The planet where brake lights now use clusters of LEDs.... At night those purple spots are sufficient to severely impact your ability to see the road.
That's an entirely different variety of design flaw, and not an insignificant one. Either a) you are afraid incorrectly, or b) the lights really do cause vision problems for following cars. Either way, SOMEONE is going to be a traffic hazard in an emergency situation. May I recommend finding an alternate design for your brake lights?
In the automatic transmissions I've worked on (60's-70's era), the "computer" in the automatic transmission was fluidic. IE, analog. The shifting lever was a mechanical linkage to the computer. The nature of the computer lends itself much more to its logic being "provable" than digital computers. Mostly due to simplicity. You might note too, though, that the computer can't really be replaced in this sort of case.
Have automatic transmissions changed to some digital monster in recent years?
0) student misbehaves 1) student is subjected to classical music during detention 2) student associates classical music with punishment 3) to avoid unnecessary "punishment", student avoids bus stop.
And it's contagious, in a way: kid says "let's leave, I don't like this music", friends get accustomed to not liking that music, or simply to leaving when that type of music is played.
Part of the problem is that a programmer at work is someone sitting at a desk, writing code. When does the company have a result from that work? Days, weeks, months later.
A lack of Actors and screenwriters, by contrast, actively interferes with the work of the publisher, in a visible, measurable way. Similarly, the results of an assembly line worker striking are immediately apparent.
For programmers, then, the consequences of a strike are much less immediately apparent than for many other professions.
The time to form a union isn't "just in the nick of trouble", if you want it to have any resources to do things like strike pay. Even established unions have trouble with that, sometimes.
It gets even harder if the union is composed of only a single "shop"; if that shop goes on strike, there are no other shops that can support it during the strike.
And yes, unions bring in their own evils. You take the bad with the good.
Perhaps, like Firaxis/2k games, Ubisoft should consider re-releasing games DRM free.
I already plan to purchase Civilization IV/Complete specifically because of this, despite having gritted my teeth and purchased the original DRM-laden Civ IV. I want to reward them for having taken this step. The only reason I've not already done so is a) I only found that it existed, DRM free, last week, and b) the store I want to buy it from was out of stock.
I want software I purchase to be independent of the publisher in all ways. Publishers go out of business, or stop supporting their software. Key authorities (I'm looking at you, Steam) hold hostage every other game requiring their authority if a problem comes up.
For a single player game, there is no excuse for that which I will accept. And yes, this means I don't buy a lot of games these days.
MMOs are a different animal, as are "match finding services". That's a different discussion.
As might be imagined, smaller items are more numerous.
Space debris: The current equipment used to gather such information is only capable of tracking objects down to about 5 centimetres (2.0 in) diameter in low Earth orbit, and about 50 centimetres (20 in) in geosynchronous orbit. Out of the estimated 600,000 objects above 1 centimetre (0.39 in) diameter, only 19,000 can be tracked as of today.
This is just the explicit warning against Spoilation: "don't destroy potential evidence in advance of litigation". Judges have been known to be tetchy about parties deleting evidence that a reasonable assessment agree was relevant to a case.
It's one thing to wipe your computer and 2 years later get handed a lawsuit. (See some of the RIAA litigation.)
It's entirely different for a scandal to come up, and "remind" your employees about the company data retention policy. (See Arthur Anderson.)
> If someone gained access to your fingerprint could they, for example, empty your bank account? Take out a loan in your name? Give me an example here.
They'd have one authentication component for any other system that needed your fingerprint... and used a comparable scanner and analysis system. Presumably, some of those could be security related. Potentially governmental security.
That's a big lot of ifs. But it's also an authentication component you can't easily change if it becomes compromised. And if there is no second authentication component, you are well and truly... well, you get the idea.
And I'm partially wrong, there. The rootkit is sophisticated, covering its tracks on the infected file(s), serving up the original file to disk access requests.
There's still the problem that the microsoft update is not up to the task of diagnosing a system that's gotten rootkitted.
There's no real point to upgrading a system that's already been compromised, it's too late by that time. Using the upgrade system to download rootkit detectors, that's a different matter.
I've been really ambivalent about Civ IV, because of the "phone home" DRM.
I look on wikipedia, though, and find that they've had a DRM-free version available for several years now. I was an addict, and bought the DRM'd version anyway. I've resisted buying pretty much any current PC game in part because of the DRM. (My relatively recent system upgrade might play some part too...:) )
Y'know, I'm going to go reward them for the DRM-free version by buying it. And I'll be writing them as well: I'll buy Civ V if/when they release it DRM-free too.
There's always a nationwide bank run, or a stock trading scandal, or a massive health care crisis that is about to wipe out all savings in this miserable big nation, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it!
So what's it doing now, eh? What's the climate going to be like in 50 years? 100 years? 200 years? How can we affect that? How are we already affecting it? That's the question, innit? "Climate change" as an issue refers more to "what factor does man's activities play", than "Hey, it's warmer this century than last". Man's activities being of particular interest because it is the factor in climate that we can change. If you'll pardon the expression, stating the obvious, "the climate changes" merely clouds the issue.
But here's the major problem: the data is being massaged....we're not willing to use real data.
Of course the data is being massaged. You wouldn't understand it at all if it wasn't massaged. Best case, you would draw incorrect conclusions.
The argument is from "whose massaging is correct", not "ZOMG! It's being massaged!" Real data? You yourself decry the use of real data because it has to be interpreted to be understood.
To tell the truth, I'm not terribly moved, despite your +4 Informative tag. You've attacked the immediate source (The Register) on a reputation basis, instead of attacking the information. You mention what may (or may not) be the original source (Climate Audit) without saying anything about them as far as reliability goes.
An earlier poster commented that
...you global warming deniers throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that all the data is bad because there are some bad data points.
I'm thinking that this is a tactic not exclusive to the deniers.
You don't refute the data by calling the author a cad. You refute the data with contrary data.
If your camera releases that data at all, it does so with every picture you take.
It's not "only 2% of my pictures include the photographer's name" (the fallacy of assuming an entered name to be identical to the current holder of the device is a different discussion). It's 2% of the pictures taken were done by such cameras.... which could be only one prolific photographer, or could be (for that sample) 400 separate cameras.
If you're going to get lathered up (or complain about those who do), do so about the right statistics.
It doesn't take 5000 pages to make a bill not get read. A "simple" bill of 200 pages can hide quite a number of sins, particularly if it didn't come out of a committee you were on. Or was amended shortly before being voted on.
Heck, a 5 page bill can have provisions whose interaction with other laws creates consequences that are unintended by lawmakers, but not necessarily by the lobbyists who put the working into the congresscritter's hands.
Slashdot Mirror
The planet where brake lights now use clusters of LEDs .... At night those purple spots are sufficient to severely impact your ability to see the road.
That's an entirely different variety of design flaw, and not an insignificant one. Either a) you are afraid incorrectly, or b) the lights really do cause vision problems for following cars. Either way, SOMEONE is going to be a traffic hazard in an emergency situation. May I recommend finding an alternate design for your brake lights?
So that's where I got my chest tattoo!
In the automatic transmissions I've worked on (60's-70's era), the "computer" in the automatic transmission was fluidic. IE, analog. The shifting lever was a mechanical linkage to the computer. The nature of the computer lends itself much more to its logic being "provable" than digital computers. Mostly due to simplicity. You might note too, though, that the computer can't really be replaced in this sort of case.
Have automatic transmissions changed to some digital monster in recent years?
Would only have cost 10 grand if the University professors hadn't insisted on copying the proofs down before the city cleaned it off.
It sounds like operant conditioning:
0) student misbehaves
1) student is subjected to classical music during detention
2) student associates classical music with punishment
3) to avoid unnecessary "punishment", student avoids bus stop.
And it's contagious, in a way: kid says "let's leave, I don't like this music", friends get accustomed to not liking that music, or simply to leaving when that type of music is played.
Actually, SCO *does* have people looking to invest in it. Yarro, as proxy for other unnamed investors.
But what THAT's about, is "who gets the first cut of the SCO corpse"? (They want it, of course!) The terms they want for the loan are outrageous.
Part of the problem is that a programmer at work is someone sitting at a desk, writing code. When does the company have a result from that work? Days, weeks, months later.
A lack of Actors and screenwriters, by contrast, actively interferes with the work of the publisher, in a visible, measurable way. Similarly, the results of an assembly line worker striking are immediately apparent.
For programmers, then, the consequences of a strike are much less immediately apparent than for many other professions.
Several posts have mentioned "can't hire replacements for strikers". That's not precisely true.
The time to form a union isn't "just in the nick of trouble", if you want it to have any resources to do things like strike pay. Even established unions have trouble with that, sometimes.
It gets even harder if the union is composed of only a single "shop"; if that shop goes on strike, there are no other shops that can support it during the strike.
And yes, unions bring in their own evils. You take the bad with the good.
Perhaps, like Firaxis/2k games, Ubisoft should consider re-releasing games DRM free.
I already plan to purchase Civilization IV/Complete specifically because of this, despite having gritted my teeth and purchased the original DRM-laden Civ IV. I want to reward them for having taken this step. The only reason I've not already done so is a) I only found that it existed, DRM free, last week, and b) the store I want to buy it from was out of stock.
I want software I purchase to be independent of the publisher in all ways. Publishers go out of business, or stop supporting their software. Key authorities (I'm looking at you, Steam) hold hostage every other game requiring their authority if a problem comes up.
For a single player game, there is no excuse for that which I will accept. And yes, this means I don't buy a lot of games these days.
MMOs are a different animal, as are "match finding services". That's a different discussion.
Counterfeits are the prints of thieves, IMO.
There, fixed that punch line for you.
As might be imagined, smaller items are more numerous.
Space debris: The current equipment used to gather such information is only capable of tracking objects down to about 5 centimetres (2.0 in) diameter in low Earth orbit, and about 50 centimetres (20 in) in geosynchronous orbit. Out of the estimated 600,000 objects above 1 centimetre (0.39 in) diameter, only 19,000 can be tracked as of today.
This is just the explicit warning against Spoilation: "don't destroy potential evidence in advance of litigation". Judges have been known to be tetchy about parties deleting evidence that a reasonable assessment agree was relevant to a case.
It's one thing to wipe your computer and 2 years later get handed a lawsuit. (See some of the RIAA litigation.)
It's entirely different for a scandal to come up, and "remind" your employees about the company data retention policy. (See Arthur Anderson.)
> If someone gained access to your fingerprint could they, for example, empty your bank account? Take out a loan in your name? Give me an example here.
I shouldn't be replying to someone in a conversation this old, but... Empty your bank account? Conceivably. Take out a loan in your name? why would they need a fingerprint from you?
They'd have one authentication component for any other system that needed your fingerprint... and used a comparable scanner and analysis system. Presumably, some of those could be security related. Potentially governmental security.
That's a big lot of ifs. But it's also an authentication component you can't easily change if it becomes compromised. And if there is no second authentication component, you are well and truly ... well, you get the idea.
And I'm partially wrong, there. The rootkit is sophisticated, covering its tracks on the infected file(s), serving up the original file to disk access requests.
There's still the problem that the microsoft update is not up to the task of diagnosing a system that's gotten rootkitted.
There's no real point to upgrading a system that's already been compromised, it's too late by that time. Using the upgrade system to download rootkit detectors, that's a different matter.
In many ways, this is just a variant on Download of Code Without Integrity Check. In this case, failing to validate the libraries not included in the download.
"It's a microsoft system. Obviously all the libraries on it are the ones we put there. Obviously the system hasn't been modded."
I've been really ambivalent about Civ IV, because of the "phone home" DRM.
I look on wikipedia, though, and find that they've had a DRM-free version available for several years now. I was an addict, and bought the DRM'd version anyway. I've resisted buying pretty much any current PC game in part because of the DRM. (My relatively recent system upgrade might play some part too... :) )
Y'know, I'm going to go reward them for the DRM-free version by buying it. And I'll be writing them as well: I'll buy Civ V if/when they release it DRM-free too.
There's always a nationwide bank run, or a stock trading scandal, or a massive health care crisis that is about to wipe out all savings in this miserable big nation, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it!
What, you can only get sued if you live in the USA? Mind, even if the lawsuit fails, you're still on the hook for defending against it, usually.
NO SHIT, THE CLIMATE CHANGES.
So what's it doing now, eh? What's the climate going to be like in 50 years? 100 years? 200 years? How can we affect that? How are we already affecting it? That's the question, innit? "Climate change" as an issue refers more to "what factor does man's activities play", than "Hey, it's warmer this century than last". Man's activities being of particular interest because it is the factor in climate that we can change. If you'll pardon the expression, stating the obvious, "the climate changes" merely clouds the issue.
But here's the major problem: the data is being massaged. ...we're not willing to use real data.
Of course the data is being massaged. You wouldn't understand it at all if it wasn't massaged. Best case, you would draw incorrect conclusions.
The argument is from "whose massaging is correct", not "ZOMG! It's being massaged!" Real data? You yourself decry the use of real data because it has to be interpreted to be understood.
To tell the truth, I'm not terribly moved, despite your +4 Informative tag. You've attacked the immediate source (The Register) on a reputation basis, instead of attacking the information. You mention what may (or may not) be the original source (Climate Audit) without saying anything about them as far as reliability goes.
An earlier poster commented that
...you global warming deniers throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that all the data is bad because there are some bad data points.
I'm thinking that this is a tactic not exclusive to the deniers.
You don't refute the data by calling the author a cad. You refute the data with contrary data.
A more important fact in those statistics is:
If your camera releases that data at all, it does so with every picture you take.
It's not "only 2% of my pictures include the photographer's name" (the fallacy of assuming an entered name to be identical to the current holder of the device is a different discussion). It's 2% of the pictures taken were done by such cameras. ... which could be only one prolific photographer, or could be (for that sample) 400 separate cameras.
If you're going to get lathered up (or complain about those who do), do so about the right statistics.
> You let people start talking like that, and pretty soon we're all goose-stepping towards Auschwitz.
Oh... my... GODwin!
It doesn't take 5000 pages to make a bill not get read. A "simple" bill of 200 pages can hide quite a number of sins, particularly if it didn't come out of a committee you were on. Or was amended shortly before being voted on.
Heck, a 5 page bill can have provisions whose interaction with other laws creates consequences that are unintended by lawmakers, but not necessarily by the lobbyists who put the working into the congresscritter's hands.
My first thought was "like, you know, bees?" Which led to robot queens, robot hives, ....
Let the culture which reveres "ancient wisdom" prove its value by using feng shui to launch their space vehicles.
I'd really rather they didn't. I only just last week got my living room harmoniously arranged. Do you know how much those consultants cost?