Not a chance. Osama doesn't use cable modems. They should better spend their time chasing the hackers that do tethering hacks on cell phones if they were after Osama.
OH! Heaven forbid that someone actually makes use of all that 'unlimited bandwidth' sitting locked up on your cell phone network plan that they keep paying for, to like actually do some useful work? Just imagine if everyone were reading and writing email from a laptop teathered to their cell phone as a modem. Complete anarchy I tell you! But Osama could be doing that too, so we had better make that illegal for everybody while we are at it!
You had me going there right up to the "Algol-60" part. In 2009? After all everybody her on SlashDot knows that Algol-68 is the most recent version! Why would anybody be using a back-dated version of a language?
Actually, no. Goggle has the good sense to be running on a better OS platform for efficiency sake.
On the other hand maybe Mr Gates himself needs the floating point precision in order to balance his check book? I once read a story of how the IRS had to rewrite their software and upgrade some hardware in order to do his taxes a few years back. Not that I believe that story completely, but you have got to question why the average person, not running a home brew Cray tower, would need that kind of system. Maybe the LHC?
How do you think WikiLeaks got a hold of it in the first place? Obviously someone fell a sleep reading the fine manual, and someone else came along and lifted it from them. Unfortunately for the reader, he hadn't gotten to that chapter yet. I'm absolutely sure that chapter 2 would have covered that topic thoroughly.
"Then it would begin monitoring a network of seismic, radiation, and air pressure sensors for signs of nuclear explosions."
It was a 3.0 on the Richter Scale, equivalent to 32 metric tons of TNT. Yup, enough that we noticed it all the way over here. Depending on where their sensors were placed they might have seen it as something much bigger than it even was.
Also the "No contact from headquarters" requirement would not have been met.
I might give you that one. But my wife was there, and there was little communication in general, and nothing in her area was working right. Enough go give pause and make you think? There are a number of reactors over there, not just Chernobyl. So, I guess it all comes down to where the man in the hole that holds the keys to the silos is stationed, and which reactor blows up first. If he doesn't hear something, and the system is still powered up and functioning, its anybody guess. How much does it take to take out a COMSEC link? Only a few volts, crossed wires, bad solder joint, or a small rat wanting to chew on something. Systems naturally fail on their own, they don't necessarily need help.
Wonder what Perimeter would have done if switched on back then. I heard that lots of people were watching the glow in the sky from the roof tops watching all the pretty lights. There was certainly a lot of radiation to trip the alarms, and lots of confused people. Most people didn't know what was going on until the story leaked out days later, after all the Governments children were carted off with respirators and other fancy gizmo's, and the International community was complaining about it. With Perimeter in charge they might have had just a few extra fireworks light off to make it all that more interesting.
Ok, suppose Amazon did accept the Religious Texts for sale with a marginal profit for their efforts. What happens when the other Religious Faiths decide to sue Amazon for not carrying all their Religious Texts? Everybody knows that "The Unknown Life of Zeus" will be a real hot seller, wouldn't it? How about "The Aquarian Gospel of Varuna"? I bet Amazon makes a bundle on that one, don't you think? Just where does it stop? Who decides what is worth publishing with regards to Religion? At what point do you say enough? Perhaps, in this case, before you even start doing it. At least that way its 'fair' to everyone.
<sarcasm>
Personalty I think Amazon carries way too many books in the Fiction section already. To make things worse, every time I search for Science, Physics, Medical text books there they are, making it that much harder to find what I am really looking for. Allowing 'anybody with a web browser' to create the index search keywords for the book database is a big mistake. What we need is the ability to use the reverse, suppression keywords, so I can avoid all those books on the life of Zeus, and Aphrodite when I am not looking for them. "Thor" on the other hand is another matter altogether. I read that one every night!
<sarcasm>
GlobalView; The precursor to all graphical OS desktop environments, which died in the early 90's (RIP). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalView Why that 'Xerox 8010' workstation was so sexy back then that it made MS-DOS 1.0 look like..., well..., MS-DOS 1.0. Windows 7 might be a tough competitor these days, but it was born in the wrong century to compete for that same GUI Desktop title.;)
Now we can just print the electronics http://www.gizmag.com/go/4749/ directly on the cardboard box and just re-use the shipping crate for the computer and capacitive touch sensing keyboard. Now if we could just invent a switching power supply and power cord made entirely of paper it would be almost completely recyclable. Maybe Organic LED printed solar panels instead? Hmmmm, it better not rain much...
We can also purchase a competing product that does the same job. The market itself works to adjust the pricing based on market volume. With the RIAA there is only one entity selling the latest (pick your favourite band)'s album. There is no other avenue to buy a 'one of a kind' production. No compitition, no markent influences. You just pay what they demand or you do without, and they know it.
Doesn't sound odd to me at all. Last time I checked EVERYTHING emanated something in the Terahertz region of the spectrum. Its like infra-red in that its darn hard not to give off a signature of some kind. That's how you can use it in the airports for monitoring for hidden weapons without dousing people with all kinds of xrays. Things that are more dense give off more T-waves. If you peal tape off something it causes a release of energy, and part of that will be thermal, and part T-waves.
But then, I might also assume he set up the foundation which is running under his own name? And wrote the foundation directives? Then, who might just volunteer to run such an organization if not those related in some way, and perhaps be somewhat predispositioned to be grateful for their own inherited fortune?
Ok wait, I admit, I'm being more cynical than justified without any direct evidence here. Guilty as charged. But again, history has shown that money does strange things to a persons own sense of values, and therefore things that seem very realistic in their own minds contexts often are merely somewhat tangential to the actual reality that you and the rest of us might share. I can't sit here and say there is no bias, I can only point out that there could be a default bias based on some basic facts of this situation. I like to keep an open mind, and therefore by default, no options should be off the table until the actual evidence is in. His or mine.
Clear and simple, we can't question those who have been dead for forty years, only those that have been around since then. Therefore I must ask my self logically, if I had the choice of 'doing it' or 'not' what would make sense, and their position from a 'need to have' perspective for the future of theirs does not make sense in either case, so where is this disconnect? Even from their own 'economic' perspective, money has no intrinsic value if you are not alive to spend it, so economics is not the last scientific last word that such a 'scientific endowment organization' should be touting.
Carbons sequestration is unproven to work on any scale 'scientifically'. Economically it is even more of a clear failure. Wind power does work, now. Its simple, it is economical, and very sustainable, Even more so as the planet's climate temperature actually increases. If transmitting electrical power was so un-economical we would not need companies like Enron or Constellation to do it for us, would we? Distribution should be a 'National priority', because where the power 'can' be generated changes hour to hour, not truck-load to truck-load. That is the real economics. That very mind-set of thinking needs to be change if we want to survive economically. When was the last time you factored in the 'cost' of a hurricane to your electric bill? A flood? Tornado? Make sure you factor in the price of your insurance, electrical, and cable service fees when you price the cost of that truckload of coal and all that non-existent but necessary equipment to reabsorb the Co2 it produces, not to mention the heath effects of SO2, CO1, etc. That is what they will never even mention in their cost estimates. Can we please look at the 'big picture' before adding up 'all the numbers' that say not do it?
Constellation would not still exist if it were not economical, would it? They are certainly collecting enough of my own money to convince me that it works economically. Just ask yourself why doesn't it convince the Sloan Foundation? Then take 2+2=x from there...
Ok, so I'm supposed to believe that Alfred P. Sloan, someone that made a VAST FORTUNE off of technology that burns oil, is going to like us NOT burning oil? Who would have ever thought that...
Hydrogen is a lot safer than you might suggest, though I certainly enjoyed the joke.;)
Any flame from Hydrogen will rise straight up into the air due to its propensity to be lighter than air and still requires mixing with oxygen in order to burn, though the heat radiated from the plume can still be a problem. The Hindenburg accident was not due to 'Hydrogen' as is often reported, but rather the paint like coating on the surface that was made from a compound very much related to TNT (Who ever thought of that bright idea?). The Hydrogen that was burning was simply the plume that arose from the shell straight up into the air, while the explosive compounds on the skin burned so intensely that the structure itself failed as it fell to the ground.
The greatest danger of Hydrogen, if stored as a compressed gas, would be from freezing those that get caught in the nearly cryogenic gas stream escaping from the tank. The storage safety/density problem is the biggest issue that keeps Hydrogen from going mainstream as an efficient and viable energy delivery medium. Solve that problem and you could be the next instant Billionaire.
From the Download Center "Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP" page:
Others who downloaded Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP also downloaded:
1. Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP
The number one thing downloaded with IE8 is its successor IE7, meaning that they either automatically don't trust that IE8 will work correctly or that know they want to revert back to IE7 after trying it. Take your pick. Of course, if you wait until AFTER you screw up your OS its too late to be able to download the required downloader needed to fix the problem, so I concur.
Am I convinced yet about IE8? Well, the javascript on that page completely stalled my current browser of choice while just trying to load that page. I had to actually turn off javascript and force a reload just so I could cut and paste the 'fact' above. So, tell me Microsoft, is that why I should be running IE8?
What is really "phasing out" is my money going into their bank account.
With DRM you can never win. No matter what they do, since you have the keys, the published algorithm, and the encrypted data, you can always reproduce the output. If they lock the keys in the hardware it is still obtainable. They can only blacklist large sectors of hardware after you do that. Blacklisting everyone's high priced video player equipment after they spent big bucks on the device is financial suicide to say the least. What, you think that polititons and layers won't buy the same equipment you do? The DRM Group may control the specification for the system but systems can always be reversed engineered, holes in the data pathway can always be leveraged, tapped, diverted, or recorded, etc. The outcome will never be any better than a pure escalation of the age old measure, counter measure, counter counter measure, at infinitum. I ask the 'DRM Group' to just remember, it only takes one person to copy the media to an unprotected format and the game is over. Hundreds of millions of dollars in research, design, and remanufacturing all wasted because of one person that didn't like not being able to watch the movie that [s]he just bought. And then there are always the professional bootleggers that have REAL resources. When does it all end?
My hat is off to this individual for being so resourceful at such an early age. I suffered from a parasitic disease for 37 years without any diagnosis, before buying all kinds of lab equipment and discovering the cause myself. The doctors never even tried to diagnose it, and some just labelled me as being a nut case, or something. I saw SO MANY doctors I have lost track, and not one of them really even tried to come up with an explanation, or send me for tests that might have even had a chance at diagnosing the actual problem. Not even so much as a guess. In short, they were incapable of 'thinking outside the box'.
The answer was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis, which I contracted as a young child. It ruined my life, for sure. The trouble is, if you ask any doctor here in the US they will tell you it does not even exist here, only in west Africa and South America. I've never even been anywhere near there, or outside the country at the time at which I contracted it. If you have ever been labelled with IBS but have other symptoms as well then you might want to read the above wikipedia article.
Because the doctors are not aware of the disease, they do not diagnose it.
Because doctors do not diagnose it, they do not collect any statistics.
Because the disease is statistically insignificant, the medical schools do not teach much, if any, about it.
Therefore the doctors don't know about it.
Anyone see a problem with this situation?
What really hurts is that when it really started affecting my health my primary care physician at the time was an EXPERT in those diseases, and she just blew me off because it would bee too hard to think, or to send me for actual tests of some kind. You would never know her ineptitude by looking at her wall of certification she earned in medical school in west Africa. Of all doctors, including at least three infectious disease specialists, this one completely boggles my mind how she could have missed this diagnosis!
After 37+ years of damage it took my buying my own 1600x stereo microscope mounted with a CCD camera to collect some indisputable evidence, one day to use it, one doctor visit to present my case, three days just to find a source in the US to fill the prescription, and only 24 hours to actually cure it. The damage was done, and nothing can ever give me back my health, or a normal life for that matter. The real kicker is my dog gets that exact same 'cure' every month, but it took me three days to find a supplier for a 'human' prescription for the exact same drug. All I can say is at least my dog has someone that actually cares about his health!
Ok, I'll bite, which one? There are NUMEROUS 'String Theories' and they don't all mean the same thing. In fact I will be happy when the day comes that there is some kind of a 'Unified String Theory' so there is enough of it all in one place to be able to *disprove* something. Its kind of hard to prove that ten gallons of Jello won't fit in a bottle half its size if you can't get it all in one place at one time. You can't disprove something that you have not even sufficiently defined either.
The major problem with String/F/D/Dn/S/Brane/M/Multiverse/Whatever's-next Theory is that every time someone finds a problem that doesn't fit with experiments/reality they just go and find an excuse and then modify the equations until it mathematically works out in that general direction. They don't start with the latest and greatest and modify that. They just pick their favourite Theory-of-the-day and add an extra dimension here, or there, twist it there, or subtract another infinite from both sides, because the formula is inconveniently looking incorrect at the moment. In other words, Just squish the Jello a little here and make it come out over there instead, until someone discovers 'the new mess' on the floor.
If a theory has no basis in fact (i.e. no physical reality that can be described) then it is just Math. Math is not reality. You can model anything with Math, and it doesn't even have to exist.
Recent polls on medical marijuana show nation public support at the level of 72% in favor and 21% opposed.
I had actually been trying to 'tread lightly' (but still labelled as flaimbait) and not speak too much about the virtues of pro or con legalization specifically, but rather just focus on the 'suitability' of 'the study' in question being the venue for this specific protest. But then you just brought up the one aspect where I absolutely DO have an opinion. Supprisingly to many on slashdot who may have actually read my original posting, it is a pro-legalization opinion, even given all my previously stated 'life's experiences' and grim view of its wider sociological implications. Here is why...
<soapbox>
As I write this, my own mother is literally dying of brain cancer. After a 2-week round of radiation therapy she is far too weak at this point to even consider chemotherapy. But if she were able to, I would want the medical establishment to at least have the option of using THC for medicinal purposes to ease the absolute certainty of chemo-induced pain and suffering. Scientific studies have clearly demonstrated THC's superior and direct benefits for certain medical conditions, and to deny its use under these specific conditions is just socially unacceptable. After all, what is it going to do, kill her? Make her live on the streets and go rob banks to get her next fix? She can't even hold her own cup of water right now so I doubt she would be much of a menace to society.
In her case, the brain cancer is just an extension of malignant but asymptomatic 'lung cancer' of unknown origin, so "smoking it" clearly would not be the best option for her, as of late yesterday she was barely breathing. This medicinal purpose alone is reason enough in my mind for the Government to ease the restrictions on the drug, as it is unconscionable to deny its use to those that have no other drug in the medical arsenal which can equal its effectiveness under such conditions.
While I hate to think of all those during my childhood and college years wasting their time with it, there is clearly a good purpose for it that can benefit our society. Denying its use under those terms is just unacceptable. Smoking it may be an option for others who just hope to help keep the medical costs down while facing the prospect of 'big medical bills' that lay ahead, if they survive that long. In my opinion the reason the drug is not available is because it can't be patented, so there is little incentive to change the current laws as long as other less effective but profitable alternatives exist upon which stock investors can make money. If it were profitable it would be legal country wide in very short order, but there is little incentive to change that.
</soapbox>
But IMHO its legalization still does not make the Government more effective or efficient one way or the other, or even make the above 'study' the proper place to voice that protest. Legalization would only serve to refocus the Governments energy in other related aspects of the same problem.
Given the choice between pot being managed by the IRS or the judicial system - I have to give the efficiency card to the IRS.
Very interesting point, but I also might consider that they would then put the "enforcement" under the ATF instead of the IRS (or the "new" ATFM, with the "M" for Marijuana). The IRS/politicians make the rules, and we all know how "fair" those rules are to those that don't have on-staff accountants and permanent lawyers on retainer. Historically we also know how efficiently the ATF worked on "controlling" the Tobacco and Alcohol industries and its associated Mafia's too. Where you find big money you often find corruption and a twisted system of rules custom tailored towards the benefit of certain sectors of our society. I'm not sure that trading one set of problems for the other is all that efficient.
Think about this, in Sweden its illegal to sell Marijuana, but you can possess it in small quantities. First you create a demand for an illegal substance and then you tell them they can't have it, or in this case they must "pay tax" on what they can't legally buy. Ok, so we make it legal to buy-and-sell here, and the money collected as tax becomes as big of a business as the Tobacco and Alcohol taxes. This is why we have illegal contraband being trucked across state lines, to avoid taxes, and why we have the ATF to enforce those same tax collection services. While looking at the budget for the current ATF I would hate to think what happens when you throw yet another "mission priority" at them. The ATF is known to have deadly-efficiency with it comes to actual field operations, but the overall organizational efficiency is not quite to the level you were hoping for with the IRS. The IRS and its "effectiveness" is in itself a whole other story worthy of a book or two, so I won't even get started on that one.
Ok, if its legalized go ahead and tax it, but don't expect it to 'make money' or even pay for itself in enforcement costs. You will still have to convince me its not just another a politicians/tax collectors pipe dream. (sorry, yes, pun intended)
strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.
Say what? Let me analyse this point by point...
Strengthen our democracy: How, by making people sit around their bong every night discussing the problems of the world? Like.. "Man... link um.. why do they fold those papers around those little sticks of gum? Can't they see we need to save some trees? Besides they taste terrible when folding a joint, their just disgusting."
Promote efficiency: Get real, Marijuana and efficiency in the same sentence? Last I knew all my childhood friends were doing nothing with their lives. Just sitting around getting high with no aspirations in life. Several are dead from accidents, suicide, some perpetually in rehab clinics, and all living life day-t-day. Efficiency is not the first word on my mind.
Making government more transparent: Ok, Marijuana is hallucinogenic for some people, but I doubt that the Government is going to get any more transparent that way.
Collaborative: Ok, lets get this one definition straight. We are talking about the Government being more collaborative, not people sitting around talking about fantasies while smoking joints. How is legalizing Marijuana going to get the Government to improve on their collaboration skills?
I know I'll get flamed, and I'm not trying to argue that it should or should not be legalized, but what the study is for and the conclusions being stated about Marijuana are just not related from my viewpoint. But as I remember back to 'hanging out' with my childhood friends, they usually were not thinking all so coherently about much of anything, and no doubt they were the ones 'brainstorming' here. So why would I think this study would be any different? Go figure.
You want it legalized? Good for you, go for it. This is a democracy after all. But, with the next study trying to 'fix the Government', please try to come up with ideas on topic and that actually solve the issues that the study is supposed to discuss. If you want to change the law there are already ways to do that. Go for it.
Well all I can say is I feel for you. In my opinion this SDC is all about rolling out a base configuration and saving labour doing it, but what happens after that? They will go through great pains to lock things down on a host to the point of being completely unusable and then also leave holes in the network so large you could just drive a bus through it. While I am glad they are paying attention to baseline security measures it is also important to keep a view at the big picture too. You only need one weak link and with the number of machines you have to apply those patches to almost always leaves a window of opportunity. The bad guys can download the official patches, reverse the code, identify the vulnerability, and create a point and shoot exploit, all in less time than an organization your size can even roll out those same patches. Time is still on their side.
Slashdot Mirror
OH! Heaven forbid that someone actually makes use of all that 'unlimited bandwidth' sitting locked up on your cell phone network plan that they keep paying for, to like actually do some useful work? Just imagine if everyone were reading and writing email from a laptop teathered to their cell phone as a modem. Complete anarchy I tell you! But Osama could be doing that too, so we had better make that illegal for everybody while we are at it!
</sarcasm>
Ok, seriously. Why Algol-60?
On the other hand maybe Mr Gates himself needs the floating point precision in order to balance his check book? I once read a story of how the IRS had to rewrite their software and upgrade some hardware in order to do his taxes a few years back. Not that I believe that story completely, but you have got to question why the average person, not running a home brew Cray tower, would need that kind of system. Maybe the LHC?
How do you think WikiLeaks got a hold of it in the first place? Obviously someone fell a sleep reading the fine manual, and someone else came along and lifted it from them. Unfortunately for the reader, he hadn't gotten to that chapter yet. I'm absolutely sure that chapter 2 would have covered that topic thoroughly.
It was a 3.0 on the Richter Scale, equivalent to 32 metric tons of TNT. Yup, enough that we noticed it all the way over here. Depending on where their sensors were placed they might have seen it as something much bigger than it even was.
I might give you that one. But my wife was there, and there was little communication in general, and nothing in her area was working right. Enough go give pause and make you think? There are a number of reactors over there, not just Chernobyl. So, I guess it all comes down to where the man in the hole that holds the keys to the silos is stationed, and which reactor blows up first. If he doesn't hear something, and the system is still powered up and functioning, its anybody guess. How much does it take to take out a COMSEC link? Only a few volts, crossed wires, bad solder joint, or a small rat wanting to chew on something. Systems naturally fail on their own, they don't necessarily need help.
Wonder what Perimeter would have done if switched on back then. I heard that lots of people were watching the glow in the sky from the roof tops watching all the pretty lights. There was certainly a lot of radiation to trip the alarms, and lots of confused people. Most people didn't know what was going on until the story leaked out days later, after all the Governments children were carted off with respirators and other fancy gizmo's, and the International community was complaining about it. With Perimeter in charge they might have had just a few extra fireworks light off to make it all that more interesting.
<sarcasm>
Personalty I think Amazon carries way too many books in the Fiction section already. To make things worse, every time I search for Science, Physics, Medical text books there they are, making it that much harder to find what I am really looking for. Allowing 'anybody with a web browser' to create the index search keywords for the book database is a big mistake. What we need is the ability to use the reverse, suppression keywords, so I can avoid all those books on the life of Zeus, and Aphrodite when I am not looking for them. "Thor" on the other hand is another matter altogether. I read that one every night!
<sarcasm>
GlobalView; The precursor to all graphical OS desktop environments, which died in the early 90's (RIP). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalView Why that 'Xerox 8010' workstation was so sexy back then that it made MS-DOS 1.0 look like..., well..., MS-DOS 1.0. Windows 7 might be a tough competitor these days, but it was born in the wrong century to compete for that same GUI Desktop title. ;)
Now we can just print the electronics http://www.gizmag.com/go/4749/ directly on the cardboard box and just re-use the shipping crate for the computer and capacitive touch sensing keyboard. Now if we could just invent a switching power supply and power cord made entirely of paper it would be almost completely recyclable. Maybe Organic LED printed solar panels instead? Hmmmm, it better not rain much...
We can also purchase a competing product that does the same job. The market itself works to adjust the pricing based on market volume. With the RIAA there is only one entity selling the latest (pick your favourite band)'s album. There is no other avenue to buy a 'one of a kind' production. No compitition, no markent influences. You just pay what they demand or you do without, and they know it.
No, but depending on what you are pulling the tape off, or how fast, of you might get some evil nemesis of yours to do exactly what you ask of them.
Doesn't sound odd to me at all. Last time I checked EVERYTHING emanated something in the Terahertz region of the spectrum. Its like infra-red in that its darn hard not to give off a signature of some kind. That's how you can use it in the airports for monitoring for hidden weapons without dousing people with all kinds of xrays. Things that are more dense give off more T-waves. If you peal tape off something it causes a release of energy, and part of that will be thermal, and part T-waves.
Because my money is now printed with disappearing ink.
Ok wait, I admit, I'm being more cynical than justified without any direct evidence here. Guilty as charged. But again, history has shown that money does strange things to a persons own sense of values, and therefore things that seem very realistic in their own minds contexts often are merely somewhat tangential to the actual reality that you and the rest of us might share. I can't sit here and say there is no bias, I can only point out that there could be a default bias based on some basic facts of this situation. I like to keep an open mind, and therefore by default, no options should be off the table until the actual evidence is in. His or mine.
Clear and simple, we can't question those who have been dead for forty years, only those that have been around since then. Therefore I must ask my self logically, if I had the choice of 'doing it' or 'not' what would make sense, and their position from a 'need to have' perspective for the future of theirs does not make sense in either case, so where is this disconnect? Even from their own 'economic' perspective, money has no intrinsic value if you are not alive to spend it, so economics is not the last scientific last word that such a 'scientific endowment organization' should be touting.
Carbons sequestration is unproven to work on any scale 'scientifically'. Economically it is even more of a clear failure. Wind power does work, now. Its simple, it is economical, and very sustainable, Even more so as the planet's climate temperature actually increases. If transmitting electrical power was so un-economical we would not need companies like Enron or Constellation to do it for us, would we? Distribution should be a 'National priority', because where the power 'can' be generated changes hour to hour, not truck-load to truck-load. That is the real economics. That very mind-set of thinking needs to be change if we want to survive economically. When was the last time you factored in the 'cost' of a hurricane to your electric bill? A flood? Tornado? Make sure you factor in the price of your insurance, electrical, and cable service fees when you price the cost of that truckload of coal and all that non-existent but necessary equipment to reabsorb the Co2 it produces, not to mention the heath effects of SO2, CO1, etc. That is what they will never even mention in their cost estimates. Can we please look at the 'big picture' before adding up 'all the numbers' that say not do it?
Constellation would not still exist if it were not economical, would it? They are certainly collecting enough of my own money to convince me that it works economically. Just ask yourself why doesn't it convince the Sloan Foundation? Then take 2+2=x from there...
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Alfred_P._Sloan,_Jr.
Any flame from Hydrogen will rise straight up into the air due to its propensity to be lighter than air and still requires mixing with oxygen in order to burn, though the heat radiated from the plume can still be a problem. The Hindenburg accident was not due to 'Hydrogen' as is often reported, but rather the paint like coating on the surface that was made from a compound very much related to TNT (Who ever thought of that bright idea?). The Hydrogen that was burning was simply the plume that arose from the shell straight up into the air, while the explosive compounds on the skin burned so intensely that the structure itself failed as it fell to the ground.
The greatest danger of Hydrogen, if stored as a compressed gas, would be from freezing those that get caught in the nearly cryogenic gas stream escaping from the tank. The storage safety/density problem is the biggest issue that keeps Hydrogen from going mainstream as an efficient and viable energy delivery medium. Solve that problem and you could be the next instant Billionaire.
The number one thing downloaded with IE8 is its successor IE7, meaning that they either automatically don't trust that IE8 will work correctly or that know they want to revert back to IE7 after trying it. Take your pick. Of course, if you wait until AFTER you screw up your OS its too late to be able to download the required downloader needed to fix the problem, so I concur.
Am I convinced yet about IE8? Well, the javascript on that page completely stalled my current browser of choice while just trying to load that page. I had to actually turn off javascript and force a reload just so I could cut and paste the 'fact' above. So, tell me Microsoft, is that why I should be running IE8?
With DRM you can never win. No matter what they do, since you have the keys, the published algorithm, and the encrypted data, you can always reproduce the output. If they lock the keys in the hardware it is still obtainable. They can only blacklist large sectors of hardware after you do that. Blacklisting everyone's high priced video player equipment after they spent big bucks on the device is financial suicide to say the least. What, you think that polititons and layers won't buy the same equipment you do? The DRM Group may control the specification for the system but systems can always be reversed engineered, holes in the data pathway can always be leveraged, tapped, diverted, or recorded, etc. The outcome will never be any better than a pure escalation of the age old measure, counter measure, counter counter measure, at infinitum. I ask the 'DRM Group' to just remember, it only takes one person to copy the media to an unprotected format and the game is over. Hundreds of millions of dollars in research, design, and remanufacturing all wasted because of one person that didn't like not being able to watch the movie that [s]he just bought. And then there are always the professional bootleggers that have REAL resources. When does it all end?
The answer was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis, which I contracted as a young child. It ruined my life, for sure. The trouble is, if you ask any doctor here in the US they will tell you it does not even exist here, only in west Africa and South America. I've never even been anywhere near there, or outside the country at the time at which I contracted it. If you have ever been labelled with IBS but have other symptoms as well then you might want to read the above wikipedia article.
Because the doctors are not aware of the disease, they do not diagnose it.
Because doctors do not diagnose it, they do not collect any statistics.
Because the disease is statistically insignificant, the medical schools do not teach much, if any, about it.
Therefore the doctors don't know about it.
Anyone see a problem with this situation?
What really hurts is that when it really started affecting my health my primary care physician at the time was an EXPERT in those diseases, and she just blew me off because it would bee too hard to think, or to send me for actual tests of some kind. You would never know her ineptitude by looking at her wall of certification she earned in medical school in west Africa. Of all doctors, including at least three infectious disease specialists, this one completely boggles my mind how she could have missed this diagnosis!
After 37+ years of damage it took my buying my own 1600x stereo microscope mounted with a CCD camera to collect some indisputable evidence, one day to use it, one doctor visit to present my case, three days just to find a source in the US to fill the prescription, and only 24 hours to actually cure it. The damage was done, and nothing can ever give me back my health, or a normal life for that matter. The real kicker is my dog gets that exact same 'cure' every month, but it took me three days to find a supplier for a 'human' prescription for the exact same drug. All I can say is at least my dog has someone that actually cares about his health!
Real Geeks use IDA Pro, male or female. Dissembling the ADA code and patching it is much more fun.
btw - Drinking is strictly optional; It tends to cloud the mind and makes it harder to type in Hex.
The major problem with String/F/D/Dn/S/Brane/M/Multiverse/Whatever's-next Theory is that every time someone finds a problem that doesn't fit with experiments/reality they just go and find an excuse and then modify the equations until it mathematically works out in that general direction. They don't start with the latest and greatest and modify that. They just pick their favourite Theory-of-the-day and add an extra dimension here, or there, twist it there, or subtract another infinite from both sides, because the formula is inconveniently looking incorrect at the moment. In other words, Just squish the Jello a little here and make it come out over there instead, until someone discovers 'the new mess' on the floor.
If a theory has no basis in fact (i.e. no physical reality that can be described) then it is just Math. Math is not reality. You can model anything with Math, and it doesn't even have to exist.
I had actually been trying to 'tread lightly' (but still labelled as flaimbait) and not speak too much about the virtues of pro or con legalization specifically, but rather just focus on the 'suitability' of 'the study' in question being the venue for this specific protest. But then you just brought up the one aspect where I absolutely DO have an opinion. Supprisingly to many on slashdot who may have actually read my original posting, it is a pro-legalization opinion, even given all my previously stated 'life's experiences' and grim view of its wider sociological implications. Here is why...
<soapbox>
As I write this, my own mother is literally dying of brain cancer. After a 2-week round of radiation therapy she is far too weak at this point to even consider chemotherapy. But if she were able to, I would want the medical establishment to at least have the option of using THC for medicinal purposes to ease the absolute certainty of chemo-induced pain and suffering. Scientific studies have clearly demonstrated THC's superior and direct benefits for certain medical conditions, and to deny its use under these specific conditions is just socially unacceptable. After all, what is it going to do, kill her? Make her live on the streets and go rob banks to get her next fix? She can't even hold her own cup of water right now so I doubt she would be much of a menace to society.
In her case, the brain cancer is just an extension of malignant but asymptomatic 'lung cancer' of unknown origin, so "smoking it" clearly would not be the best option for her, as of late yesterday she was barely breathing. This medicinal purpose alone is reason enough in my mind for the Government to ease the restrictions on the drug, as it is unconscionable to deny its use to those that have no other drug in the medical arsenal which can equal its effectiveness under such conditions.
While I hate to think of all those during my childhood and college years wasting their time with it, there is clearly a good purpose for it that can benefit our society. Denying its use under those terms is just unacceptable. Smoking it may be an option for others who just hope to help keep the medical costs down while facing the prospect of 'big medical bills' that lay ahead, if they survive that long. In my opinion the reason the drug is not available is because it can't be patented, so there is little incentive to change the current laws as long as other less effective but profitable alternatives exist upon which stock investors can make money. If it were profitable it would be legal country wide in very short order, but there is little incentive to change that.
</soapbox>
But IMHO its legalization still does not make the Government more effective or efficient one way or the other, or even make the above 'study' the proper place to voice that protest. Legalization would only serve to refocus the Governments energy in other related aspects of the same problem.
Very interesting point, but I also might consider that they would then put the "enforcement" under the ATF instead of the IRS (or the "new" ATFM, with the "M" for Marijuana). The IRS/politicians make the rules, and we all know how "fair" those rules are to those that don't have on-staff accountants and permanent lawyers on retainer. Historically we also know how efficiently the ATF worked on "controlling" the Tobacco and Alcohol industries and its associated Mafia's too. Where you find big money you often find corruption and a twisted system of rules custom tailored towards the benefit of certain sectors of our society. I'm not sure that trading one set of problems for the other is all that efficient.
Think about this, in Sweden its illegal to sell Marijuana, but you can possess it in small quantities. First you create a demand for an illegal substance and then you tell them they can't have it, or in this case they must "pay tax" on what they can't legally buy. Ok, so we make it legal to buy-and-sell here, and the money collected as tax becomes as big of a business as the Tobacco and Alcohol taxes. This is why we have illegal contraband being trucked across state lines, to avoid taxes, and why we have the ATF to enforce those same tax collection services. While looking at the budget for the current ATF I would hate to think what happens when you throw yet another "mission priority" at them. The ATF is known to have deadly-efficiency with it comes to actual field operations, but the overall organizational efficiency is not quite to the level you were hoping for with the IRS. The IRS and its "effectiveness" is in itself a whole other story worthy of a book or two, so I won't even get started on that one.
Ok, if its legalized go ahead and tax it, but don't expect it to 'make money' or even pay for itself in enforcement costs. You will still have to convince me its not just another a politicians/tax collectors pipe dream. (sorry, yes, pun intended)
Say what? Let me analyse this point by point...
Strengthen our democracy: How, by making people sit around their bong every night discussing the problems of the world? Like.. "Man... link um.. why do they fold those papers around those little sticks of gum? Can't they see we need to save some trees? Besides they taste terrible when folding a joint, their just disgusting."
Promote efficiency: Get real, Marijuana and efficiency in the same sentence? Last I knew all my childhood friends were doing nothing with their lives. Just sitting around getting high with no aspirations in life. Several are dead from accidents, suicide, some perpetually in rehab clinics, and all living life day-t-day. Efficiency is not the first word on my mind.
Making government more transparent: Ok, Marijuana is hallucinogenic for some people, but I doubt that the Government is going to get any more transparent that way.
Collaborative: Ok, lets get this one definition straight. We are talking about the Government being more collaborative, not people sitting around talking about fantasies while smoking joints. How is legalizing Marijuana going to get the Government to improve on their collaboration skills?
I know I'll get flamed, and I'm not trying to argue that it should or should not be legalized, but what the study is for and the conclusions being stated about Marijuana are just not related from my viewpoint. But as I remember back to 'hanging out' with my childhood friends, they usually were not thinking all so coherently about much of anything, and no doubt they were the ones 'brainstorming' here. So why would I think this study would be any different? Go figure.
You want it legalized? Good for you, go for it. This is a democracy after all. But, with the next study trying to 'fix the Government', please try to come up with ideas on topic and that actually solve the issues that the study is supposed to discuss. If you want to change the law there are already ways to do that. Go for it.
Well all I can say is I feel for you. In my opinion this SDC is all about rolling out a base configuration and saving labour doing it, but what happens after that? They will go through great pains to lock things down on a host to the point of being completely unusable and then also leave holes in the network so large you could just drive a bus through it. While I am glad they are paying attention to baseline security measures it is also important to keep a view at the big picture too. You only need one weak link and with the number of machines you have to apply those patches to almost always leaves a window of opportunity. The bad guys can download the official patches, reverse the code, identify the vulnerability, and create a point and shoot exploit, all in less time than an organization your size can even roll out those same patches. Time is still on their side.