be summed up by saying: a company has a product being used by an absurdly small number of people but expects it to grow immensely in a very short period of time.
Well no kidding. Of course they expect it to grow rapidly, they're the ones selling it! Do they have any real evidence to suggest that this will actually happen? Of course not.
That is a terrible idea. In a group of ten friends, you will have the following: 1. The person who lives in a tiny place and doesn't have chairs for everyone. 2. The person who underestimates how much food he'll need to make and everyone winds up hungry afterward. 3. The vegetarian. 4. The person that's lactose intolerant. 5. The guy who can't turn on the oven without an instruction manual. 6. The guy who can't boil water without hurting himself. 7. The guy who thinks that frozen dinner meals constitutes "dining in". 8. The guy who doesn't cook often and doesn't have the money to go buy ingredients for 10 people. 9. The guy who doesn't have time to make food for ten people. 10. The person who can cook well.
And washing dishes doesn't even come close to making up for not paying. This is seriously one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time.
Aside from the fact that such changes cost obscene amounts of money and aren't an option for everyone, you're working in an academic environment. Such environments can make decisions in a more rational manner with more thought given to ethics and future considerations than just about any other environment out there. Corporations, however, will make decisions based solely upon the bottom line as decided by higher-up managers. This means that sales people will control what businesses use.
Let's ignore the fact that you're pretending to be more civilized than the rest of us because you spend time hanging out with your family drinking beer. You're not as sophisticated as you think.
Furthermore, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about. We're talking about a floodlight shining into someone's house at night. We aren't talking about a light used in the evening to light up a grilling area or patio and is turned off when done.
They measured the rate of people who complete the course separate from the rate of people who passed the course. Over 80% completed the course but only 40% passed.
Not in this case. We're talking about remedial mathematics and elementary statistics here. These are courses that every adult in this entire country should have a firm grasp of. It's absolutely ridiculous that more than 5% of these students are failing these courses.
This means that we have adults, people in charge of running their own lives, who don't fully comprehend how fractions or percentages work. There are people who are eligible to obtain loans and credit that can't calculate compound interest. It's a fucking miracle that we've managed to come this far while being this ignorant.
Contrary to popular belief, glass does not flow at all. This was a bullshit myth generated when some people realized that some old pieces of glass in some windows were thicker at the bottom than the top. This is actually because of how the glass making techniques of the time worked, some parts of the glass would be thicker. Naturally, it makes sense to put the thickest end of the glass towards the bottom of a window, which is why most of the windows are thicker at the bottom. However, we can also find windows that are thicker on the sides or the top, entirely disproving the nonsense "flowing glass" myth.
And we need to consider more than the financial motive. Imagine the damage that could have been done to the reputations of the students whose identities he stole if even a single media outlet had picked up on his "news tips".
Exactly. This is hardly a case of a kid doing something stupid without thinking it through. This guy had plenty of time to examine his actions, he had plenty of opportunity to back out, and he was repeatedly shown that his actions had consequences. And yet, at every step of the way, he chose to proceed. Even after he was caught he chose to perpetrate a cover-up! These are not the actions of a silly kid, they are the actions of a criminal. This kid deserves the punishment he received.
I should have been more clear. Any information going over that link would be encrypted, whether it was important or not, simply because it would be more difficult to start and stop the crypto system all the time.
Actually, one-time pads have been used for quite mundane information. You can easily convert a teletypewriter to make use of one-time-tape. The US and the Soviets did exactly this in order to establish a secure line between both governments. This method is preferred for the following reasons: - It is the only crypto algorithm that has been proven to be secure. (Others are simply "likely" secure, but may contain undiscovered flaws and are not mathematically provably secure.) - It's dirt simple. The hardware to implement it is cheap and widely available (at least, it was at the time). This prevents an equipment failure from bringing down the link for more than a short period of time. - It does not require either side to disclose any crypto secrets. One-time pad technology is older than dirt and is known to everyone. Neither side has to provide the other with technology that it does not already posses. Each side simply needs to drop off a bunch of one-time tape at the other's embassy. This is easily accomplished with a messenger during routine business.
Slashdot Mirror
Was anyone expecting FEMA to just suddenly pull its head out of its ass? There weren't any real consequences imposed after their abortion of a performance in Louisiana so why would they do anything differently? Until we hold those fuckers directly, and personally, accountable for their actions we aren't going to see any changes. Lock up the director and some of the managers for 5 years for contributing to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people and maybe we'll see some intelligent work being done over there.
Yes. That was one tiny town with a population of less than 500 and it was basically a few elected officials being silly and making a political statement by trying to pass some kind of ordinance.
Yep. The article can basically be summarized as "students spend more time in class that usual and do a little better on test scores".
If voters aren't even going to take the time to learn the difference between two parties with vaguely similar names then what are we supposed to do? The problem isn't that the parties are named similarly, the problem is that people are stupid and spend more time deciding what to wear in the morning than they do deciding who to vote for. The only solution to that is to not let stupid people vote. This generally starts as "let's just make a test to make sure that people have spent at least 5 minutes researching the issues" but inevitably turns into someone abusing the system in order to rig the vote.
It's often been said that the best argument against democracy is five minutes with the average voter, and it's true, most people are dumber than a sack of hammers. But no other system of government can practically function for more than five minutes without someone abusing their power to great extent.
That's a terrible assumption. First of all, private organizations use money unwisely all the time. It's just that no one makes a big deal about it because "well, it's their own money, they can waste it if they want." They aren't actually any better than public organizations.
Secondly, most schools don't actually waste money. The schools you see spending shitloads of money on fancy laptops for students or things like that are almost always in rich neighborhoods which are swimming in money. They've covered all their necessary expenses (i.e. enough desks for everyone, plenty of textbooks, etc.) but they have money left over, so they spend it on luxuries. Nothing wrong with that. When a school does this and isn't in a wealthy neighborhood, you'll find that the expenses were covered by a private donation. In this case, someone donates money to the school and states that the money may ONLY be used to purchase fancy equipment. The school couldn't use the money on textbooks or school renovations even if they wanted to.
This is pretty obvious. Will we see another post tomorrow about the magical alt+f4 shortcut to quickly close windows? How about the super-secret ctrl+alt+delete shotcut that allows you to get to a hidden menu where you can log off, lock the computer, or even open the task manager!
I know that people often complain about slashdot going downhill, but this time I think it really has.
And we have what guarantee, exactly, that they're telling the truth?
First of all, your request shouldn't be made over email. If it's an insecure link then the key might be compromised. You're going to have to go into their office and ask them for their key on a flash drive or similar media. Or, you're going to have to grab it from a keyserver that you've verified in a similar way. Keep in mind that anyone can register a public key under any name and add it to whatever keyserver they wish, so you need to make sure that the key you grab doesn't belong to an imposter.
If you're thinking that you don't need to do this "because, really, how likely is it that someone has compromised the link?" then you can just send your personal data in the clear. After all, if it's unlikely that the key will be compromised then it's just as unlikely that your data will be compromised.
Of course, you should probably be ready for this organization to give you funny looks when you ask for the key. When you finally do get the key, if they even have one, then be prepared for "your email did not come through properly and looks like a bunch of jumbled characters. Please resend it." If the secretary doesn't know what the public key is or how to get it then how likely do you think it is that anyone else in the organization knows what it is? Maybe some guy in IT knows what it is, but he probably isn't in the business of running around to everyone's computer to decrypt their email.
This can be summed up by saying: a company has a product being used by an absurdly small number of people but expects it to grow immensely in a very short period of time.
Well no kidding. Of course they expect it to grow rapidly, they're the ones selling it! Do they have any real evidence to suggest that this will actually happen? Of course not.
That is a terrible idea. In a group of ten friends, you will have the following:
1. The person who lives in a tiny place and doesn't have chairs for everyone.
2. The person who underestimates how much food he'll need to make and everyone winds up hungry afterward.
3. The vegetarian.
4. The person that's lactose intolerant.
5. The guy who can't turn on the oven without an instruction manual.
6. The guy who can't boil water without hurting himself.
7. The guy who thinks that frozen dinner meals constitutes "dining in".
8. The guy who doesn't cook often and doesn't have the money to go buy ingredients for 10 people.
9. The guy who doesn't have time to make food for ten people.
10. The person who can cook well.
And washing dishes doesn't even come close to making up for not paying. This is seriously one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time.
Aside from the fact that such changes cost obscene amounts of money and aren't an option for everyone, you're working in an academic environment. Such environments can make decisions in a more rational manner with more thought given to ethics and future considerations than just about any other environment out there. Corporations, however, will make decisions based solely upon the bottom line as decided by higher-up managers. This means that sales people will control what businesses use.
Let's ignore the fact that you're pretending to be more civilized than the rest of us because you spend time hanging out with your family drinking beer. You're not as sophisticated as you think.
Furthermore, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about. We're talking about a floodlight shining into someone's house at night. We aren't talking about a light used in the evening to light up a grilling area or patio and is turned off when done.
The F-35 shared the same issue. The F-35's systems are based heavily on the F-22.
They measured the rate of people who complete the course separate from the rate of people who passed the course. Over 80% completed the course but only 40% passed.
Not in this case. We're talking about remedial mathematics and elementary statistics here. These are courses that every adult in this entire country should have a firm grasp of. It's absolutely ridiculous that more than 5% of these students are failing these courses.
This means that we have adults, people in charge of running their own lives, who don't fully comprehend how fractions or percentages work. There are people who are eligible to obtain loans and credit that can't calculate compound interest. It's a fucking miracle that we've managed to come this far while being this ignorant.
Contrary to popular belief, glass does not flow at all. This was a bullshit myth generated when some people realized that some old pieces of glass in some windows were thicker at the bottom than the top. This is actually because of how the glass making techniques of the time worked, some parts of the glass would be thicker. Naturally, it makes sense to put the thickest end of the glass towards the bottom of a window, which is why most of the windows are thicker at the bottom. However, we can also find windows that are thicker on the sides or the top, entirely disproving the nonsense "flowing glass" myth.
Also, you look like a prick when wearing them.
Exactly. Student government is useful, but only on a resume. It's a complete joke in all other respects.
Allowing vote verification also allows vote selling and voter coercion.
And we need to consider more than the financial motive. Imagine the damage that could have been done to the reputations of the students whose identities he stole if even a single media outlet had picked up on his "news tips".
Exactly. This is hardly a case of a kid doing something stupid without thinking it through. This guy had plenty of time to examine his actions, he had plenty of opportunity to back out, and he was repeatedly shown that his actions had consequences. And yet, at every step of the way, he chose to proceed. Even after he was caught he chose to perpetrate a cover-up! These are not the actions of a silly kid, they are the actions of a criminal. This kid deserves the punishment he received.
You can only ramble on about going paperless in print articles for so long before you start to look a little silly.
You just XXXX wind up with XX lots of XXXXXXXXXXXXXX typed-over words instead.
I should have been more clear. Any information going over that link would be encrypted, whether it was important or not, simply because it would be more difficult to start and stop the crypto system all the time.
Actually, one-time pads have been used for quite mundane information. You can easily convert a teletypewriter to make use of one-time-tape. The US and the Soviets did exactly this in order to establish a secure line between both governments. This method is preferred for the following reasons:
- It is the only crypto algorithm that has been proven to be secure. (Others are simply "likely" secure, but may contain undiscovered flaws and are not mathematically provably secure.)
- It's dirt simple. The hardware to implement it is cheap and widely available (at least, it was at the time). This prevents an equipment failure from bringing down the link for more than a short period of time.
- It does not require either side to disclose any crypto secrets. One-time pad technology is older than dirt and is known to everyone. Neither side has to provide the other with technology that it does not already posses. Each side simply needs to drop off a bunch of one-time tape at the other's embassy. This is easily accomplished with a messenger during routine business.