I certainly don't come here to here the brilliant ponderings of cmdrTaco or Michael, et. Al., do you?
I was being ironic:-)
I come here because I want to know the latest news about stuff that might interest me. Also, once in a while something insightful slips by the moderation filters;-) Not that I have anything +1 Insightful to say myself, but I speak my mind anyways. So you can call me clueless too;-)
Agreed. While I don't live in the USA, the terrorists attacks affected everyone in the whole world with a TV. What many people don't understand is that if you're going to take thing too seriously, you're not going to have a good life. It's usually when people have lost everything or are terminally ill that they finally understand that they are dying. But then it's maybe too late. Many such patients claim that their last years of sickness has actually been their best ones.
Just watch the reactions to this post. I think they are sicker than telling a harmless joke about a disaster. But it's obviously too painful and scary to have introspection for many. It's much more comfortable to just lash out. Often, people get offended because they think this should offend someone else. But that's just way off target, because it's really none of their bussiness. You can't go through life without stepping on other people's toes. That's why we have invented the word "sorry" and the concept of forgiveness.
It's not like people don't tell jokes about what happens in other parts of the world. But of course, that's different.
Sure, glossy animations can be fun for a little while but it quickly becomes dead-boring. When people surf the web, they want to have control over what they are doing on the web. They don't want to have flashing neon-lights showed up in their face while reading news. Actually, many non-geeks I know are turned off the web for this very reason. They also don't know it's possible to disable animating GIFs, flash, Active Scripting, applets and advertisement in general.
I have nothing against the technology. If I want to see animated cartoons on the web, I'll turn on flash again. However, showing animations when content is all I'm interested in is just disrespectful and I will do what I can to avoid it. It has not so much to do with who has broadband or not. Animations are disturbing the brain. At work we have pretty good lines, but I turn away from glossy sites all the same.
It's just the same with TV. It's been overused. People are tired of commercials and noise in general.
Sacrificing security for ease of programming is how Windows came about in the first place. Most Slashdot readers aren't really interested in making that tradeoff, but there must be some sites people frequent where this is an acceptable trade-off.
Well, as a matter of fact I run IE everywhere with Active Scripting turned off. Try turning it on to "prompt", and you'll discover clueless sites like www.slashdot.org using it for some obscure and evil reason.;-)
Larry ain't buying. He already has the software. All he needs to do is copy it up, and "donating" it would surely be accompanied by an EULA stating that the state can't use anything but Oracle software for the task of NID. At the end of the year, the state will have to refund 1/3 of the "value" of his software that he "donated", through taxes. So who's really buying, and who's really earning? Then, guess who's going to be paying for running the DBs? It's a win-big situation for Larry if he can pull this scam off.
But of course, I doubt you even have read 1984. If you have, couple it with all the political struggle of the past, and you should understand that there is a big reason power is divided within democratic countries. Basically, it boils down to, the more power you give a position, the worse bastards it attracts. So it's better to spread it out.
Not that I know Slackware, or have ever tried it. But I thought the whole point of Slackware was to build from source yourself. So what are these "prebuilt binary packages"?
Ah, ok. Now I understand how you think, and I have to agree that these are all points that are making them weak. Especially in modern times. However, I believe such people are very strong humans. They're just severely misguided, but I've heard of- and seen examples of terrorists (in India) completely transform as soon as their stresses are worked out. They become very huge assets for their community.
I do admire some of their qualities, like determination, willingness to DO something for what they perceieve as their cause/community and lack of fear. But I don't admire their actions in any way. I don't agree with their "religion" or ideas of the world, on the contrary. But I do see them as human beings in need of help. Every human have some good qualities. It doesn't matter what side you're on of a conflict, what matters is that you step out of it.
What I think is so very hypocritical. Here in Norway during the occupation of the German forces. _Our_ terrorists are seen as heros. Every deed they did, exploding various bridges, railways, factories etc, are seen as heroic acts regardless of human lives lost. A typical problem in this world is that we set different standard for other people than ourselves, and that we identify ourselves with groups, not humanity.
Look, either you're a hacker or you're a cracker, a hero or a villain, good guy vs bad guys. Don't complicate the issue, and hand me some more stones willya..
So by your logic and knowledge, after the Oklahoma bombing, USA should simply have gone out and bombed Bagdad to a pile of rubble? Throw away law, due process and step down to the level of a lynch-mob.
Do you honestly believe that this was Bin Laden's work because it was done by arabs? Why are you so willing to act on this without further proof? Why do you feel like rushing it?
Here's an article I found on/. that explains more. Please take the time to read it and understand why your attitude is part of the problem.
Not only are our models bad, they're way off the mark. So don't hold your breath. A supercomputer will bring faster results, but the results will still be wrong.
If you're going to model earth climate, you should at the very least bring in the complexities of the sun into equation, and not just as a constant source of radiation. You'd also have to predict the future of nuke-testing, as these have been shown to affect both solar flares and earth climate. I couldn't find a better link than this explaining it, but I've seen that argument in other places too. Wether it's true or not is beside the question, it's the price you have to pay for searching for new answers.
Thank you for a well-reasoned and balanced article. I'll forward the link to my friends and co-workers in hope more people will see anger, violence and hate for what it is.
I agree with you. Incidents such as these tend to stir people up, and suddenly everyone fights even harder for the causes they believe in. Only that it furthers nothing, since it is done in fury, not by logic, reason and compassion. Basically, most of/. is a yelling contest. The well-reasoned posts are hard to find and are usually not modded up very much.
Now that's a good goal, but extremely hard and long term. Plus, we'd first have to eliminate poverty in our own country (if not continent).
Why is poverty in one's own country always used as an excuse to continue screwing up others? Poverty in USA is by design, a feature, and the politics would have to change drastically and become a drain on the overall economy to change that. While empowering other nations, creates new partners in trade.
Sure, these hypocrits are not the ones blowing themselves up, but they'll always find weaklings to brainwash and do their dirty work.
Terrorists are not weak. They have strong beliefs, strong actions and strong stomachs. They come from a position where they feel their people are unjustly treated, and is ready to fight with their life for their people, religion, cause, whatever. On the contrary, I think terrorists are stronger than most people, especially we who spending useless hours on/..
Of course this is not always true, for either terrorist or/. reader. But if my claim is not entirely accurate, then neither is yours. The difference is you believe in your argument. Instead you should ask yourself: Why do I think terrorists are weak people?
You didn't get my point. It didn't matter wether they were under watch or not, wether the cameras would detect them or not. There is currently no technical device that can read your mind and intentions. No device can pick out evil terrorists out of a crowd. The terrorists deliberately took many flights in USA prior to their attack. Just to make sure they would not get caught on the big day. If they were caught one of those days, they would simply continue. You cannot be arrested for a crime you are going to commit in the future without evidence of plans etc.
So in effect, the attack could not be prevented. Are we really willing to sacrifice our personal freedom and privacy in order to _maybe_ prevent future attacks? Maybe is a strong word here simply because terrorists are not dumb.
But I must say that I feel very differently about face recognition - particularly in airports. Such a system could have caught some of the hijackers - several of whom who were WANTED BY THE FBI and FLEW UNDER THEIR OWN NAMES! - before they killed 5000 people. Extending it to public spaces such as Times Square is more questionable to me, but particularly in airports where the possible harm is now much greater than we ever imagined, I think this is a technology that would be welcome.
Which is exactly why I propose they invent name-recognition software. I mean, it would have prevented this whole tragedy wouldn't it?
It seems to me like they should consider name-recognition software before face recognition. As far as I understood the news, they boarded the planes in their own name. So, you're on a watch-list. Suddenly you are not allowed to fly anymore? How would this not be a breach of basic freedom for innocent people?
What many feel is that combining patents with free software breaks the spirit of free software. Suddenly, use is restricted. What if I want to create a real-time kernel for FreeBSD for instance?
Besides, if this patent is about masking interrupts and prioritizing them, it's a laughable patent anyways. There should be fines for such patents. In fact, that would be a HUGE income source for the patent office.
Look little man. Patents are bad, mmmkay? It's like, when patents and GPL are combined, you sort of FORCE people to either use free software or pay royalties, mmmkay? This is not the free world I want to live in, mmmkay? Some open source programmers like to have their own license, mmmkay? And maybe they'd like to create their own RT-Linux, mmmkay? Lastly, whoever have FSF or any organization think for them, is a sheep, mmmkay?
not only would banning such activites mean a source of intelligence infomation is gone (arguably) but why should we let them win - taking away our channels of free speech and communication would mean they had won yet another victory.
It has won them nothing. We manage to screw it up perfectly ourselves.
Didn't they have a bomb? Or so the hijackers claimed. Anyways, it shouldn't take much imagination to picture what might have happened. If you have the stomach for it.
Right on, and it won't be far from the truth either. I will not die for Coca & Cola and McDonalds, and thanks to now being vegetarian, I won't die from it either.
Well, if society focus on it, it increases the chances of becoming reality. Not that I'm for banning video games or movies, but perhaps lousy series like Stargate should be banned?;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Critizising Jews/Israelites != Zionism
Besides, I didn't find any of such sort.
- Steeltoe
I certainly don't come here to here the brilliant ponderings of cmdrTaco or Michael, et. Al., do you?
:-)
;-) Not that I have anything +1 Insightful to say myself, but I speak my mind anyways. So you can call me clueless too ;-)
I was being ironic
I come here because I want to know the latest news about stuff that might interest me. Also, once in a while something insightful slips by the moderation filters
- Steeltoe
Agreed. While I don't live in the USA, the terrorists attacks affected everyone in the whole world with a TV. What many people don't understand is that if you're going to take thing too seriously, you're not going to have a good life. It's usually when people have lost everything or are terminally ill that they finally understand that they are dying. But then it's maybe too late. Many such patients claim that their last years of sickness has actually been their best ones.
Just watch the reactions to this post. I think they are sicker than telling a harmless joke about a disaster. But it's obviously too painful and scary to have introspection for many. It's much more comfortable to just lash out. Often, people get offended because they think this should offend someone else. But that's just way off target, because it's really none of their bussiness. You can't go through life without stepping on other people's toes. That's why we have invented the word "sorry" and the concept of forgiveness.
It's not like people don't tell jokes about what happens in other parts of the world. But of course, that's different.
- Steeltoe
Sure, glossy animations can be fun for a little while but it quickly becomes dead-boring. When people surf the web, they want to have control over what they are doing on the web. They don't want to have flashing neon-lights showed up in their face while reading news. Actually, many non-geeks I know are turned off the web for this very reason. They also don't know it's possible to disable animating GIFs, flash, Active Scripting, applets and advertisement in general.
I have nothing against the technology. If I want to see animated cartoons on the web, I'll turn on flash again. However, showing animations when content is all I'm interested in is just disrespectful and I will do what I can to avoid it. It has not so much to do with who has broadband or not. Animations are disturbing the brain. At work we have pretty good lines, but I turn away from glossy sites all the same.
It's just the same with TV. It's been overused. People are tired of commercials and noise in general.
- Steeltoe
Sacrificing security for ease of programming is how Windows came about in the first place. Most Slashdot readers aren't really interested in making that tradeoff, but there must be some sites people frequent where this is an acceptable trade-off.
;-)
Well, as a matter of fact I run IE everywhere with Active Scripting turned off. Try turning it on to "prompt", and you'll discover clueless sites like www.slashdot.org using it for some obscure and evil reason.
- Steeltoe
Larry ain't buying. He already has the software. All he needs to do is copy it up, and "donating" it would surely be accompanied by an EULA stating that the state can't use anything but Oracle software for the task of NID. At the end of the year, the state will have to refund 1/3 of the "value" of his software that he "donated", through taxes. So who's really buying, and who's really earning? Then, guess who's going to be paying for running the DBs? It's a win-big situation for Larry if he can pull this scam off.
But of course, I doubt you even have read 1984. If you have, couple it with all the political struggle of the past, and you should understand that there is a big reason power is divided within democratic countries. Basically, it boils down to, the more power you give a position, the worse bastards it attracts. So it's better to spread it out.
- Steeltoe
Not that I know Slackware, or have ever tried it. But I thought the whole point of Slackware was to build from source yourself. So what are these "prebuilt binary packages"?
- Steeltoe
Ah, ok. Now I understand how you think, and I have to agree that these are all points that are making them weak. Especially in modern times. However, I believe such people are very strong humans. They're just severely misguided, but I've heard of- and seen examples of terrorists (in India) completely transform as soon as their stresses are worked out. They become very huge assets for their community.
I do admire some of their qualities, like determination, willingness to DO something for what they perceieve as their cause/community and lack of fear. But I don't admire their actions in any way. I don't agree with their "religion" or ideas of the world, on the contrary. But I do see them as human beings in need of help. Every human have some good qualities. It doesn't matter what side you're on of a conflict, what matters is that you step out of it.
What I think is so very hypocritical. Here in Norway during the occupation of the German forces. _Our_ terrorists are seen as heros. Every deed they did, exploding various bridges, railways, factories etc, are seen as heroic acts regardless of human lives lost. A typical problem in this world is that we set different standard for other people than ourselves, and that we identify ourselves with groups, not humanity.
- Steeltoe
Look, either you're a hacker or you're a cracker, a hero or a villain, good guy vs bad guys. Don't complicate the issue, and hand me some more stones willya..
- Steeltoe
So by your logic and knowledge, after the Oklahoma bombing, USA should simply have gone out and bombed Bagdad to a pile of rubble? Throw away law, due process and step down to the level of a lynch-mob.
/. that explains more. Please take the time to
Do you honestly believe that this was Bin Laden's work because it was done by arabs? Why are you so willing to act on this without further proof? Why do you feel like rushing it?
Here's an article I found on
read it and understand why your attitude is part of the problem.
- Steeltoe
Not only are our models bad, they're way off the mark. So don't hold your breath. A supercomputer will bring faster results, but the results will still be wrong.
If you're going to model earth climate, you should at the very least bring in the complexities of the sun into equation, and not just as a constant source of radiation. You'd also have to predict the future of nuke-testing, as these have been shown to affect both solar flares and earth climate. I couldn't find a better link than this explaining it, but I've seen that argument in other places too. Wether it's true or not is beside the question, it's the price you have to pay for searching for new answers.
- Steeltoe
Thank you for a well-reasoned and balanced article. I'll forward the link to my friends and co-workers in hope more people will see anger, violence and hate for what it is.
- Steeltoe
I agree with you. Incidents such as these tend to stir people up, and suddenly everyone fights even harder for the causes they believe in. Only that it furthers nothing, since it is done in fury, not by logic, reason and compassion. Basically, most of /. is a yelling contest. The well-reasoned posts are hard to find and are usually not modded up very much.
- Steeltoe
Now that's a good goal, but extremely hard and long term. Plus, we'd first have to eliminate poverty in our own country (if not continent).
/..
/. reader. But if my claim is not entirely accurate, then neither is yours. The difference is you believe in your argument. Instead you should ask yourself: Why do I think terrorists are weak people?
Why is poverty in one's own country always used as an excuse to continue screwing up others? Poverty in USA is by design, a feature, and the politics would have to change drastically and become a drain on the overall economy to change that. While empowering other nations, creates new partners in trade.
Sure, these hypocrits are not the ones blowing themselves up, but they'll always find weaklings to brainwash and do their dirty work.
Terrorists are not weak. They have strong beliefs, strong actions and strong stomachs. They come from a position where they feel their people are unjustly treated, and is ready to fight with their life for their people, religion, cause, whatever. On the contrary, I think terrorists are stronger than most people, especially we who spending useless hours on
Of course this is not always true, for either terrorist or
- Steeltoe
You didn't get my point. It didn't matter wether they were under watch or not, wether the cameras would detect them or not. There is currently no technical device that can read your mind and intentions. No device can pick out evil terrorists out of a crowd. The terrorists deliberately took many flights in USA prior to their attack. Just to make sure they would not get caught on the big day. If they were caught one of those days, they would simply continue. You cannot be arrested for a crime you are going to commit in the future without evidence of plans etc.
So in effect, the attack could not be prevented. Are we really willing to sacrifice our personal freedom and privacy in order to _maybe_ prevent future attacks? Maybe is a strong word here simply because terrorists are not dumb.
- Steeltoe
Leave the country. With all the patriotism you can muster. Vote with your homes!
;-)
Yeah, I'm joking
- Steeltoe
Agreed! Besides, there's a really good English bookstore where I live. If online dealers don't want my credit card number, they can start packing.
- Steeltoe
But I must say that I feel very differently about face recognition - particularly in airports. Such a system could have caught some of the hijackers - several of whom who were WANTED BY THE FBI and FLEW UNDER THEIR OWN NAMES! - before they killed 5000 people. Extending it to public spaces such as Times Square is more questionable to me, but particularly in airports where the possible harm is now much greater than we ever imagined, I think this is a technology that would be welcome.
Which is exactly why I propose they invent name-recognition software. I mean, it would have prevented this whole tragedy wouldn't it?
Or not.
- Steeltoe
It seems to me like they should consider name-recognition software before face recognition. As far as I understood the news, they boarded the planes in their own name. So, you're on a watch-list. Suddenly you are not allowed to fly anymore? How would this not be a breach of basic freedom for innocent people?
- Steeltoe
What many feel is that combining patents with free software breaks the spirit of free software. Suddenly, use is restricted. What if I want to create a real-time kernel for FreeBSD for instance?
Besides, if this patent is about masking interrupts and prioritizing them, it's a laughable patent anyways. There should be fines for such patents. In fact, that would be a HUGE income source for the patent office.
- Steeltoe
Look little man. Patents are bad, mmmkay? It's like, when patents and GPL are combined, you sort of FORCE people to either use free software or pay royalties, mmmkay? This is not the free world I want to live in, mmmkay? Some open source programmers like to have their own license, mmmkay? And maybe they'd like to create their own RT-Linux, mmmkay? Lastly, whoever have FSF or any organization think for them, is a sheep, mmmkay?
:-)
Mmmkay!
- Steeltoe
not only would banning such activites mean a source of intelligence infomation is gone (arguably) but why should we let them win - taking away our channels of free speech and communication would mean they had won yet another victory.
It has won them nothing. We manage to screw it up perfectly ourselves.
- Steeltoe
Didn't they have a bomb? Or so the hijackers claimed. Anyways, it shouldn't take much imagination to picture what might have happened. If you have the stomach for it.
- Steeltoe
Right on, and it won't be far from the truth either. I will not die for Coca & Cola and McDonalds, and thanks to now being vegetarian, I won't die from it either.
- Steeltoe
Well, if society focus on it, it increases the chances of becoming reality. Not that I'm for banning video games or movies, but perhaps lousy series like Stargate should be banned? ;-)
- Steeltoe