Re: #2, "They asked him to contact them with questions"
There is an amazingly pervasive and broadly accepted attitude growing in the world today. It goes something like this:
A: Powers-that-be (PTB) create policy X. B: Payee of PTB interprets a violation of policy X. C: Payee takes action believed to be justified by policy X, not realizing (or caring) that it violates rights. D: Victim raises objection. E: Payee explains policy X to victim. F: Victim accepts abuse simply because policy X exists, is written, or just because it is claimed.
Although it is necessary for society to create and follow rules, following blindly and without push-back always causes much more grief down the road.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips
In related news, Toyota announces a new service, Toy-Ownership!
Here's how it works. Instead of the outdated, risky practice of taking the keys home where they can be lost or stolen, the dealer takes care of the keys for you! Imagine the convenience! Since many consumers steal things, and to eliminate the risk of your brand new vehicle being stolen, we will simply sell all new vehicles this way. Should you need to start the vehicle again after you get home, simply call the dealer, and after verifying that you are who you say you are via our new Protection Integrity Telephone Assistance (PITA), we will remotely start the car for you.
No more bulky pockets, no more whistling for your key-chain, join the new Toy-Ownership program today!
With the help of the Standard Template Library (thank you vector and string!), I am 4 to 6 times more productive in C++ than in C. How is it that C is more "popular" than C++?
Perhaps this study isn't showing what they think it is. As long as we can't count lines of production code directly, such a conclusion will be somewhat suspicious.
I bought a used big-screen last year. I quite liked it except for the glare.
After a while I found a local plastics shop that could sell me a large enough sheet of the anti-reflective stuff used in framing. And I mounted it to the front of the TV myself. That completely solved the problem.
You might be able to buy the laptop with all the other features you want, then go to your nearest framing shop and get their nice anti-glare "glass", and mount it to your display.
That having been said, this overall sounds like a terrible idea. We need less monetization of intellectual works, not more.
I agree, there are too many cases of corporates abusing their customers via the current legal systems.
However, look down the road a ways. Say that in 200 years we get to a global "nirvana" where everything is automated. Food, clothing and shelter are all created using solar energy and existing automated factories/farms.
Will we all sit around saying "I don't know, what do YOU want to do"?
Will the only professions left be entertainment and medical care?
A small, but significant portion of earth's population already produces nothing but strings of bits, and gets paid a yearly salary for it.
When the only jobs left are intellectual ones, we either have to redefine wealth, or come up with a mechanism for distributing the money. One mechanism is intellectual property laws. They do have their place.
I once garnered a vast horde of gold coins by finding situations to my advantage, making deals, finding and exploiting loop-holes, and timing my actions.
Later, I gave up D&D to finish college.
I tip my hat to the some of the world-class min-max'ers who play a different game!
If you RTFA then you might notice that there are a whopping 150 megaphones (sorry) on that list. Even if that means everyone registered 2 numbers, there's still 75 megapeople who sufficiently hate those calls, that they went out of their way to get listed. That means we're talking 1/4 to 1/2 the people IN THE NATION went to the trouble to sign up.
So 1/4 to 1/2 of the people who get the new number are going to want it DNC listed anyway. Of the others who really WANT (gasp) to get the calls, only a small number will want it bad enough to go get delisted. (surely a form of insanity!)
In other words, this is not a bug, it's a feature!
Here is an effective (though laborious) way to deal with that.
1. Register on National Do-Not-Call list.
2. Wait 3 month beginning period.
3. Get caller ID.
4. Wait for another call.
5. Be pleasant to the person, if you can order something cheap, say $10, do it.
6. Get their address and phone number as you place the order.
7. Photograph the Caller ID display as evidence.
8. Take good notes including date, time, person talked to, company name, as more evidence.
9. Copy the bill you receive for $10 as conclusive evidence of marketing intent.
10. Go to your county courthouse, lodge a small claim for $500 for a telemarketing violation.
11. Send them proper notice they are being sued.
12. Since they are often out of state, they won't show and you get default judgment.
13. If they do show, you have proof of listing, notice, call, and call purpose.
14. For bonus dollars, ($500 per item) look into whether they have, train to, practice and publish upon demand the required company calling policies.
15. Profit!!!
Ahhh, but when you study history, you find that an empire has ALWAYS bloated until it suffocated personal freedoms and rights.
The Framers of the Constitution knew this, and did their damnedest to avoid it happening here in the U. S. of A. We do need federal government. The trouble is we only need one tenth of the fed we currently have.
On this issue, the best way to stave off further bloat, is for the states to tell the feds... "ENOUGH ALREADY!!! TO HELL WITH YOUR COMPULSORY ID"
All in all, this sounds like a surprisingly smart move on their part.
Sorry, but as long as Microsoft is selling software which they own the power to disable at any moment, software which you have paid for yet still must call and beg for permission to run, they are NOT surprisingly smart, only surprisingly GREEDY!
I was reasonably happy with Win2K Pro. It worked well enough. What's more, when I bought it, it stayed bought.
Quit giving M$ your money. There is no longer any reason to do so. Even my kids can do system administration on Ubuntu.
Any idea, taken to the extreme, will always break. This is another thing good engineers learn quickly.
"house needs a separate hookup for phone and electricity"
Evidently you're not familiar with the Broadband over Power Line (BPL) specification. I know it gives the ham operators problems, but there are definitely people out there who want data and power over the same line.
Everyone who buys phone, cable TV and internet service in a package would agree with me... given today's technology, we should no longer have to live with such a tangle of cables.
Clearly you are a good engineer, and as every good engineer knows, it's all about trade-offs. If Tesla had his way, there would indeed NOT be a separate power cord for the TV.
Overall historically, we've made pretty good decisions about how to handle power. However, in the last 10 years I have been very disappointed with consumer electronics. Powering a device is a major requirement for anything we design, yet batteries still suck, wall-warts continue to proliferate, mp3 players don't charge via a standard USB port, and I STILL have to plug every last item into it's own special power cord, despite the inconvenience.
<rant>Why is power still an after-thought during product or specification design???!!!</rant>
One of my tech support calls was about 1980, my friend's mom had a computer, and she bought a printer, which she tried to hook up herself, but it wasn't working.
I went over there and quickly spied the problem... the data cable was connected, but there was no power cable hooked up.
She quite innocently and logically asked, "why do I need a separate power cable?"
People don't really give a damn that the power system and the data system are two separate systems. It really is completely reasonable for them to expect a single cable to power as well as communicate.
These folks shouldn't pat themselves on the back for a "new feature", they should try harder next time to close a bug out in something much less than 30 years!
This is a basic usability requirement that people persistantly ignore despite the rat's nests of cables running around all their gear. This is certainly one of the biggest reasons for the popularity of USB!
"For more conspiracy fodder, are the Clintons really stupid enough to have a hand in this?"
Yes, one of them certainly is...
Senator: "You hacked the machine!"
Slick Willy: "I did not have hacks with that machine!"
Senator: "We have your fingerprints from inside the machine, you were alone with the machine in your office on several occasions, your hacks left a stain!"
Sorry, but you won't be hired to tame the complexities of technology for human use with this approach.
If we as computer scientists can't translate our powers-of-2 into normal numbers for the masses, then we are failing in our jobs.
It is fine to develop, design, architect, prototype and implement with 2^n, but once it goes on screen or on sale for the masses, for hell's sake quit screwing around and use the SI standard units.
Another blow against logic in the U.S. court system!
A lot of people who win high sums of money end up broke.
This is true. There is a well known psychological effect called cognitive dissonance. In essence, if you think you are supposed to be rich, you slowly but surely make the choices which lead to wealth. If you think you are supposed to be poor, you never have enough, and you just can't see how the business owners, investors, and other fat cats do it.
Ironically, "expecting" yourself to be poor puts you in exactly the right mindset to play lotto. So, when one wins it, they think "wa-hoo, I escaped my poverty!". But their ingrained habits, thoughts and environment slowly but surely erodes their new-found wealth.
The magic wand of lotto money can change your bank account, but only those who have studied, practiced and developed the skills required to build and keep wealth... will die with it.
Not precisely true. There are other rights besides the "inalienable" ones. Sometimes, we create new rights and give them to the citizens.
This can be a "good thing", especially when advancing technology brings up a new issue.
Now that online video is becoming more prevalent, and people are moving from their TVs to their computer screens, it may behoove us to create and support the poor guy's right to view the same content as the rich guy.
Of course there are always trade-offs, and some who will even abuse such a right, but over-all I think it will be best for the nation to adopt a net-neutrality position, and sick the courts on those who try to profit by claiming some bits are worth more than others.
Slashdot Mirror
Re: #2, "They asked him to contact them with questions"
There is an amazingly pervasive and broadly accepted attitude growing in the world today. It goes something like this:
A: Powers-that-be (PTB) create policy X.
B: Payee of PTB interprets a violation of policy X.
C: Payee takes action believed to be justified by policy X, not realizing (or caring) that it violates rights.
D: Victim raises objection.
E: Payee explains policy X to victim.
F: Victim accepts abuse simply because policy X exists, is written, or just because it is claimed.
Although it is necessary for society to create and follow rules, following blindly and without push-back always causes much more grief down the road.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips
In related news, Toyota announces a new service, Toy-Ownership!
Here's how it works. Instead of the outdated, risky practice of taking the keys home where they can be lost or stolen, the dealer takes care of the keys for you! Imagine the convenience! Since many consumers steal things, and to eliminate the risk of your brand new vehicle being stolen, we will simply sell all new vehicles this way. Should you need to start the vehicle again after you get home, simply call the dealer, and after verifying that you are who you say you are via our new Protection Integrity Telephone Assistance (PITA), we will remotely start the car for you.
No more bulky pockets, no more whistling for your key-chain, join the new Toy-Ownership program today!
With the help of the Standard Template Library (thank you vector and string!), I am 4 to 6 times more productive in C++ than in C. How is it that C is more "popular" than C++?
Perhaps this study isn't showing what they think it is. As long as we can't count lines of production code directly, such a conclusion will be somewhat suspicious.
Why are there no tracks before or after that tire?
Was the photo just after assembly, but before movement?
There's an astronaut sitting in it, how could he possibly wait for a photo shoot before hitting the gas?
I would expect more footprints around the thing if it were just after assembly.
I bought a used big-screen last year. I quite liked it except for the glare.
After a while I found a local plastics shop that could sell me a large enough sheet of the anti-reflective stuff used in framing. And I mounted it to the front of the TV myself. That completely solved the problem.
You might be able to buy the laptop with all the other features you want, then go to your nearest framing shop and get their nice anti-glare "glass", and mount it to your display.
That having been said, this overall sounds like a terrible idea. We need less monetization of intellectual works, not more.
I agree, there are too many cases of corporates abusing their customers via the current legal systems.
However, look down the road a ways. Say that in 200 years we get to a global "nirvana" where everything is automated. Food, clothing and shelter are all created using solar energy and existing automated factories/farms.
Will we all sit around saying "I don't know, what do YOU want to do"?
Will the only professions left be entertainment and medical care?
A small, but significant portion of earth's population already produces nothing but strings of bits, and gets paid a yearly salary for it.
When the only jobs left are intellectual ones, we either have to redefine wealth, or come up with a mechanism for distributing the money. One mechanism is intellectual property laws. They do have their place.
because the licensing, support, etc. is much cheaper this way.
Yes, I find the licensing issues with Fedora Core & Ubuntu to be truly atrocious!!!
I once garnered a vast horde of gold coins by finding situations to my advantage, making deals, finding and exploiting loop-holes, and timing my actions.
Later, I gave up D&D to finish college.
I tip my hat to the some of the world-class min-max'ers who play a different game!
Wow, no admin to your own machine? No command line? WTF?
Are you required to get potty passes as well?
When you are denied access to the required tools for the job, you are selling yourself short.
Get. the. hell. out!!! of there!
It's kinda like drugs... a fun ride, but you really don't want to be stuck there. Just say NO!
>> few million billionths
> Is that a few thousandths or a few quadrillionths?
Yea... welcome to English!
Actually, the author was just trying to impress us with his "illions" of high-tech words.
If you RTFA then you might notice that there are a whopping 150 megaphones (sorry) on that list. Even if that means everyone registered 2 numbers, there's still 75 megapeople who sufficiently hate those calls, that they went out of their way to get listed. That means we're talking 1/4 to 1/2 the people IN THE NATION went to the trouble to sign up.
So 1/4 to 1/2 of the people who get the new number are going to want it DNC listed anyway. Of the others who really WANT (gasp) to get the calls, only a small number will want it bad enough to go get delisted. (surely a form of insanity!)
In other words, this is not a bug, it's a feature!
That's a sweet machine! What's the make and model?
Or did you go for extra geek points and build your own out of an old desktop?
Here is an effective (though laborious) way to deal with that.
1. Register on National Do-Not-Call list.
2. Wait 3 month beginning period.
3. Get caller ID.
4. Wait for another call.
5. Be pleasant to the person, if you can order something cheap, say $10, do it.
6. Get their address and phone number as you place the order.
7. Photograph the Caller ID display as evidence.
8. Take good notes including date, time, person talked to, company name, as more evidence.
9. Copy the bill you receive for $10 as conclusive evidence of marketing intent.
10. Go to your county courthouse, lodge a small claim for $500 for a telemarketing violation.
11. Send them proper notice they are being sued.
12. Since they are often out of state, they won't show and you get default judgment.
13. If they do show, you have proof of listing, notice, call, and call purpose.
14. For bonus dollars, ($500 per item) look into whether they have, train to, practice and publish upon demand the required company calling policies.
15. Profit!!!
I've tried it, it works.
Ahhh, but when you study history, you find that an empire has ALWAYS bloated until it suffocated personal freedoms and rights.
The Framers of the Constitution knew this, and did their damnedest to avoid it happening here in the U. S. of A. We do need federal government. The trouble is we only need one tenth of the fed we currently have.
On this issue, the best way to stave off further bloat, is for the states to tell the feds... "ENOUGH ALREADY!!! TO HELL WITH YOUR COMPULSORY ID"
All in all, this sounds like a surprisingly smart move on their part.
Sorry, but as long as Microsoft is selling software which they own the power to disable at any moment, software which you have paid for yet still must call and beg for permission to run, they are NOT surprisingly smart, only surprisingly GREEDY!
I was reasonably happy with Win2K Pro. It worked well enough. What's more, when I bought it, it stayed bought.
Quit giving M$ your money. There is no longer any reason to do so. Even my kids can do system administration on Ubuntu.
Just say "NO!"
Any idea, taken to the extreme, will always break. This is another thing good engineers learn quickly.
"house needs a separate hookup for phone and electricity"
Evidently you're not familiar with the Broadband over Power Line (BPL) specification. I know it gives the ham operators problems, but there are definitely people out there who want data and power over the same line.
Everyone who buys phone, cable TV and internet service in a package would agree with me... given today's technology, we should no longer have to live with such a tangle of cables.
Clearly you are a good engineer, and as every good engineer knows, it's all about trade-offs. If Tesla had his way, there would indeed NOT be a separate power cord for the TV.
Overall historically, we've made pretty good decisions about how to handle power. However, in the last 10 years I have been very disappointed with consumer electronics. Powering a device is a major requirement for anything we design, yet batteries still suck, wall-warts continue to proliferate, mp3 players don't charge via a standard USB port, and I STILL have to plug every last item into it's own special power cord, despite the inconvenience.
<rant>Why is power still an after-thought during product or specification design???!!!</rant>
One of my tech support calls was about 1980, my friend's mom had a computer, and she bought a printer, which she tried to hook up herself, but it wasn't working.
I went over there and quickly spied the problem... the data cable was connected, but there was no power cable hooked up.
She quite innocently and logically asked, "why do I need a separate power cable?"
People don't really give a damn that the power system and the data system are two separate systems. It really is completely reasonable for them to expect a single cable to power as well as communicate.
These folks shouldn't pat themselves on the back for a "new feature", they should try harder next time to close a bug out in something much less than 30 years!
This is a basic usability requirement that people persistantly ignore despite the rat's nests of cables running around all their gear. This is certainly one of the biggest reasons for the popularity of USB!
"For more conspiracy fodder, are the Clintons really stupid enough to have a hand in this?"
Yes, one of them certainly is...
Senator: "You hacked the machine!"
Slick Willy: "I did not have hacks with that machine!"
Senator: "We have your fingerprints from inside the machine, you were alone with the machine in your office on several occasions, your hacks left a stain!"
Slick Willy: "Define hacks!"
Yes of course, just type your number in a blog somewhere...
Sorry, but you won't be hired to tame the complexities of technology for human use with this approach.
If we as computer scientists can't translate our powers-of-2 into normal numbers for the masses, then we are failing in our jobs.
It is fine to develop, design, architect, prototype and implement with 2^n, but once it goes on screen or on sale for the masses, for hell's sake quit screwing around and use the SI standard units.
Another blow against logic in the U.S. court system!
A lot of people who win high sums of money end up broke.
This is true. There is a well known psychological effect called cognitive dissonance. In essence, if you think you are supposed to be rich, you slowly but surely make the choices which lead to wealth. If you think you are supposed to be poor, you never have enough, and you just can't see how the business owners, investors, and other fat cats do it.
Ironically, "expecting" yourself to be poor puts you in exactly the right mindset to play lotto. So, when one wins it, they think "wa-hoo, I escaped my poverty!". But their ingrained habits, thoughts and environment slowly but surely erodes their new-found wealth.
The magic wand of lotto money can change your bank account, but only those who have studied, practiced and developed the skills required to build and keep wealth... will die with it.
I wonder how many G's it can take. Does a 1 meter drop to concrete break all the little wires and "erase" the drive?
But now we no longer have to go to all the trouble to sequester and threaten people. Today their rights can be removed almost instantaneously!
"Internet access is not a right."
---
Not precisely true. There are other rights besides the "inalienable" ones. Sometimes, we create new rights and give them to the citizens.
This can be a "good thing", especially when advancing technology brings up a new issue.
Now that online video is becoming more prevalent, and people are moving from their TVs to their computer screens, it may behoove us to create and support the poor guy's right to view the same content as the rich guy.
Of course there are always trade-offs, and some who will even abuse such a right, but over-all I think it will be best for the nation to adopt a net-neutrality position, and sick the courts on those who try to profit by claiming some bits are worth more than others.