Over a day and a half of fury about how the internet is being sold by the u.s. house to the big bucks, my head now aches.
I f.ckin do not believe how you, u.s. people can ALLOW for such debate to even take place, such s.hit rule the agenda, and do not blow your congressmen's senator's ears off about the matter.
The biggest revolution, since the french revolution, the internet, is being handed over to the minority elite.
This is our 'thing'. This is the 'thing' of our times. This is one of the most important thing in our times.
My head really aches, and im weary.
Let me break it down for you into terms that will both be inflammatory and derogatory, but no less truthful, based on my experiences as a guy who's lived in various places and worked in various jobs over the years.
Averaging out the percentages of the general population around the world, just about every person you see when you walk down the street is computer-illiterate, politically-ignorant, and would figuratively suck someone's cock and kiss someone's ass to get some money each week to blow on over-priced crap, feed themselves to excess with non-nutritional food stuffs, and be as lazy as possible.
Someone else handles growing food for me to eat, someone else put together the idiot box to watch for hours each day, someone else creates the content to watch on the idiot box, someone else makes convenient fast food and snack food to gorge on, someone else has to look at my ass if it grows fat, someone else can clean up that wrapper that I dropped on the street, someone else can take responsibility for my life, my actions, and my inactions.
Most people, from almost every country in the world, are lazy morons who only expend enough effort each day to do what pleases them, and fuck the rest of the world. If these people work, than it's usually just enough so they don't get fired.
When it comes to topics and situations outside their own sphere of existance, they don't want to know about it, to the point of physically opposing the dissemination of knowledge about it.
The Internet is something that a lot of these morons don't even know exists. It doesn't exist to them, remember that. What happens when they download a web page is magic, 21st century magic of the smoke and mirrors kind.
Even people who I thought would be knowledgable about the basics of telecommunications and radio and able to apply it to what I've told them about the basics of the Internet just didn't fucking get it, and then they went on to loudly tell me that I had no idea about how things such as VoIP, Webcams, IRC, and IM actually work.
More morons, supposedly very bright, but ultimately just as thick-skulled as that slack-jawed lump that sits in the corner at the pub and does nothing but drink heavily and deride every technical innovation that anyone might briefly mention.
The Internet is magic. Computers are magic boxes. Phones need you to talk loudly when you're calling long distance. Mobile phones will nuke your brain. Politicians lie, but we know they lie so we just presume they'll get their come-uppance one day. Sports is king! Sport will make all our ills go away. Food is grown in the supermarket, or imported from foreign supermarkets. The television is a more important device than a computer.
That's what people believe, and when it comes to Geeks, we're all just paranoid idiots with magic toys. We don't know anything about what's happening in the real world, how could we? We just spend all day being entertained by the pretty lights coming from our magic boxes, while important people like the news readers on the television and news writers in the papers tell everyone what's really important, like that little Fifi of Mrs Rogers was found safely, and in more tragic news this evening a young boy wandered off into the woods...
I've had the discussion about font sizes on high resolution screens a fair few times with people over the years and it always comes down to a very simple issue that a lot of people just don't seem to bother fixing.
Change your DPI. It's not a rigid setting, it can be changed.
In Windows this is the font size percentage that you alter in the advanced display settings. On X11 V7 this is a semi-automatic setting you can configure by way of the xorg.conf file - you specify the size, in millimetres, of the actual area of the screen that is used to display output and X calculates the DPI so that 10 point, and even 8 point, is legible.
I don't know exactly where the DPI setting is on Mac OS X but I'm sure it would be in a fairly easy to find place in Settings, or at least instructions to find it would be easy to locate on Apple's web site.
Every time I hear someone say "I can't read that, it's eight point font", it's usually because they've got their DPI set so that 10 point is the size 8 point would be if they were using 100 DPI.
Why?
You have the real estate to have nicely legible fonts, and if the window titles or start menu items are too large because they're set to 12 point (?!), change them to 10, or 9. Don't just change the whole DPI to show everything smaller because you've got fonts that look big because they are large fonts, that's just stupid.
It's not Adobe Photoshop, but it does have some useful picture editing functions.
Go to the Nokia web site and download the user manual for the N9x series - not sure about N7x's - and look at the range of options for editing pictures and video.:)
I bought a Nokia N90 that has those functions, but I'm one those people who actually uses them, and it was an outright purchase so I'm not locked into any plans with a particular telco. I'm currently considering whether to go with Telstra, Optus, Vodaphone, or 3, depending on what their month by month plans* are like.:)
I can understand that a lot of people these days just want a mobile phone to make phone calls. When I go to Murphy's for a beer, I'll sometimes get into discussions with other patrons - Hi Dave, Greg, Jody, Ben, and Brett - about technology, and we all have our opinions, and, to certain extents, we're all right.
Dave has a phone that he makes phone calls with. That's it. He doesn't even use text messaging. It's a nice little phone, and it gets a good amount of standby time.
Brett on the other hand wouldn't have a phone if you paid him, and would throw it on the floor with the intention of breaking it if you gave him one - in front of you too.
But that's them. They know their options, and they've stuck with what they feel that they want and need. I have my portable phone-pc unit, Dave has his calls-only tool, and Brett knows that people who want to get into contact with him will find him either at home or at the pub.
People who complain that there are no options for buying a mobile that can only make phone calls are simply not looking. They're being persuaded by advertising to look at things that they don't want, and instead of asserting their right as a customer with cash to spend, they're either giving in to the marketing, or walking away without even taking a cursory glance, or demanding that the salesman show them, the plain old, ordinary mobile phones.
I wanted my N90, and I got it. Dave wants to make phone calls, and he's got that. Brett doesn't want a phone, so he's ignored the marketing.
There is no reason to lament the lack of any sort of mobile phones these days, only lament the slack-jawed twits who've lost the ability to think about what they're doing, or educate themselves about their options, when they go shopping.
*There are typically three sorts of plans you can get in Australia - the heavily advertised, 12 to 24 month contractual "Get The Phone for FREE! and ONLY pay $30-$200 per month" (depending on the phone); the Pre-Paid Monthly which comes with a simple phone, that may or may not have a low-quality camera; and the Month-by-Month Sim only which is for when you already have a phone.
I'm probably going to get into big trouble for that post, and it's off-topic too. Sorry.;)
Okay, you've got VoIP and want to use it securely? Don't just encrypt, encode.
"I'll meet you after work at the pub" could be said as "I'm going shopping after work for Green Eggs and Ham".
Yeah, pretty obvious it's bullshit but that was an off the cuff example, and I'm still pissed about 9/11 and 7/7.
And no telling the other person over the phone, "codebook page 12", when you start the conversation. Somebody steals a copy of the codebook and pffft, there goes security.
Have a system for using the codes, like say, days of the year equal certain pages in the book, and if there's ever any suspicion of compromise then you very simply call the other person, say "trash mag" and hang up.
The other person knows to throw away their codebook and meet you in person to obtain another if there's no spare, and it'll drive the secret security, or NSA or whoever is watching you, absolutely nuts looking for the phrase "trash mag".:)
I hope that people this election are not so stupid as to give up their freedoms to the sellout lamescream political party that has manipulated them for years. Each time I hear people bitch and moan that Gore should have won the election or that "Democrats" tried to appeal and recount their way to victory, I want to puke. IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE which one should have, could have or had won, the results are the same. More government, higher taxes, more rules and fewer freedoms for the people. I want limited government, so that is why I vote for candidates of the Constituion and Libertarian parties. I hope people who read this are not stupid enough to throw their vote away on a Republicrat
You, the true patriots of America, the people who will stand and fight their own government to save the freedoms they have now and liberate the freedoms you had before PATRIOT, have until sometime between the start of July and the end of September 2008.
I predict, as I'm sure a few other people have done, that sometime between those dates, there will be another "terrorist attack" on United States soil.
I don't want this to happen, and I already weep for the people who will die in this event, but I believe that your government will, if not directly take part, at least allow this to happen.
Why?
Take a goodlonglook at September 11, 2001. Take another goodlong look at the bombings in London on July 7, 2005.
I repeat, I don't want this to happen. I am filled with rage and sorrow right now at the people who presented the official reports on 9/11 and 7/7, and the people who used these and earlier governmental and departmental reports to justify such things as the PATRIOT act, extensive wire-tapping without judicial process, and the mistreatment of anyone deemed to be an "enemy combatant".
The thought even occurs to me that this next attack might happen in a "token" ally country, like Canada, or my home, Australia, set up to look like a Muslim or other religion-based attack from the "axis of evil".
Second prediction - Within hours of the attack, the FBI or Department of Homeland Security will have a prepared statement that says they know who performed the attacks and how. Within 48 hours, probably less, they will state that they have conclusive evidence to prove their earlier statement.
There will be no oversight on this evidence from a third, impartial party to verify and confirm the previous statements. Any actual evidence of the attacks will be removed as quickly as possible from the public eye "in the interests of preventing further panic and allowing the people to recover quickly and get on with their lives".
This clean up will remove the real evidence of what happened, just like what happened after September 11, and I presume happened very shortly after July 7. Two to three years later there will be a government sponsored report on what happened, and it will be as full of holes and ommissions as the official report on September 11 is.
More freedoms will be lost. In all likelyhood most of the changes will happen behind the scenes, nibbling away at what freedoms US citizens have now. There will be no grand gesture on the part of the government to look after and protect its people by removing mass amounts of rights and privileges. The grand gesture was the "terrorist attack", orchestrated by those capable of doing so in order to shake up and ready the people's minds to a gentle lessening of freedoms.
People in westernised countries are being terrorised every day, but it's not by foreigners. The terror is coming from inside their own heads, their imaginations, and the people putting the imagery in
Slashdot Mirror
Let me break it down for you into terms that will both be inflammatory and derogatory, but no less truthful, based on my experiences as a guy who's lived in various places and worked in various jobs over the years.
Averaging out the percentages of the general population around the world, just about every person you see when you walk down the street is computer-illiterate, politically-ignorant, and would figuratively suck someone's cock and kiss someone's ass to get some money each week to blow on over-priced crap, feed themselves to excess with non-nutritional food stuffs, and be as lazy as possible.
Someone else handles growing food for me to eat, someone else put together the idiot box to watch for hours each day, someone else creates the content to watch on the idiot box, someone else makes convenient fast food and snack food to gorge on, someone else has to look at my ass if it grows fat, someone else can clean up that wrapper that I dropped on the street, someone else can take responsibility for my life, my actions, and my inactions.
Most people, from almost every country in the world, are lazy morons who only expend enough effort each day to do what pleases them, and fuck the rest of the world. If these people work, than it's usually just enough so they don't get fired.
When it comes to topics and situations outside their own sphere of existance, they don't want to know about it, to the point of physically opposing the dissemination of knowledge about it.
The Internet is something that a lot of these morons don't even know exists. It doesn't exist to them, remember that. What happens when they download a web page is magic, 21st century magic of the smoke and mirrors kind.
Even people who I thought would be knowledgable about the basics of telecommunications and radio and able to apply it to what I've told them about the basics of the Internet just didn't fucking get it, and then they went on to loudly tell me that I had no idea about how things such as VoIP, Webcams, IRC, and IM actually work.
More morons, supposedly very bright, but ultimately just as thick-skulled as that slack-jawed lump that sits in the corner at the pub and does nothing but drink heavily and deride every technical innovation that anyone might briefly mention.
The Internet is magic. Computers are magic boxes. Phones need you to talk loudly when you're calling long distance. Mobile phones will nuke your brain. Politicians lie, but we know they lie so we just presume they'll get their come-uppance one day. Sports is king! Sport will make all our ills go away. Food is grown in the supermarket, or imported from foreign supermarkets. The television is a more important device than a computer.
That's what people believe, and when it comes to Geeks, we're all just paranoid idiots with magic toys. We don't know anything about what's happening in the real world, how could we? We just spend all day being entertained by the pretty lights coming from our magic boxes, while important people like the news readers on the television and news writers in the papers tell everyone what's really important, like that little Fifi of Mrs Rogers was found safely, and in more tragic news this evening a young boy wandered off into the woods...
Politicians get away with what
I've had the discussion about font sizes on high resolution screens a fair few times with people over the years and it always comes down to a very simple issue that a lot of people just don't seem to bother fixing.
Change your DPI. It's not a rigid setting, it can be changed.
In Windows this is the font size percentage that you alter in the advanced display settings. On X11 V7 this is a semi-automatic setting you can configure by way of the xorg.conf file - you specify the size, in millimetres, of the actual area of the screen that is used to display output and X calculates the DPI so that 10 point, and even 8 point, is legible.
I don't know exactly where the DPI setting is on Mac OS X but I'm sure it would be in a fairly easy to find place in Settings, or at least instructions to find it would be easy to locate on Apple's web site.
Every time I hear someone say "I can't read that, it's eight point font", it's usually because they've got their DPI set so that 10 point is the size 8 point would be if they were using 100 DPI.
Why?
You have the real estate to have nicely legible fonts, and if the window titles or start menu items are too large because they're set to 12 point (?!), change them to 10, or 9. Don't just change the whole DPI to show everything smaller because you've got fonts that look big because they are large fonts, that's just stupid.
Rug, Man, rug.
That rug really did bring the room together.
It's not Adobe Photoshop, but it does have some useful picture editing functions.
:)
i des/N90_US_en.PDF
Go to the Nokia web site and download the user manual for the N9x series - not sure about N7x's - and look at the range of options for editing pictures and video.
Here's the N90 page - http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/N90/ - and here's the link to the N90 user manual (PDF) - http://nds2.nokia.com/files/support/nam/phones/gu
I bought a Nokia N90 that has those functions, but I'm one those people who actually uses them, and it was an outright purchase so I'm not locked into any plans with a particular telco. I'm currently considering whether to go with Telstra, Optus, Vodaphone, or 3, depending on what their month by month plans* are like. :)
I can understand that a lot of people these days just want a mobile phone to make phone calls. When I go to Murphy's for a beer, I'll sometimes get into discussions with other patrons - Hi Dave, Greg, Jody, Ben, and Brett - about technology, and we all have our opinions, and, to certain extents, we're all right.
Dave has a phone that he makes phone calls with. That's it. He doesn't even use text messaging. It's a nice little phone, and it gets a good amount of standby time.
Brett on the other hand wouldn't have a phone if you paid him, and would throw it on the floor with the intention of breaking it if you gave him one - in front of you too.
But that's them. They know their options, and they've stuck with what they feel that they want and need. I have my portable phone-pc unit, Dave has his calls-only tool, and Brett knows that people who want to get into contact with him will find him either at home or at the pub.
People who complain that there are no options for buying a mobile that can only make phone calls are simply not looking. They're being persuaded by advertising to look at things that they don't want, and instead of asserting their right as a customer with cash to spend, they're either giving in to the marketing, or walking away without even taking a cursory glance, or demanding that the salesman show them, the plain old, ordinary mobile phones.
I wanted my N90, and I got it. Dave wants to make phone calls, and he's got that. Brett doesn't want a phone, so he's ignored the marketing.
There is no reason to lament the lack of any sort of mobile phones these days, only lament the slack-jawed twits who've lost the ability to think about what they're doing, or educate themselves about their options, when they go shopping.
*There are typically three sorts of plans you can get in Australia - the heavily advertised, 12 to 24 month contractual "Get The Phone for FREE! and ONLY pay $30-$200 per month" (depending on the phone); the Pre-Paid Monthly which comes with a simple phone, that may or may not have a low-quality camera; and the Month-by-Month Sim only which is for when you already have a phone.
I'm probably going to get into big trouble for that post, and it's off-topic too. Sorry. ;)
:)
Okay, you've got VoIP and want to use it securely? Don't just encrypt, encode.
"I'll meet you after work at the pub" could be said as "I'm going shopping after work for Green Eggs and Ham".
Yeah, pretty obvious it's bullshit but that was an off the cuff example, and I'm still pissed about 9/11 and 7/7.
And no telling the other person over the phone, "codebook page 12", when you start the conversation. Somebody steals a copy of the codebook and pffft, there goes security.
Have a system for using the codes, like say, days of the year equal certain pages in the book, and if there's ever any suspicion of compromise then you very simply call the other person, say "trash mag" and hang up.
The other person knows to throw away their codebook and meet you in person to obtain another if there's no spare, and it'll drive the secret security, or NSA or whoever is watching you, absolutely nuts looking for the phrase "trash mag".
You, the true patriots of America, the people who will stand and fight their own government to save the freedoms they have now and liberate the freedoms you had before PATRIOT, have until sometime between the start of July and the end of September 2008.
I predict, as I'm sure a few other people have done, that sometime between those dates, there will be another "terrorist attack" on United States soil.
I don't want this to happen, and I already weep for the people who will die in this event, but I believe that your government will, if not directly take part, at least allow this to happen.
Why?
Take a good long look at September 11, 2001. Take another good long look at the bombings in London on July 7, 2005.
I repeat, I don't want this to happen. I am filled with rage and sorrow right now at the people who presented the official reports on 9/11 and 7/7, and the people who used these and earlier governmental and departmental reports to justify such things as the PATRIOT act, extensive wire-tapping without judicial process, and the mistreatment of anyone deemed to be an "enemy combatant".
The thought even occurs to me that this next attack might happen in a "token" ally country, like Canada, or my home, Australia, set up to look like a Muslim or other religion-based attack from the "axis of evil".
Second prediction - Within hours of the attack, the FBI or Department of Homeland Security will have a prepared statement that says they know who performed the attacks and how. Within 48 hours, probably less, they will state that they have conclusive evidence to prove their earlier statement.
There will be no oversight on this evidence from a third, impartial party to verify and confirm the previous statements. Any actual evidence of the attacks will be removed as quickly as possible from the public eye "in the interests of preventing further panic and allowing the people to recover quickly and get on with their lives".
This clean up will remove the real evidence of what happened, just like what happened after September 11, and I presume happened very shortly after July 7. Two to three years later there will be a government sponsored report on what happened, and it will be as full of holes and ommissions as the official report on September 11 is.
More freedoms will be lost. In all likelyhood most of the changes will happen behind the scenes, nibbling away at what freedoms US citizens have now. There will be no grand gesture on the part of the government to look after and protect its people by removing mass amounts of rights and privileges. The grand gesture was the "terrorist attack", orchestrated by those capable of doing so in order to shake up and ready the people's minds to a gentle lessening of freedoms.
People in westernised countries are being terrorised every day, but it's not by foreigners. The terror is coming from inside their own heads, their imaginations, and the people putting the imagery in