That's because you ignore the ads. The first ad you see when you google "Pontiac" will be for KBB.com, and when you click on it and enter your zip code, the site will have Pontiac pre-loaded, presumably to tell you how good Pontiacs are. But besides that, I fail to see your point. Google'r reputation is that they provide an accurate and relevent view of the internet. If there's nobody out there saying just how good Ponitac is, that's not Google's fault, nor is it Google's fault that Pontiac claimed that there were. How is any of this a "slow trend towards 'evil'"?
Bill Gates has been a great help to our economy. Please remember that it was innovation and forward thinking that brought MS to the point where he could use advertising and branding to push his product. And if advertising gives a company an unfair advantage, then nobody is helping our economy. Not Disney, not Apple, not Lays Potato chips, not Pepsi or Coke, or Monster.com, or E*Trade, or {...the list could go for ever...}. And "...the world would have been better off without Windows"? You poor, misguided soul. Pray tell, without Windows, what would the masses have been using lo these many years? Windows got the market share b/c it has always been the best operating system. Not perfect, but by far the best and easiest to use, and always a few steps ahead of the compitition. As a software developer, I have my share of gripes about Microsoft products, but I use them because Windows is better than Linux,.Net is better than Java (or anything else I have tried), and Office has no compititon.
I interviewed with the Gates Foundation back in 1999. Unlike some other very flush charities in the greater Seattle area, they had every appearance of not overpaying for anything. They seemed very frugal (and their offer confirmed it). My conversations with them were all about how to cuts costs when delivering technologies for their library program. Linux was even being used in some cases. Sorry non-believers, but the Gates' side project is 100% legit and they certainly deserved Time magazine's praise.
OK, I have to question the veracity of this story on 2 counts:
1. Posted by Anonymous Coward
2. Why would an organization that has free access to MS software use Linux to cut costs?
I'm sorry, I guess I haven't been paying attention. What conservative ever claimed that eliminating public education for anyone over 11 years old would allow parents save for a superior private education? The whole "voucher" thing is as close as it gets, AFAIK, and it's not even in the ballpark. His statement is not conservative simply becuase some parts of it sound like somthing a conservative might want. The "pipedreams" of an Anarcho-Capitalist are hardly basis for commentary on the conservative movement.
Please...try "Another Anarcho-Capitalist Pipedream bites the dust". You should really look at who's posting before you go slapping labels on their beliefs...
Hacking is not for everyone, but being able to find holes in security IS a job skill. As a Network Admin, a QA analyst, or a Software Engineer trying to create secure software, the ability to spot vulnerabilities is key. Hacking (or cracking, if you prefer) into a system that you've set up yourself is a great hands-on learning experience. I will agree that hacking into a system that does not belong to you is immoral, and fortunatly this student has realized this and moved on to one that does, and encourages others to do the same. The knowledge gained by this activity can be used for either good or bad, but that's pretty universal when it comes to knowledge. The knowledge itself is pretty much amoral.
(Side to student) Ignore the comment about grammer -- not many people on/. paid much attention to grammer...
The amount of energy consumed by the first coil in the transformer (the one plugged into the wall) is proportional to the amount of energy consumed by the second coil (the one with the switch in it). This is because a coil stores energy like a capacitor. There is a finite amount of energy that the coil can store, so when that amount of energy has been stored, the coil will no longer draw a current (this works very much like a switch). When the stored energy is used, (for example, when a current is induced in the second coil), the coil will draw enough of a current to replace it. So, when you turn off the switch on the second coil, the first coil will cease to draw a current (of course, a small amount of energy will be dissapated in the form of heat, since there is no such thing as an ideal conductor). This is why your power company can put several step-down transformers in the power grid as electricity finds it's way from the generation plants to your house, and yet the load on the generation plants varies based upon the amount of power used, not by the number of transformers in the grid.
This is also a good concept to remember in the context of this discussion. A CRT uses a very large electro-magnetic coil. When you first power this coil up, it draws an enormous current (if your house is wired poorly, you will see your lights dim). That energy is not dissipated, however; rather, it is stored in the coil as an electromagnetic field. As that field is used to control the electron ray that generates the image on the screen, the electromagnetic field is consumed, and the coil draws a current (much smaller than the initial current) in order to replace it. When the CRT goes into standby, that electromagnetic field is no longer being consumed, and the only current being drawn represents the energy being dissipated as heat -- the more efficient the design, the lower this current will be. Remember, there is a large amount of energy stored in the coil, and a small amount of energy being consumed. When you switch off the CRT, the circuit of which the coil is a part is broken. When this circuit is broken, the entire electromagnetic field will be dissipated at once as an electromagnetic pulse, wasting all of the energy that it was storing. So, depending on how often you use it, standby may waste less energy that repetedly turning the device on and then off again.
...drawn on January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled that "the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn." Do not fool yourself into thinking that an organism that is part human part pig will be given civil rights that are denied to one that is fully human, yet unborn. Of course, if one pig-man sits down on a bus and refuses to move, and another declares "I have a dream", anything could happen...
So are you suggesting that we should repeal laws against robbery? Do you really think that you could protect your property if robbery were legal? Your watchful neighbors and private policing company are a supplement to the law enforcement in your area, which is no doubt inadequate. However, they would be useless if robbery was not punishable under law.
The same is true of phone numbers and mailing addresses. I just moved and had to notify everybody of my new contact info. Why should the internet be any different?
you yada, yada, yada'd over the most important part of the 5th ammendment. "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...". He had his day in court.
Faster Wifi with fewer problems with overlapping AP's maybe.
The reclamation of the commercial broadcast spectrum will not help speed up wi-fi. Wi-Fi (and wireless phones) operate on 2+ GHz frequencies. Broadcast radio gets up to 106.9 MHz. Trying to utilize frequencies in that range would be 20 times slower than current wi-fi implementations. Sorry.
How did this get a score of 5? Why does anybody have to hide anything from Pat Robertson? Who's saying who you can have sex with and how (other than limiting the "who" to consenting adults and the "where" to "not in a public restroom)? Other than laws to protect classified government data I'm not aware of any limits on what you can read, and other than laws that protect children from exploitation, you can view pretty much anything you want (as long as you don't invade someone else's privacy). And thought police are coming soon? Please -- we can barely afford to pay the conventional police. Nobody is interested in shelling out the cash for thought police. As for those (and this has to be a reference to Microsoft) who want to "[lock] you in to their meager offerings and [make] you there cash cow in perpetuity", I admit that it's a problem but it's a by-product of capitalism, and the motive is profit, not control over your life.
As for the topic at hand, I do have to admit that I don't like the thought of being charged a road usage fee. Buying gas and maintaining my car is bad enough -- I don't need to be getting a bill every month based on how much driving I had to do. That said, the capacity to track your every movement using this data would be prohibitively expensive. We are talking about massive amounts of data that will have to be rolled up as it comes in. For example, say your car reports that you got onto I-9 at exit 20, drove 30 miles, got off at exit 7 and drove 40 miles west on US-22. The system will calculate what you owe and possibly whether you were speeding. If road usage information is required, then the data for I-9 and US-22 will be updated accordingly. It's not going to archive all the information about what roads you drove on and when. Quite simply, it'll cost way to much, and nobody will be able to justify the enormous cost of tracking every driver all the time.
Get over it. Paranoid conspiracy theories are just that, paranoid. Dictators and mad men who want control and power over individuals get it without GPS devices -- Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Ceasar, etc. all got their power the low-tech way. Our society, and thus our government, revolves around money and profit. GPS in cars is just another way to tax us. So please, if you don't like the idea of a new tax for using roads, say so. But quit the "Big Brother" ramblings. Besides, I always thought that conspiracy theories were the domain of the Pat Robertson and the religious right.
Slashdot Mirror
That's because you ignore the ads. The first ad you see when you google "Pontiac" will be for KBB.com, and when you click on it and enter your zip code, the site will have Pontiac pre-loaded, presumably to tell you how good Pontiacs are. But besides that, I fail to see your point. Google'r reputation is that they provide an accurate and relevent view of the internet. If there's nobody out there saying just how good Ponitac is, that's not Google's fault, nor is it Google's fault that Pontiac claimed that there were. How is any of this a "slow trend towards 'evil'"?
AOL's already driving "Computer Docs -- when your computer's ill we're the pill" out of business...
1. - Forget your password? Have your password mailed to you by entering your nickname, uid, or email address.
2. - I think Bill Gates just might have the power to get them some free licenses... maybe?
Bill Gates has been a great help to our economy. Please remember that it was innovation and forward thinking that brought MS to the point where he could use advertising and branding to push his product. And if advertising gives a company an unfair advantage, then nobody is helping our economy. Not Disney, not Apple, not Lays Potato chips, not Pepsi or Coke, or Monster.com, or E*Trade, or {...the list could go for ever...}. And "...the world would have been better off without Windows"? You poor, misguided soul. Pray tell, without Windows, what would the masses have been using lo these many years? Windows got the market share b/c it has always been the best operating system. Not perfect, but by far the best and easiest to use, and always a few steps ahead of the compitition. As a software developer, I have my share of gripes about Microsoft products, but I use them because Windows is better than Linux, .Net is better than Java (or anything else I have tried), and Office has no compititon.
I interviewed with the Gates Foundation back in 1999. Unlike some other very flush charities in the greater Seattle area, they had every appearance of not overpaying for anything. They seemed very frugal (and their offer confirmed it). My conversations with them were all about how to cuts costs when delivering technologies for their library program. Linux was even being used in some cases. Sorry non-believers, but the Gates' side project is 100% legit and they certainly deserved Time magazine's praise.
OK, I have to question the veracity of this story on 2 counts:
1. Posted by Anonymous Coward
2. Why would an organization that has free access to MS software use Linux to cut costs?
I'm sorry, I guess I haven't been paying attention. What conservative ever claimed that eliminating public education for anyone over 11 years old would allow parents save for a superior private education? The whole "voucher" thing is as close as it gets, AFAIK, and it's not even in the ballpark. His statement is not conservative simply becuase some parts of it sound like somthing a conservative might want. The "pipedreams" of an Anarcho-Capitalist are hardly basis for commentary on the conservative movement.
Another Conservative Pipedream bites the dust
Please...try "Another Anarcho-Capitalist Pipedream bites the dust". You should really look at who's posting before you go slapping labels on their beliefs...
Hacking is not for everyone, but being able to find holes in security IS a job skill. As a Network Admin, a QA analyst, or a Software Engineer trying to create secure software, the ability to spot vulnerabilities is key. Hacking (or cracking, if you prefer) into a system that you've set up yourself is a great hands-on learning experience. I will agree that hacking into a system that does not belong to you is immoral, and fortunatly this student has realized this and moved on to one that does, and encourages others to do the same. The knowledge gained by this activity can be used for either good or bad, but that's pretty universal when it comes to knowledge. The knowledge itself is pretty much amoral.
/. paid much attention to grammer...
(Side to student) Ignore the comment about grammer -- not many people on
The amount of energy consumed by the first coil in the transformer (the one plugged into the wall) is proportional to the amount of energy consumed by the second coil (the one with the switch in it). This is because a coil stores energy like a capacitor. There is a finite amount of energy that the coil can store, so when that amount of energy has been stored, the coil will no longer draw a current (this works very much like a switch). When the stored energy is used, (for example, when a current is induced in the second coil), the coil will draw enough of a current to replace it. So, when you turn off the switch on the second coil, the first coil will cease to draw a current (of course, a small amount of energy will be dissapated in the form of heat, since there is no such thing as an ideal conductor). This is why your power company can put several step-down transformers in the power grid as electricity finds it's way from the generation plants to your house, and yet the load on the generation plants varies based upon the amount of power used, not by the number of transformers in the grid.
This is also a good concept to remember in the context of this discussion. A CRT uses a very large electro-magnetic coil. When you first power this coil up, it draws an enormous current (if your house is wired poorly, you will see your lights dim). That energy is not dissipated, however; rather, it is stored in the coil as an electromagnetic field. As that field is used to control the electron ray that generates the image on the screen, the electromagnetic field is consumed, and the coil draws a current (much smaller than the initial current) in order to replace it. When the CRT goes into standby, that electromagnetic field is no longer being consumed, and the only current being drawn represents the energy being dissipated as heat -- the more efficient the design, the lower this current will be. Remember, there is a large amount of energy stored in the coil, and a small amount of energy being consumed. When you switch off the CRT, the circuit of which the coil is a part is broken. When this circuit is broken, the entire electromagnetic field will be dissipated at once as an electromagnetic pulse, wasting all of the energy that it was storing. So, depending on how often you use it, standby may waste less energy that repetedly turning the device on and then off again.
...drawn on January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled that "the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn." Do not fool yourself into thinking that an organism that is part human part pig will be given civil rights that are denied to one that is fully human, yet unborn. Of course, if one pig-man sits down on a bus and refuses to move, and another declares "I have a dream", anything could happen...
So are you suggesting that we should repeal laws against robbery? Do you really think that you could protect your property if robbery were legal? Your watchful neighbors and private policing company are a supplement to the law enforcement in your area, which is no doubt inadequate. However, they would be useless if robbery was not punishable under law.
The same is true of phone numbers and mailing addresses. I just moved and had to notify everybody of my new contact info. Why should the internet be any different?
Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the presses; freedom of speech belongs to anybody who can speak.
you yada, yada, yada'd over the most important part of the 5th ammendment. "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ...". He had his day in court.
Faster Wifi with fewer problems with overlapping AP's maybe. The reclamation of the commercial broadcast spectrum will not help speed up wi-fi. Wi-Fi (and wireless phones) operate on 2+ GHz frequencies. Broadcast radio gets up to 106.9 MHz. Trying to utilize frequencies in that range would be 20 times slower than current wi-fi implementations. Sorry.
How did this get a score of 5? Why does anybody have to hide anything from Pat Robertson? Who's saying who you can have sex with and how (other than limiting the "who" to consenting adults and the "where" to "not in a public restroom)? Other than laws to protect classified government data I'm not aware of any limits on what you can read, and other than laws that protect children from exploitation, you can view pretty much anything you want (as long as you don't invade someone else's privacy). And thought police are coming soon? Please -- we can barely afford to pay the conventional police. Nobody is interested in shelling out the cash for thought police. As for those (and this has to be a reference to Microsoft) who want to "[lock] you in to their meager offerings and [make] you there cash cow in perpetuity", I admit that it's a problem but it's a by-product of capitalism, and the motive is profit, not control over your life. As for the topic at hand, I do have to admit that I don't like the thought of being charged a road usage fee. Buying gas and maintaining my car is bad enough -- I don't need to be getting a bill every month based on how much driving I had to do. That said, the capacity to track your every movement using this data would be prohibitively expensive. We are talking about massive amounts of data that will have to be rolled up as it comes in. For example, say your car reports that you got onto I-9 at exit 20, drove 30 miles, got off at exit 7 and drove 40 miles west on US-22. The system will calculate what you owe and possibly whether you were speeding. If road usage information is required, then the data for I-9 and US-22 will be updated accordingly. It's not going to archive all the information about what roads you drove on and when. Quite simply, it'll cost way to much, and nobody will be able to justify the enormous cost of tracking every driver all the time. Get over it. Paranoid conspiracy theories are just that, paranoid. Dictators and mad men who want control and power over individuals get it without GPS devices -- Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Ceasar, etc. all got their power the low-tech way. Our society, and thus our government, revolves around money and profit. GPS in cars is just another way to tax us. So please, if you don't like the idea of a new tax for using roads, say so. But quit the "Big Brother" ramblings. Besides, I always thought that conspiracy theories were the domain of the Pat Robertson and the religious right.