Actually, anti-personnel landmines (not precisely the topic at hand) are often desisgned specifically to NOT do lethal damage, in order to burden the opposing force's resources.
Kill a human drone, and you have to pay a few hours' labour to dig a hole to stick him/her in, then move on to replacing him with another. Maimed people have to be supported while they heal (either by a military or civilian medical system), and often for the rest of their natural life if the injuries preclude them from supporting themselves, and then replace whatever role(s) they played in the military and/or economy.
That's why insurance policies pay much more for loss of limb than for loss of life.
Through its spokeswoman, Microsoft said that "80% of all WGA validation failures are due to unauthorized use of leaked or stolen volume license keys."
The use of the word "stolen" here makes me think that they'll justify shutting down legitimate users because they allegedly "shared" their licence key. "When you're old enough to take care of your licence key, then we'll let you drive the windows car."
I work at a nonprofit which has a contract with our local government to carry out a contract on an ongoing basis. The city doesn't give us enough money to pay our staff extravagantly, and at one point, even hired our staffperson away from us to work for the department which holds our contract.
This is a place where a non-compete clause would be very useful, and would help build trust by removing the alternative.
(They got their just desserts, as this person later went to work for a different city at more than our city was paying him.)
A way to visualize what he is saying would be to take two overlapping cones/triangles, one with the point aiming up, one with the point aiming down, like a star-of-david, or an angular hourglass.
The cone with the point at the top represents one person (A, for ancestor) who lived X years ago and their descendants. The cone with the point at the bottom represents one person (D for descendant) who lives today and their ancestors. Any overlap is where A and D share mutual ancestors/descendants.
Using this representation, the argument here is that there exists (erm, existed) a person A, for whom every human who is alive today falls into their descendancy cone. Or more importantly, they assert that this is inevitable, and sufficient time has passed such that it has already happened. The key, according to this visual model, is that "now" is below the line where the two cones cross.
Actually, here in Canada, cable TV companies are not allowed to stop satellite TV companies from buying advertising time on their channels. While I'm not opposed to this principle (as it seems to counter the regulations that let CNN refuse Adbusters' ads), it has its downsides.
Not only are there now a slew of satellite TV ads, but also a comparable slew of cable TV counter-ads. For something that you already buy and use!
If I'm a US Democratic Party canditate, and I come across someone who disagrees with my party's platform, I'd much rather send them to the Republican party than to split the market further. And the internet is a much more volatile market than this example.
Where are these people? How is it that they have any money at all?
I was just talking to a colleague of mine. We both work for the same security company, and both of us saw through their "sorry, but we only hire people who go through our $200 security academy course" BS. He had a friend in the company who assured him he'd have a job as soon as he got through the course, and I simply used a clever trick (combining two separate advertisements into one logical argument, making it seem embarrassing if they didn't accept the implication) to get hired without the stupid course.
He told me that there were about 200 people in each class, and a majority of them were told "sorry, we don't have any places for you, but we've sent your resume to a bunch of other security companies [who also have their own scamtastic security academies]." These people had all fallen for the claim that "most people who take the course will probably get hired", with plenty of weasel words.
The ironic thing is that even though an ideal security guard would think independently, they're so used to dealing with these brainless subordinates that they don't know how to give respect to those employees who are deserving of it. Kinda like the [flamebait redacted] party...
However, there is always the chance that he had a friend genuinely interested in doing artwork.
Perhaps (and others have replied to this), but the purpose of scambaiting is to create enough indirect strain on the scammer (usually through wasting their time) to make it less worthwhile.
In the event that there was a genuine artist involved, then he/she would have learned the lesson to not trust that scammer. In fact, if the scammer had told them "I'll pay you as soon as I get money from this guy," and never paid the artist, then there'd be someone local to the scammer who got ripped off, and can use Nigeria's convenient [lack of a] justice system to add another dimension of pressure.
That said, taking an eye for an eye is a pretty stupid idea if it's illegal in your country but legal in theirs. Best to stick to wasting their time than impersonating police.
When I first started blogging (not that I claim to be/have been very good at it), I used a pseudonym (which at the time was anonymous), even though I didn't have anything to hide (and still don't, really).
However, as I grew more attached to the pseudonym, using it on more and more web fora, and eventually my e-mail address, I eventually realized that someone spending a few minutes would, in fact, be able to identify me.
I just got a new apartment, and my landlord, nice guy that he is, put a punch-tape label with my name on it on my mailbox. Despite the fact that I won't be using it (I use a PO box because I move so often), I don't want to be accused of a crime or something because some drunk/high/sick wacko copied my name and address down off of my mailbox (which has happened with my online pseudonym + signoff).
But even if you have absolutely nothing to hide, it's still a good idea to retain your right to anonymity, otherwise we'd live in a world where you are expected to immediately and automatically disclose when you are in the majority (christian, straight, etc.), anybody who answers "I don't want to say," or even "why do you ask?" is given the minority label. In some places/times, that can be very detrimental. I believe the motto for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island is Latin for "the weak under the protection of the strong".
Laws regarding internet access and control of them are terribly stupid.
Maybe (maybe), it should be necessary for prosecution to demonstrate that the computer accessing the internet at the time had the same MAC address as one you have in your possession.
If I left a shopping cart unlocked in my front driveway, and put a sign on it saying, "feel free to borrow this, but please return it when you're done", do you really think I'd be held responsible if someone used it to bash old ladies in the street?
Let's be glad you weren't the one making the decisions when the gasoline engine was invented. Unless, of course you prefer to walk or ride a horse everywhere you go.
Me, I ride a bike. But the car only became anywhere near as successful long after gasoline engines were first invented.
Also, when automobiles first started appearing on the roads, there were comparable numbers of gasoline-, electric-, and steam-powered vehicles. The primary reason for gasoline engines taking off so well was Henry Ford's manufacturing techniques, and marketing.
Offtopic? But, non!
Marketing is also what is bringing us this litany of useless technological crap, which the grandparent post complains about.
And throughout the 20th century, there has always been a litany of useless technological crap (patent medecines, anyone?) for people to be suckered into buying by so many clever schemers. Only the good stuff gets remembered in the heroic glory of redundant slashdot links to articles on "the best [number] inventions of the [time period]." The rest are relegated to the unenviable shame of redundant slashdot links to articles on "the worst [number] inventions of the [time period]."
Well, I live in Canada, and I'm moving on July 1. I was planning on switching from Rogers (Bell Canada's Big Sibling) to Bell Sympatico, but after reading this article (er, summary), I'll shop around for a smaller hispeed ISP.
IANATP (I am not a Thousand People), but at least I'll be doing my part to take power away from the oligopoly.
Actually, most criminological studies on neighbourhood watch have shown that they don't reduce crime; they're simply politically popular.
There is one very specific variety of neighbourhood watch, called "coccoon" neighbourhood watch, which has been shown to be effective in crime prevention, but other than that, they're mostly wasting police resources in places (i.e. rich communities) that already have low crime.
And then sales of blank CDRs will sky rocket and consumers will respond to surveys by saying that they just loved the puppy dog eyes on their CDs that they buy packs of 100 just because they are so cute!
I think they'd be more turned off by the pre-recorded Celine Dion song about not stealing music.
I'm also not going to sacrifice my precious bandwidth to make WB money.
No, you see, it doesn't make money for WB, it saves it.
That way, WB will have more resources available to produce more of its spectacular smash hits like The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Eight Legged Frieks, and... um... oh I give up.
Moreover, if I were the guy who submitted the ask/., I'd care because I could, theoretically, market directly to Geek Squad's customers and raise my prices, but only to a level where my company would be undercutting Geek Squad.
I've never heard of them before, but if Best Buy's "Geek Squad" people are as incompetent as they appear to be on this thread, I'd leave a virtual copy of my business card on the customer's desktop, with rates for repair.
The only solution for this type of BS is strict enforcement.
The only reason that whole litanies of individuals, companies, governments, and institutions are sitting pretty with many pirated copies of MS Office is because Microsoft only enforces the licensing occasionally, to be able to say that they do still care about it.
However, if they enforced and punished every incident of piracy (as they're trying to do with the Windows Genuine Advantage tool), then more people would experience firsthand the detriment of piracy, and the advantage of FOSS alternatives. More people would use FOSS, and the market share would increase, making further development accelerate.
My first experience with online course content was actually a tangential link from a slashdot comment to an MIT online course. I watched a couple of episodes--er, lectures. (One of the universities in my hometown has long had a cable channel to broadcast its lectures whether or not you are a student. I remember switching between the equally-captivating cognitive psych teacher and the Joe Schmo show)
I like it a lot, as you go to (undergrad) university (classes) not to learn, but to get a piece of paper that says you've been taught.
So, who is more generous? Mr. Buffet or Mr. Middle-class-working-stiff? Who is more deserving of hosannas?
Actually, there was an column in the Ottawa Citizen on June 6 ("Give it up", p. A12) that reported on a recent Statistics Canada report. Only 20 percent of the population (in Canada, of course) make up 82% of donated money.
These people tend to be in the upper end of society. It's actually the middle-class that isn't pulling its weight.
(unfortunately, I could not quickly track down the report itself)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, anti-personnel landmines (not precisely the topic at hand) are often desisgned specifically to NOT do lethal damage, in order to burden the opposing force's resources.
Kill a human drone, and you have to pay a few hours' labour to dig a hole to stick him/her in, then move on to replacing him with another. Maimed people have to be supported while they heal (either by a military or civilian medical system), and often for the rest of their natural life if the injuries preclude them from supporting themselves, and then replace whatever role(s) they played in the military and/or economy.
That's why insurance policies pay much more for loss of limb than for loss of life.
- RG>
Having used a number of different Corel products, I can say that *none of them* were particularly thrilling to use.
CorelDraw 9 (re-released two years later with Corel PhotoPaint 9 as "CorelDraw Essentials"):
"Open CorelDraw and document"
"Modify one element"
"Save"
"Crash"
"Shut down CorelDraw in Task Manager"
"Repeat"
- RG>
The use of the word "stolen" here makes me think that they'll justify shutting down legitimate users because they allegedly "shared" their licence key. "When you're old enough to take care of your licence key, then we'll let you drive the windows car."
- RG>
I work at a nonprofit which has a contract with our local government to carry out a contract on an ongoing basis. The city doesn't give us enough money to pay our staff extravagantly, and at one point, even hired our staffperson away from us to work for the department which holds our contract.
This is a place where a non-compete clause would be very useful, and would help build trust by removing the alternative.
(They got their just desserts, as this person later went to work for a different city at more than our city was paying him.)
- RG>
A way to visualize what he is saying would be to take two overlapping cones/triangles, one with the point aiming up, one with the point aiming down, like a star-of-david, or an angular hourglass.
The cone with the point at the top represents one person (A, for ancestor) who lived X years ago and their descendants. The cone with the point at the bottom represents one person (D for descendant) who lives today and their ancestors. Any overlap is where A and D share mutual ancestors/descendants.
Using this representation, the argument here is that there exists (erm, existed) a person A, for whom every human who is alive today falls into their descendancy cone. Or more importantly, they assert that this is inevitable, and sufficient time has passed such that it has already happened. The key, according to this visual model, is that "now" is below the line where the two cones cross.
- RG>
Actually, here in Canada, cable TV companies are not allowed to stop satellite TV companies from buying advertising time on their channels. While I'm not opposed to this principle (as it seems to counter the regulations that let CNN refuse Adbusters' ads), it has its downsides.
Not only are there now a slew of satellite TV ads, but also a comparable slew of cable TV counter-ads. For something that you already buy and use!
- RG>
If I'm a US Democratic Party canditate, and I come across someone who disagrees with my party's platform, I'd much rather send them to the Republican party than to split the market further. And the internet is a much more volatile market than this example.
- RG>
I was just talking to a colleague of mine. We both work for the same security company, and both of us saw through their "sorry, but we only hire people who go through our $200 security academy course" BS. He had a friend in the company who assured him he'd have a job as soon as he got through the course, and I simply used a clever trick (combining two separate advertisements into one logical argument, making it seem embarrassing if they didn't accept the implication) to get hired without the stupid course.
He told me that there were about 200 people in each class, and a majority of them were told "sorry, we don't have any places for you, but we've sent your resume to a bunch of other security companies [who also have their own scamtastic security academies]." These people had all fallen for the claim that "most people who take the course will probably get hired", with plenty of weasel words.
The ironic thing is that even though an ideal security guard would think independently, they're so used to dealing with these brainless subordinates that they don't know how to give respect to those employees who are deserving of it. Kinda like the [flamebait redacted] party...
- RG>
Perhaps (and others have replied to this), but the purpose of scambaiting is to create enough indirect strain on the scammer (usually through wasting their time) to make it less worthwhile.
In the event that there was a genuine artist involved, then he/she would have learned the lesson to not trust that scammer. In fact, if the scammer had told them "I'll pay you as soon as I get money from this guy," and never paid the artist, then there'd be someone local to the scammer who got ripped off, and can use Nigeria's convenient [lack of a] justice system to add another dimension of pressure.
That said, taking an eye for an eye is a pretty stupid idea if it's illegal in your country but legal in theirs. Best to stick to wasting their time than impersonating police.
- RG>
When I first started blogging (not that I claim to be/have been very good at it), I used a pseudonym (which at the time was anonymous), even though I didn't have anything to hide (and still don't, really).
However, as I grew more attached to the pseudonym, using it on more and more web fora, and eventually my e-mail address, I eventually realized that someone spending a few minutes would, in fact, be able to identify me.
I just got a new apartment, and my landlord, nice guy that he is, put a punch-tape label with my name on it on my mailbox. Despite the fact that I won't be using it (I use a PO box because I move so often), I don't want to be accused of a crime or something because some drunk/high/sick wacko copied my name and address down off of my mailbox (which has happened with my online pseudonym + signoff).
But even if you have absolutely nothing to hide, it's still a good idea to retain your right to anonymity, otherwise we'd live in a world where you are expected to immediately and automatically disclose when you are in the majority (christian, straight, etc.), anybody who answers "I don't want to say," or even "why do you ask?" is given the minority label. In some places/times, that can be very detrimental. I believe the motto for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island is Latin for "the weak under the protection of the strong".
- RG>
Lack of entertainment != lack of information.
- RG>
Laws regarding internet access and control of them are terribly stupid.
Maybe (maybe), it should be necessary for prosecution to demonstrate that the computer accessing the internet at the time had the same MAC address as one you have in your possession.
If I left a shopping cart unlocked in my front driveway, and put a sign on it saying, "feel free to borrow this, but please return it when you're done", do you really think I'd be held responsible if someone used it to bash old ladies in the street?
- RG>
Yes, Steve Ballmer is behind the wheel.
- RG>
Me, I ride a bike. But the car only became anywhere near as successful long after gasoline engines were first invented.
Also, when automobiles first started appearing on the roads, there were comparable numbers of gasoline-, electric-, and steam-powered vehicles. The primary reason for gasoline engines taking off so well was Henry Ford's manufacturing techniques, and marketing.
Offtopic? But, non!
Marketing is also what is bringing us this litany of useless technological crap, which the grandparent post complains about.
And throughout the 20th century, there has always been a litany of useless technological crap (patent medecines, anyone?) for people to be suckered into buying by so many clever schemers. Only the good stuff gets remembered in the heroic glory of redundant slashdot links to articles on "the best [number] inventions of the [time period]." The rest are relegated to the unenviable shame of redundant slashdot links to articles on "the worst [number] inventions of the [time period]."
- RG>
No, I think this computer-generated graphic is shaded differently than the last one...
- RG>
Well, I live in Canada, and I'm moving on July 1. I was planning on switching from Rogers (Bell Canada's Big Sibling) to Bell Sympatico, but after reading this article (er, summary), I'll shop around for a smaller hispeed ISP.
IANATP (I am not a Thousand People), but at least I'll be doing my part to take power away from the oligopoly.
- RG>
Actually, most criminological studies on neighbourhood watch have shown that they don't reduce crime; they're simply politically popular.
There is one very specific variety of neighbourhood watch, called "coccoon" neighbourhood watch, which has been shown to be effective in crime prevention, but other than that, they're mostly wasting police resources in places (i.e. rich communities) that already have low crime.
- RG>
I think they'd be more turned off by the pre-recorded Celine Dion song about not stealing music.
- RG>
No, you see, it doesn't make money for WB, it saves it.
That way, WB will have more resources available to produce more of its spectacular smash hits like The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Eight Legged Frieks, and... um... oh I give up.
- RG>
stupid adobe pdfs .... grumble...
[this is where my comments would be if my browser didn't freeze]
- RG>
I've never heard of them before, but if Best Buy's "Geek Squad" people are as incompetent as they appear to be on this thread, I'd leave a virtual copy of my business card on the customer's desktop, with rates for repair.
- RG>
The only solution for this type of BS is strict enforcement.
The only reason that whole litanies of individuals, companies, governments, and institutions are sitting pretty with many pirated copies of MS Office is because Microsoft only enforces the licensing occasionally, to be able to say that they do still care about it.
However, if they enforced and punished every incident of piracy (as they're trying to do with the Windows Genuine Advantage tool), then more people would experience firsthand the detriment of piracy, and the advantage of FOSS alternatives. More people would use FOSS, and the market share would increase, making further development accelerate.
It has to get worse before it gets better.
- RG>
My first experience with online course content was actually a tangential link from a slashdot comment to an MIT online course. I watched a couple of episodes--er, lectures. (One of the universities in my hometown has long had a cable channel to broadcast its lectures whether or not you are a student. I remember switching between the equally-captivating cognitive psych teacher and the Joe Schmo show)
I like it a lot, as you go to (undergrad) university (classes) not to learn, but to get a piece of paper that says you've been taught.
Learning is far easier when it's free.
- RG>
Yes, that's what they used for inspiration, then they followed these instructions to improve the marketing angle.
- RG>
Actually, there was an column in the Ottawa Citizen on June 6 ("Give it up", p. A12) that reported on a recent Statistics Canada report. Only 20 percent of the population (in Canada, of course) make up 82% of donated money.
These people tend to be in the upper end of society. It's actually the middle-class that isn't pulling its weight.
(unfortunately, I could not quickly track down the report itself)
- RG>