No wonder there's a shortage of humor on television lately. There aren't a lot of dumb Texans left:)
Serious stuff: Best high school in America is in Dallas, Texas public schools are considered the best in the nation, rising IQ scores in spite of large poor immigrant population, et cetera
Oh, and before someone says it, Dubya is NOT a Texan and was not educated in Texas. He's a product of the northeast.
If Microsoft's DRM becomes the industry standard, that's hardly a monopoly. It's like saying the makers of QWERTY keyboards are killing off the makers of alternatives like Dvorak.
DRM is far from dead. Right now, they're trying to make it harder to create, distribute, and find pirated material implementing those unfettered formats. What they need to be doing is making DRM-enabled content affordable, accessible, and useable.
What the industry needs is good, common-sense DRM. Today's DRM doesn't allow for things going public domain. It's not flexible enough to allow users to do what they want (and is legal) with what they paid for. They are presently erring on the side of profit...that's not going to work with consumers long-term.
There's a potential abuse. Now how do we prevent it without throwing the whole idea out the window?
See, that's how things like this should be approached. Not with knee-jerk patriotism or paranoia. Our government is fallible, but not malicious. They aren't out to get you (most of the time) and they realize that ultimately their jobs are subject to our approval...it's just painfully hard to press the people into disapproving of something.
If you aren't Al Qaeda, if you aren't calling Al Qaeda, and if Al Qaeda isn't calling you then you aren't being spied upon without a warrant.
It's not quite that simple. I'm not terribly worried by this information, but at the same time there are a lot more of us under investigation than there are Al Queda in America. Why? Because some perfectly innocent people are engaging in patterns which fit the profile of potential terrorists. It's the same reason cops stop someone for speeding and wind up searching their vehicle for drugs. Something prompts them to think they'll find something, and they're right often enough to continue the practice.
Not every car searched has drugs. Not every person investigated is a terrorist. But so far as we know right now, they have reason to suspect each person they target is a terrorist or has ties to one.
It's a database of numbers calling numbers. It's also the largest database in the world. I honestly don't see where it could be a threat to me unless the NSA has decided to investigate me for some reason.
In all reality, this database will probably only be used to search for calling patterns by people being investigated, looking for their regular contacts. Ideally, this thing could, from a single suspect, identify an entire terrorist cell and their point of contact outside the US.
There is always the worry of the slippery slope, though. Could this be used for something more nefarious than simply looking for networks of bad guys? Probably. What we need to do is identify potential abuses and demand accountability so that the system can't be used in the wrong way.
Rather than simply labelling this a Bad Thing, we should see if there's a way to make it work without threatening the average citizen. It is too useful to dismiss because it might be used against us.
Steve Jobs has not farted in three days. Mac zealots dismissive of investor concerns.
Re:Recommendation
on
SQL Cookbook
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Google has failed me a few times with PHP issues, the cookbook has helped fill in the gaps there.
Problems with finding answers on the web:
1) The code for the answers to problem A and problem B don't necessarily work together
2) The code is of questionable quality. I'm six months in to teaching myself PHP (and CSS, SQL, and a few web server applications) and I can tell you that the code I wrote just two months ago was utter crap, largely because it was based on web tutorials that completely neglected good practices.
3) I have no prior experience or training with programming, which makes it hard to even know where to start looking for a solution. Books like this have helped me learn how to know what I need to search for.
Recommendation
on
SQL Cookbook
·
· Score: 3, Informative
As most people I know learn SQL and PHP together, if you're to the point that this book would be of benefit to you, I'd suggest also getting the PHP Cookbook. That book has done wonders on improving the quality of my code.
I've heard that, and I've watched the demos. I doubt it will be as comfortable as a mouse, and certainly not as ergonomic for longer playing session.
In a tactical FPS, I can take up a strong defensive position, look down on an area, and take a moment to stretch my fingers and relax my wrist while things are quiet without my view changing. All I have to do is turn the mouse loose.
Also, I'm hearing some semi-negative things about the Wii's controller concerning FPS. Basically what's being said by a few people is that while the controls are more natural than the thumbsticks of current consoles, it is still speed limited on turning, a la Halo 2 (a reaction to people experimenting with mice on the XBOX). That may just be a "feature" of the first generation of games, or it might be something of a policy that comes from years of catering to console gamers.
And it's still nowhere near as intuitive as a mouse for RTS.
Not to derail, but the definition of "theft" does include "ideas" (Webster's Unabridged, 2001 if you need a source), which would indicate that intellectual property like song lyrics can indeed be stolen.
Now, if you're saying that it's not *legally* theft, you're right. But, then, there are a lot of laws that call theft something else...like larceny.
I've long said that consoles and PCs are completely different animals in the gaming scene because of their controls. Try as you might, you won't find a gaming interface among the new consoles that can compare to the keyboard and mouse in two genres: first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games.
I hope that some day soon we'll see onlines services and games that allow PC and console gamers to go head-to-head without artificially handicapping controls. I've spent quite a bit of time on both, and I believe without a doubt that console players would demand handicapping after a few months of gaming against people who enjoy the superior control of a mouse.
Of course, PC gamers would have to rush out and buy game pads to compete in a lot of other genres.
You forgot about the mercenaries planted in the press rooms?
Propaganda != suffocation.
You forgot about expert scientists being stifled just because they don't tow the party line?
Politics as usual. They all pick and choose who they listen to and who they endorse, especially as science is concerned. There have been plenty of experts ignored by every administration, ever. I don't consider that unusual or oppressive, just stupid.
Remember when the administration was casting the Iraq war as a retaliation? "You are either with us or you are against us."
No, I don't remember that. I do remember tenuous attempts at linking Iraq and Al Queda that were dismissed long before the ivasion of Iraq. I remember that WMDs and the pursuit of them were always the major talking point. I remember that the president's biggest PR mistake ever was totally bungling the handling of information when it was realized that WMDs would never be found.
Remember when the president claimed that he only imprisons the bad guys?
Yes, and he probably really believed it at the time. He was certainly *told* by the people who actually imprisoned them that they were bad guys.
Now think of the Abu Ghraib scandal and ask yourself that question about "inhuman and dirty" things.
I just knew that would be brought up. Which is why I specifically said "directly attributed". There is no evidence at this point that Bush had any knowledge of--much less a role in--what happened there.
Remember their unprecedented gerrymandering in Texas?
I live in Texas. I remember it well. I remember how the Democrats used it to retain control for years, and when the Republicans took control they did the same. I also remember that Bush had very little to do with that, seeing as he was president at the time.
As for free speech, consider the executive order banning the televising of US flag-draped coffins. I guess they support free speech as long as you don't show images embarrassing to the government.
It's typical during war time to take action to prevent serious morale problems. I don't know a lot about this particular executive order, but I doubt it's any different than quite a few orders from past wars. In other words, it's not exclusive to the Bush "regime" and doesn't indicate anything out of the ordinary.
They have done oppressive things and they clearly will do anything to stay in power (like in 2004).
Feel free to elaborate there, I'd love to know what they did in 2004 to stay in power aside from run a successful (and probably lucky) presidential campaign.
Pretending that everything is warm and fuzzy here in the US is disingenuous.
I won't disagree there, but to pin our problems on one man or one administration is foolish. To think that getting rid of Bush & Crew would solve anything is equally disingenous...our political problems are bigger and older than anything that happened in 2000 or since. The DMCA and the absurd assault rifle (scary-looking weapon) ban are excellent examples of things Bush had nothing to do with.
But I feel I must comment on the fact that this got modded flamebait by not one but TWO people.
I responded to a post stating that McAffee had a distinct conflict of interest, due to their primary interest being that of making money. I pointed out that Apple is equally interested in making money, and if they are going to continue to do that they must expand their user base. This necessarily will include less technical users, and users less-willing to learn things like security.
What I didn't say was that their advertising reflects this. The switch ads and their general anti-PC campaign target people who don't know much anything about Macs and not much more about PCs. They want to attract Average Joe who doesn't have a clue what the difference between BSD and System V is.
Windows is quite capable of being a secure OS, even under the onslaught of thousands of new attempts at breaching it. What makes Windows so insecure is ignorant users who cannot or will not learn to secure their systems from threats and allow those threats to propagate long after they should have been wiped out. If you move those same users over to OSX, they will begin opening or allowing to remain open security holes that will be tapped into as soon as there are enough such holes for malware authors to find them worth attacking.
It's impossible to make an OS perfectly secure. OSX is easier to secure than XP; don't think I'm implying otherwise. It and Linux are designed to be harder to penetrate. I have found that as a result, they are also far less flexible and more difficult to use from the perspective of novice users. I've seen Linux systems that were laid wide open by user ignorance.
So to the posters who wasted mod points on this post: You're nothing but blind zealots. You can't accept a reasonable argument that runs contrary to what you have already decided is the absolute truth. In that sense, you have much in common with the rabid creationists.
The Bush regime is currently trying to suffocate any movements that are active against it's highly inhuman and dirty practices to keep holding power in America yet are trying to fool the world about their support for democracy and free speech.
1) I see no attempts by the administration to "suffocate" those vocal against it. Seen the approval ratings lately? For that matter...are you being suffocated for this criticism?
2) I've yet to see anything that could be described as "highly inhuman and dirty" directly attributed to the presidency.
3) Exactly how are they going to "keep holding power" after 2008?
4) "Their support for democracy and free speech" is apparent in the fact that the 2006 elections are proceeding as normal at this point and the fact that they are not stifling those who openly criticize them (myself included).
There are a lot of things wrong with our current administration, but they are NOT an oppressive dictatorship bent on holding power.
Forgive me, but I find this funny because of how often Apple press releases get repeated here and I never see this sentiment expressed.
Apple is in business to make money. They *want* larger than 4% of the market share. They *want* Joe Consumer to buy a slightly-more-expensive Mac Mini instead of a $500 HP because that means more cash for them to roll in. In other words, Apple's mission is to dilute the technical abilities of their user base and turn it into a pool of Windows users.
Windows is insecure because people don't bother to learn how to make it secure. I know quite a few people who have had XP since its release and never picked up anything worse than a piece of spyware that was packaged with a program they downloaded...which could happen to a Mac just as easily.
If Apple gets what they want, they'll have a large, uneducated userbase just like Microsoft has. They'll have people creating security holes by clicking stuff they shouldn't. They'll have people accepting installations when they don't know what they're doing. They'll have enough users that the botnets will want to tap into the Mac market, and enough stupidity to let them do it.
I would argue that pedophiles, while a much more likely threat than terrorists, have been somewhat overblown by the people who make money and/or power by having the general poplulace afraid of things.
"Pedophile" is a favorite of the news media to grab the people's attention and keep them watching through the commercials.
Just this morning (or maybe last night) I saw yet another report about how pedophiles are using the internet to abuse children. The story: a guy adopted a Russian girl and used her for his personal playtoy. I'm thinking the airline who flew him to Russia played a bigger part in her being abused than the internet, but whatever. Perhaps the Russians need to be a little more selective when giving their children to foreigners. There's a reason, after all, that he didn't adopt a kid here in the States.
My first visit there was at the age of 12...let me tell you, walking down Bourbon Street in the middle of the day nowhere near Mardi Gras, a 12 year old still finds plenty of naughty things to look at when the parents aren't looking.
Slashdot Mirror
Could it be because Zonk likes games?
No wonder there's a shortage of humor on television lately. There aren't a lot of dumb Texans left :)
Serious stuff: Best high school in America is in Dallas, Texas public schools are considered the best in the nation, rising IQ scores in spite of large poor immigrant population, et cetera
Oh, and before someone says it, Dubya is NOT a Texan and was not educated in Texas. He's a product of the northeast.
If Microsoft's DRM becomes the industry standard, that's hardly a monopoly. It's like saying the makers of QWERTY keyboards are killing off the makers of alternatives like Dvorak.
DRM is far from dead. Right now, they're trying to make it harder to create, distribute, and find pirated material implementing those unfettered formats. What they need to be doing is making DRM-enabled content affordable, accessible, and useable.
What the industry needs is good, common-sense DRM. Today's DRM doesn't allow for things going public domain. It's not flexible enough to allow users to do what they want (and is legal) with what they paid for. They are presently erring on the side of profit...that's not going to work with consumers long-term.
You forgot the large black monolith.
Which brings me to wonder...did Apple infringe on the aliens' patent with their new shiny black toys?
There's a potential abuse. Now how do we prevent it without throwing the whole idea out the window?
See, that's how things like this should be approached. Not with knee-jerk patriotism or paranoia. Our government is fallible, but not malicious. They aren't out to get you (most of the time) and they realize that ultimately their jobs are subject to our approval...it's just painfully hard to press the people into disapproving of something.
If you aren't Al Qaeda, if you aren't calling Al Qaeda, and if Al Qaeda isn't calling you then you aren't being spied upon without a warrant.
It's not quite that simple. I'm not terribly worried by this information, but at the same time there are a lot more of us under investigation than there are Al Queda in America. Why? Because some perfectly innocent people are engaging in patterns which fit the profile of potential terrorists. It's the same reason cops stop someone for speeding and wind up searching their vehicle for drugs. Something prompts them to think they'll find something, and they're right often enough to continue the practice.
Not every car searched has drugs. Not every person investigated is a terrorist. But so far as we know right now, they have reason to suspect each person they target is a terrorist or has ties to one.
It's a database of numbers calling numbers. It's also the largest database in the world. I honestly don't see where it could be a threat to me unless the NSA has decided to investigate me for some reason.
In all reality, this database will probably only be used to search for calling patterns by people being investigated, looking for their regular contacts. Ideally, this thing could, from a single suspect, identify an entire terrorist cell and their point of contact outside the US.
There is always the worry of the slippery slope, though. Could this be used for something more nefarious than simply looking for networks of bad guys? Probably. What we need to do is identify potential abuses and demand accountability so that the system can't be used in the wrong way.
Rather than simply labelling this a Bad Thing, we should see if there's a way to make it work without threatening the average citizen. It is too useful to dismiss because it might be used against us.
Steve Jobs has not farted in three days. Mac zealots dismissive of investor concerns.
Google has failed me a few times with PHP issues, the cookbook has helped fill in the gaps there.
Problems with finding answers on the web:
1) The code for the answers to problem A and problem B don't necessarily work together
2) The code is of questionable quality. I'm six months in to teaching myself PHP (and CSS, SQL, and a few web server applications) and I can tell you that the code I wrote just two months ago was utter crap, largely because it was based on web tutorials that completely neglected good practices.
3) I have no prior experience or training with programming, which makes it hard to even know where to start looking for a solution. Books like this have helped me learn how to know what I need to search for.
As most people I know learn SQL and PHP together, if you're to the point that this book would be of benefit to you, I'd suggest also getting the PHP Cookbook. That book has done wonders on improving the quality of my code.
Semantics. Like I said, you can be guilty of theft without the word ever being brought up in a legal capacity.
If I go to jail for larceny, does that mean I didn't commit theft?
I've heard that, and I've watched the demos. I doubt it will be as comfortable as a mouse, and certainly not as ergonomic for longer playing session.
In a tactical FPS, I can take up a strong defensive position, look down on an area, and take a moment to stretch my fingers and relax my wrist while things are quiet without my view changing. All I have to do is turn the mouse loose.
Also, I'm hearing some semi-negative things about the Wii's controller concerning FPS. Basically what's being said by a few people is that while the controls are more natural than the thumbsticks of current consoles, it is still speed limited on turning, a la Halo 2 (a reaction to people experimenting with mice on the XBOX). That may just be a "feature" of the first generation of games, or it might be something of a policy that comes from years of catering to console gamers.
And it's still nowhere near as intuitive as a mouse for RTS.
Not to derail, but the definition of "theft" does include "ideas" (Webster's Unabridged, 2001 if you need a source), which would indicate that intellectual property like song lyrics can indeed be stolen.
Now, if you're saying that it's not *legally* theft, you're right. But, then, there are a lot of laws that call theft something else...like larceny.
I've long said that consoles and PCs are completely different animals in the gaming scene because of their controls. Try as you might, you won't find a gaming interface among the new consoles that can compare to the keyboard and mouse in two genres: first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games.
I hope that some day soon we'll see onlines services and games that allow PC and console gamers to go head-to-head without artificially handicapping controls. I've spent quite a bit of time on both, and I believe without a doubt that console players would demand handicapping after a few months of gaming against people who enjoy the superior control of a mouse.
Of course, PC gamers would have to rush out and buy game pads to compete in a lot of other genres.
Where was anything bad said about Sony?
Just curious.
You forgot about Wilson and Plame?
You forgot about the mercenaries planted in the press rooms?
Propaganda != suffocation.
You forgot about expert scientists being stifled just because they don't tow the party line?
Politics as usual. They all pick and choose who they listen to and who they endorse, especially as science is concerned. There have been plenty of experts ignored by every administration, ever. I don't consider that unusual or oppressive, just stupid.
Remember when the administration was casting the Iraq war as a retaliation? "You are either with us or you are against us."
No, I don't remember that. I do remember tenuous attempts at linking Iraq and Al Queda that were dismissed long before the ivasion of Iraq. I remember that WMDs and the pursuit of them were always the major talking point. I remember that the president's biggest PR mistake ever was totally bungling the handling of information when it was realized that WMDs would never be found.
Remember when the president claimed that he only imprisons the bad guys?
Yes, and he probably really believed it at the time. He was certainly *told* by the people who actually imprisoned them that they were bad guys.
Now think of the Abu Ghraib scandal and ask yourself that question about "inhuman and dirty" things.
I just knew that would be brought up. Which is why I specifically said "directly attributed". There is no evidence at this point that Bush had any knowledge of--much less a role in--what happened there.
Remember their unprecedented gerrymandering in Texas?
I live in Texas. I remember it well. I remember how the Democrats used it to retain control for years, and when the Republicans took control they did the same. I also remember that Bush had very little to do with that, seeing as he was president at the time.
As for free speech, consider the executive order banning the televising of US flag-draped coffins. I guess they support free speech as long as you don't show images embarrassing to the government.
It's typical during war time to take action to prevent serious morale problems. I don't know a lot about this particular executive order, but I doubt it's any different than quite a few orders from past wars. In other words, it's not exclusive to the Bush "regime" and doesn't indicate anything out of the ordinary.
They have done oppressive things and they clearly will do anything to stay in power (like in 2004).
Feel free to elaborate there, I'd love to know what they did in 2004 to stay in power aside from run a successful (and probably lucky) presidential campaign.
Pretending that everything is warm and fuzzy here in the US is disingenuous.
I won't disagree there, but to pin our problems on one man or one administration is foolish. To think that getting rid of Bush & Crew would solve anything is equally disingenous...our political problems are bigger and older than anything that happened in 2000 or since. The DMCA and the absurd assault rifle (scary-looking weapon) ban are excellent examples of things Bush had nothing to do with.
But I feel I must comment on the fact that this got modded flamebait by not one but TWO people.
I responded to a post stating that McAffee had a distinct conflict of interest, due to their primary interest being that of making money. I pointed out that Apple is equally interested in making money, and if they are going to continue to do that they must expand their user base. This necessarily will include less technical users, and users less-willing to learn things like security.
What I didn't say was that their advertising reflects this. The switch ads and their general anti-PC campaign target people who don't know much anything about Macs and not much more about PCs. They want to attract Average Joe who doesn't have a clue what the difference between BSD and System V is.
Windows is quite capable of being a secure OS, even under the onslaught of thousands of new attempts at breaching it. What makes Windows so insecure is ignorant users who cannot or will not learn to secure their systems from threats and allow those threats to propagate long after they should have been wiped out. If you move those same users over to OSX, they will begin opening or allowing to remain open security holes that will be tapped into as soon as there are enough such holes for malware authors to find them worth attacking.
It's impossible to make an OS perfectly secure. OSX is easier to secure than XP; don't think I'm implying otherwise. It and Linux are designed to be harder to penetrate. I have found that as a result, they are also far less flexible and more difficult to use from the perspective of novice users. I've seen Linux systems that were laid wide open by user ignorance.
So to the posters who wasted mod points on this post: You're nothing but blind zealots. You can't accept a reasonable argument that runs contrary to what you have already decided is the absolute truth. In that sense, you have much in common with the rabid creationists.
Someone actually modded this post up?
Let's do that word replace, shall we?
The Bush regime is currently trying to suffocate any movements that are active against it's highly inhuman and dirty practices to keep holding power in America yet are trying to fool the world about their support for democracy and free speech.
1) I see no attempts by the administration to "suffocate" those vocal against it. Seen the approval ratings lately? For that matter...are you being suffocated for this criticism?
2) I've yet to see anything that could be described as "highly inhuman and dirty" directly attributed to the presidency.
3) Exactly how are they going to "keep holding power" after 2008?
4) "Their support for democracy and free speech" is apparent in the fact that the 2006 elections are proceeding as normal at this point and the fact that they are not stifling those who openly criticize them (myself included).
There are a lot of things wrong with our current administration, but they are NOT an oppressive dictatorship bent on holding power.
Forgive me, but I find this funny because of how often Apple press releases get repeated here and I never see this sentiment expressed.
Apple is in business to make money. They *want* larger than 4% of the market share. They *want* Joe Consumer to buy a slightly-more-expensive Mac Mini instead of a $500 HP because that means more cash for them to roll in. In other words, Apple's mission is to dilute the technical abilities of their user base and turn it into a pool of Windows users.
Windows is insecure because people don't bother to learn how to make it secure. I know quite a few people who have had XP since its release and never picked up anything worse than a piece of spyware that was packaged with a program they downloaded...which could happen to a Mac just as easily.
If Apple gets what they want, they'll have a large, uneducated userbase just like Microsoft has. They'll have people creating security holes by clicking stuff they shouldn't. They'll have people accepting installations when they don't know what they're doing. They'll have enough users that the botnets will want to tap into the Mac market, and enough stupidity to let them do it.
I can remember seeing it in very small print in C&C Generals...when you log on to the multiplayer server.
In the interest of giving people as little as possible to complain about, why not put it on the box.
"This game includes multiplayer capabilities. Content of multiplayer games may vary and is not included in the ESRB rating printed on the box."
and
"This game gives users the ability to modify the game experience. Any third-party modifications cannot be guaranteed to fit within the ESRB rating."
Or something like those.
Isn't Counter-Strike rated teen?
I recall there being a lot of custom sprays depecting explicit...err...content.
How about a standard ESRB warning:
"ESRB ratings do not reflect potential changes to content by online or modified play."
I would argue that pedophiles, while a much more likely threat than terrorists, have been somewhat overblown by the people who make money and/or power by having the general poplulace afraid of things.
"Pedophile" is a favorite of the news media to grab the people's attention and keep them watching through the commercials.
Just this morning (or maybe last night) I saw yet another report about how pedophiles are using the internet to abuse children. The story: a guy adopted a Russian girl and used her for his personal playtoy. I'm thinking the airline who flew him to Russia played a bigger part in her being abused than the internet, but whatever. Perhaps the Russians need to be a little more selective when giving their children to foreigners. There's a reason, after all, that he didn't adopt a kid here in the States.
Ever been to New Orleans?
My first visit there was at the age of 12...let me tell you, walking down Bourbon Street in the middle of the day nowhere near Mardi Gras, a 12 year old still finds plenty of naughty things to look at when the parents aren't looking.
The difference with Hot Coffee was that the content was part of the game, people simply gained access to it.
This is like rating Half-Life AO because someone might release a multiplayer porn mod.
For that matter...have you *SEEN* some of the stuff that's been done with Garry's Mod?
HL2...it's not for kids any more. (not that it ever was, but whatever).