I think the people behind these systems want people to think that those against it are just being curmudgeonly. (Aw, heck, the machine keeps breaking - I hate things that break sometimes!)
I'm a bit offtopic here but your use of the word "curmudgeonly" made me think of something I wrote a few years ago, Useful Dead Technologies.
Although come to think of it, as paper ballots ARE a useful dead technology maybe it isn't so offtopic after all? How about Good Riddance to Bad Tech?
I thought seriously about filing a lawsuit, but then thought about all the police harrassment it might cause. Some friends of mine have some activities that aren't exactly legal (although they should be; the Constitution doesn't give Congress the power to outlaw the illegal things these ladies do), and they could be hurt badly and in the end my rights still wouldn't be respected (although I could probably retire).
About ten years or so ago the cops did something or other to piss off my ex-wife (which wasn't hard to do at all) and she complained to the Mayor. I got pulled over daily for a while.
I'm too old for that shit any more. More of my life is behind me than in front of me and I don't want to spend it fighting the damned cops, that's no fun at all.
"Here" is Springfield, Illinois (Gail Simpson is an alderman here).
They have a paper trail, are easy to use, and they're NOT Diebold. The only thing I don't like about them is they use (IINM) Windows; I would FAR prefer them to use an open source OS. Not that my vote really matters much (I split my vote between the Greenies and the Libbies).
Maybe we need a president more like the jelly donuts of yesterday? Somehow, I've digressed from the topic. I think I need more coffee, and a jelly donut.;)
Get back on your beat, officer Flarity! We got speeders to catch and dopers to jail and hookers to harrass. Snap to it! And give me one of those damned donuts, too.
This story made me think of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country where the crew are trying to get past Rura Penthe sentries using old books and translating badly. The Klingons decide the abysmal Klingon speech is a joke and let them pass.
I could argue the same think about the neurons and synapses in your head.
The neurins and synapses are in a 3d structure, and are electrochemical. Thought is a chemical/electrochemical process or getting drunk would be impossible. Your computer IS an abacus. Your brain, or your dog's for that matter, are not.
As with many things in computer science, it's all about abstraction
I don't argue that thought can't be simulated; I do argue that a flight simulator doesn't leave the ground and a neuclear explosion simulator doesn't leave any radioactivity.
"Mommy mommy, look at the robot walking around! He's waving at me!" I know that computers are only capable of doing what you program them to do, but several of my friends will swear that their computer hates them, or that their gaming console has it in for them
That behavior is called Anthropomorphism, "the attribution of uniquely human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings, inanimate objects, or natural or supernatural phenomena" and is perfectly normal. There must have been some evolutionary advantage to it, as it has existed as long as we have.
Arthur C. Clarke suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I'd like to build on that and suggest that any sufficiently advanced AI is indistinguishable from real intelligence.
I agree, which is why we need to educate people before they go and so something incredibly stupid, like passing "robotic rights" legislation.
What it does serve to illustrate is that both are vulnerable to having their infrastructure destroyed.
True.
Had the tornado destroyed your local cell site, you might have only been able to communicate with a landline.
Actually two of the towers closest to my apartment were destroyed, but the phone still worked. I couldn't make any long distance calls for a few hours the next day.
Often in such situations cell networks are overwhelmed by call volume and people are discouraged from making calls while landlines are comparatively unaffected
I don't think that's so much the case any more; there is a whole lot more coverage than there used to be. Even though all the landlines in a large part of the city were down, my cell service was unaffected except that I couldn't call long distance for a few hours.
Moreover, landlines are not as likely to be affected by blackouts since they are not dependent on having power at the premise or a charged battery.
Cordless phones are useless without power. A friend found out the hard way when she forgot to pay her electric bill.
Finally, should I have only a cell phone, I would much rather have a dedicated flashlight or even a candle that did not the drain the batteries of my phone.
I had candles and a flashlight, used the phone to get down the dark stairs in my apartment.
I should mention that I happen to be a Springfield native; though I was at school at the time, I was able to call my Dad that evening on the landline and we were able to have a nice leisurely conversation though he was without power. The entire city was not without landline phone coverage.
No, only the neighborhoods that got hit directly. There weren't many utility poles left in my neighborhood (my apartment was by Wabash curve, it went up either Maple or Highland, by the Third Base bar. My friend's house was on 4th near Highland/Oberland)
I was only out of power a few hours after the ice storm.
I should mention that I happen to be a Springfield native
I could know you then. I hang out at JWs a lot any more, it's close to where I live now. I used to hang out at Doc's Lounge (it's Blue Grouse now since Danny sold it) when I lived in the apartment.
My power was out for a week, as I was directly in the thing's path (it left all my stuff alone, all my daughter's stuff alone, and all my friend's stuff alone; see this comment for a partial account of that night (no I didn't get laid).
As it followed my daughter and her fiancee in their car after it demolished the building they had just left (they didn't even know there was a tornado at the time), then turned and demolished everything in my neighborhood except my apartment, then went straight to where I was and demolished everything around my friend's house without hurting any of her stuff...
I think it just wanted to be my friend. Poor lonely tornado...
One of our aldermen is Gail Simpson (not sure, maybe she's married to Homer's brother).
Actually here's a picture of the guy in charge of Springfield's electricity. He's the guy sitting in front of the big green check, on the right. Groening had him pegged! here's one of him breaking ground at the new generator they're building.
I mean your truck must have been spared, otherwise how would you charge the cell phone? Just face it toward the window, it should light up the entire trailer.
The trailers were all destroyed in the tornado. There was one behind my apartment that looked like a box of crackers a toddler had been playing with. The electricity was only out for a few hours, except for where the tornados actually hit, which happened to be my neighborhood AND the neighborhood the woman I was visiting lived in, so I could charge it up at work.
Those damned tornados had it in for me but oddly didn't hurt anything of mine. My daughter and her fiancee left the Target store a minute and a half before the tornado tore the roof off of it, and followed their car. Then the thing hit my apartment, tearing a few shingles off the roof and completely destroying everything around it. It tore a path through the neighborhood, demolishing houses, businesses, and completely destroying a trailer park between my apartment and my friend's house.
She lives close to a railroad track. "I can't believe the trains are running in this weather" she said as we huddled in her dark basement. "They don't", I told her, right before I heard the jet engine.
When you hear the train, the tornado's almost there. When you hear the jet, it's on top of you.
All of her stuff and all of my stuff and all of my daughter's and her fiancee's stuff was spared. Meanwhile, complete destruction around my friend's house and my apartment. A five foot diameter tree was uprooted two houses away from hers; all her neighbors' on both sides trees were uprooted but hers were untouched except for a few branches.
How about we work on our F#CKIN6 Boards and Drugs and REAL criminal cases
How about we legalize the broads and drugs (and gambling and other victimless "crimes"), as the war on (some) drugs (and the prostitutes who are addicted to them) are what has caused the constitution to be meaningless. Then the cops would have a little more time to go after violent people, and more room in the prisons to hold them.
A friend of mine was shot and killed by an armed robber a couple of decades back. The killer spent two years in prison. Meanwhile, another friend's brother spent five years for loaning money to a drug dealer at the very same time. Ass backwards if you ask me.
I told this story yesterday but it bears repeating (or at least being linked to), as you no longer have any 4th amendment rights. At least, apparently, I don't. My 4th amendment rights against physical unwarranted search were violated twice last year, once on the day we remember those who died defending the Constitution, and as I said in the linked comment I'm a 55 year old white guy. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a 22 year old black guy.
PS- Funny, the comment, in reply to someone who mentioned the 4th amendment in a story about the EFF, was modded "offtopic". Seems some corrupt police officers and corrupt legislators have mod points. No matter, I have karma to burn; mod me any damned way you want.
If I was an artist of some kind today I'd be really worried about all the people making copies of my work and "sharing" them with their friends over the net.
I'm not going to buy your stupid CD if I've never heard any of the songs. Someone once said (I wish I could find the exact quote) that far more authors have starved from obscurity than from copyright infringement. Actually the number that have starved from copyright infringement may in fact be zero, can you name one?
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I think the people behind these systems want people to think that those against it are just being curmudgeonly. (Aw, heck, the machine keeps breaking - I hate things that break sometimes!)
I'm a bit offtopic here but your use of the word "curmudgeonly" made me think of something I wrote a few years ago, Useful Dead Technologies.
Although come to think of it, as paper ballots ARE a useful dead technology maybe it isn't so offtopic after all? How about Good Riddance to Bad Tech?
-mcgrew
Paper ballots can be recounted by different people than counted them the first time. With a Diebold machine, there is effectively no recount.
I thought seriously about filing a lawsuit, but then thought about all the police harrassment it might cause. Some friends of mine have some activities that aren't exactly legal (although they should be; the Constitution doesn't give Congress the power to outlaw the illegal things these ladies do), and they could be hurt badly and in the end my rights still wouldn't be respected (although I could probably retire).
About ten years or so ago the cops did something or other to piss off my ex-wife (which wasn't hard to do at all) and she complained to the Mayor. I got pulled over daily for a while.
I'm too old for that shit any more. More of my life is behind me than in front of me and I don't want to spend it fighting the damned cops, that's no fun at all.
"Here" is Springfield, Illinois (Gail Simpson is an alderman here).
They have a paper trail, are easy to use, and they're NOT Diebold. The only thing I don't like about them is they use (IINM) Windows; I would FAR prefer them to use an open source OS. Not that my vote really matters much (I split my vote between the Greenies and the Libbies).
-mcgrew
Your sig "Wake up and give a shit" to Dutch and back translates to "The wake omhoog and gives a shit."
I was expecting something about your mother, elderberries, and eels.
Maybe we need a president more like the jelly donuts of yesterday? Somehow, I've digressed from the topic. I think I need more coffee, and a jelly donut. ;)
Get back on your beat, officer Flarity! We got speeders to catch and dopers to jail and hookers to harrass. Snap to it! And give me one of those damned donuts, too.
-mcgrew
Troll? It seems the micrsoft employees/stockholders/fans have mod points, but no sense of humor today.
;)
Now, if you had said Linux based speech engine...
-mcgrew
PS: mods, be careful. I metamoderated yesterday AND today. And I have a sense of humor. And my sense of humor is not normal.
This story made me think of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country where the crew are trying to get past Rura Penthe sentries using old books and translating badly. The Klingons decide the abysmal Klingon speech is a joke and let them pass.
Damn. I'm pathetic =(
-mcgrew
I could argue the same think about the neurons and synapses in your head.
The neurins and synapses are in a 3d structure, and are electrochemical. Thought is a chemical/electrochemical process or getting drunk would be impossible. Your computer IS an abacus. Your brain, or your dog's for that matter, are not.
As with many things in computer science, it's all about abstraction
I don't argue that thought can't be simulated; I do argue that a flight simulator doesn't leave the ground and a neuclear explosion simulator doesn't leave any radioactivity.
"Mommy mommy, look at the robot walking around! He's waving at me!" I know that computers are only capable of doing what you program them to do, but several of my friends will swear that their computer hates them, or that their gaming console has it in for them
That behavior is called Anthropomorphism, "the attribution of uniquely human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings, inanimate objects, or natural or supernatural phenomena" and is perfectly normal. There must have been some evolutionary advantage to it, as it has existed as long as we have.
Arthur C. Clarke suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I'd like to build on that and suggest that any sufficiently advanced AI is indistinguishable from real intelligence.
I agree, which is why we need to educate people before they go and so something incredibly stupid, like passing "robotic rights" legislation.
Actually you're right.
What it does serve to illustrate is that both are vulnerable to having their infrastructure destroyed.
True.
Had the tornado destroyed your local cell site, you might have only been able to communicate with a landline.
Actually two of the towers closest to my apartment were destroyed, but the phone still worked. I couldn't make any long distance calls for a few hours the next day.
Often in such situations cell networks are overwhelmed by call volume and people are discouraged from making calls while landlines are comparatively unaffected
I don't think that's so much the case any more; there is a whole lot more coverage than there used to be. Even though all the landlines in a large part of the city were down, my cell service was unaffected except that I couldn't call long distance for a few hours.
Moreover, landlines are not as likely to be affected by blackouts since they are not dependent on having power at the premise or a charged battery.
Cordless phones are useless without power. A friend found out the hard way when she forgot to pay her electric bill.
Finally, should I have only a cell phone, I would much rather have a dedicated flashlight or even a candle that did not the drain the batteries of my phone.
I had candles and a flashlight, used the phone to get down the dark stairs in my apartment.
I should mention that I happen to be a Springfield native; though I was at school at the time, I was able to call my Dad that evening on the landline and we were able to have a nice leisurely conversation though he was without power. The entire city was not without landline phone coverage.
No, only the neighborhoods that got hit directly. There weren't many utility poles left in my neighborhood (my apartment was by Wabash curve, it went up either Maple or Highland, by the Third Base bar. My friend's house was on 4th near Highland/Oberland)
I was only out of power a few hours after the ice storm.
I should mention that I happen to be a Springfield native
I could know you then. I hang out at JWs a lot any more, it's close to where I live now. I used to hang out at Doc's Lounge (it's Blue Grouse now since Danny sold it) when I lived in the apartment.
Yes, but Canada's not a third world plutocracy like we are!
Very close; "Bridge" was 274 (Bri), so the number was 274-1300.
Anyway, except for the things' paths (there were two of them), power was only out for a few hours, so I charged it at work.
My power was out for a week, as I was directly in the thing's path (it left all my stuff alone, all my daughter's stuff alone, and all my friend's stuff alone; see this comment for a partial account of that night (no I didn't get laid).
As it followed my daughter and her fiancee in their car after it demolished the building they had just left (they didn't even know there was a tornado at the time), then turned and demolished everything in my neighborhood except my apartment, then went straight to where I was and demolished everything around my friend's house without hurting any of her stuff...
I think it just wanted to be my friend. Poor lonely tornado...
-mcgrew
Springfield? that darn Mr Burns at it again?
One of our aldermen is Gail Simpson (not sure, maybe she's married to Homer's brother).
Actually here's a picture of the guy in charge of Springfield's electricity. He's the guy sitting in front of the big green check, on the right. Groening had him pegged! here's one of him breaking ground at the new generator they're building.
I mean your truck must have been spared, otherwise how would you charge the cell phone? Just face it toward the window, it should light up the entire trailer.
The trailers were all destroyed in the tornado. There was one behind my apartment that looked like a box of crackers a toddler had been playing with. The electricity was only out for a few hours, except for where the tornados actually hit, which happened to be my neighborhood AND the neighborhood the woman I was visiting lived in, so I could charge it up at work.
Those damned tornados had it in for me but oddly didn't hurt anything of mine. My daughter and her fiancee left the Target store a minute and a half before the tornado tore the roof off of it, and followed their car. Then the thing hit my apartment, tearing a few shingles off the roof and completely destroying everything around it. It tore a path through the neighborhood, demolishing houses, businesses, and completely destroying a trailer park between my apartment and my friend's house.
She lives close to a railroad track. "I can't believe the trains are running in this weather" she said as we huddled in her dark basement. "They don't", I told her, right before I heard the jet engine.
When you hear the train, the tornado's almost there. When you hear the jet, it's on top of you.
All of her stuff and all of my stuff and all of my daughter's and her fiancee's stuff was spared. Meanwhile, complete destruction around my friend's house and my apartment. A five foot diameter tree was uprooted two houses away from hers; all her neighbors' on both sides trees were uprooted but hers were untouched except for a few branches.
Nobody was seriously injured.
-mcgrew
PS- the "real" Springfield is even more cartoonish than the one on TV.
As this one isn't particularly insightful or interesting
+5 funny, the mods did well. No karma for funny but I don't need it anyway (and I usually check the "no karma bonus" as I did then)
(a) What has science done?
Well lets see... electricity, astronomy, medicine, the hydrogen bomb... what elese? You take the good with the bad.
(b) Where is your god now?
I don't worship Waldo!
I'm now going to buy some dog curtains and get rid of the answering machine before it tries to slit my throat.
Dog curtains?
When I get my lovebot I don't WANT anybody cracking it!
How about we work on our F#CKIN6 Boards and Drugs and REAL criminal cases
How about we legalize the broads and drugs (and gambling and other victimless "crimes"), as the war on (some) drugs (and the prostitutes who are addicted to them) are what has caused the constitution to be meaningless. Then the cops would have a little more time to go after violent people, and more room in the prisons to hold them.
A friend of mine was shot and killed by an armed robber a couple of decades back. The killer spent two years in prison. Meanwhile, another friend's brother spent five years for loaning money to a drug dealer at the very same time. Ass backwards if you ask me.
-mcgrew
I told this story yesterday but it bears repeating (or at least being linked to), as you no longer have any 4th amendment rights. At least, apparently, I don't. My 4th amendment rights against physical unwarranted search were violated twice last year, once on the day we remember those who died defending the Constitution, and as I said in the linked comment I'm a 55 year old white guy. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a 22 year old black guy.
-mcgrew
PS- Funny, the comment, in reply to someone who mentioned the 4th amendment in a story about the EFF, was modded "offtopic". Seems some corrupt police officers and corrupt legislators have mod points. No matter, I have karma to burn; mod me any damned way you want.
Radiohead isn't the only artist that is profiting from this either
Indeed, Roger McGuinn has said that the old, outlaw Napster revitalized his career, bringing his music to a whole new generation.
-mcgrew
If I was an artist of some kind today I'd be really worried about all the people making copies of my work and "sharing" them with their friends over the net.
I'm not going to buy your stupid CD if I've never heard any of the songs. Someone once said (I wish I could find the exact quote) that far more authors have starved from obscurity than from copyright infringement. Actually the number that have starved from copyright infringement may in fact be zero, can you name one?
-mcgrew
Because I've said it before and I'll say it again: we have the best governmnet money can buy.
-mcgrew
so one day, TV might actually kill us
You have to die from something. Although my preference is to be shot by a jealous lover, on the upstroke, at the age of 120.
-mcgrew
But can it fetch a beer? No? Then what damned good is it!!!!
old joke: "I never curse, don't drink, and always treat woman with respect. Now get me a fucking beer, bitch!"
-mcgrew