Posts by Tom 13 7544 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
Other OS systems have had a logical separation of data and programs for ages. Hell, if you were of a mind to, you COULD implement one in DOS, although you could just as easily ignore it. You could do similar things with everything through Windows 3.1.11. BUT, when MS released Win 95 they so thoroughly integrated data and program file structure that there hasn't been a decent data preservation system you could run out of the box since. You had to grab stuff from documents, favorites, desktop, and maybe some local applications data directories. It sounds like for Win 8 they may be trying to do that. Of course, until we see the actual implementation we won't know.
but at an sf convention I once went to the masquerade interlude was a sword fighting choreography troop. I don't recall the exact phraseology, but it was rather scathing. It went something like this:
During the one fight sequence, they speak of a number of well known fencing attacks and ripostes. The fight scene would have been much improved if they had used ANY of them.
No, Nev is correct, at least on this side of the pond. The C64 was competing with the TRS80-Model III and the Apple. I asked for the TRS-80 Model I for Christmas one year, my parents couldn't afford it, and the odd jobs a kid can do wouldn't earn me that much either. Instead we got a Magnavox something or other. I kept asking for the TRS until the C64 came out. That year my brother and I were rewarded with a C64. You can complain about the price point, but it was the right one: enough profit margin to sustain the company, cheap enough so most middle class families could afford it.
The FCC approved the change, then Light Squared went ahead with their plans. I grant the arguments on behalf of GPS, Light Squared should be able to build out their network. But that means the FCC needs to revoke the change, and at that point the FCC has to make Light Squared whole again because of the false or misleading rulings that permitted Light Squared to proceed in the first place.
And yes, I know. That means MY taxes are going up, not that the FCC lost anything. I'd [b] like [/b] to see heads at the FCC roll, but I know that won't happen either.
to the final delivery there is a 200% markup. Which doesn't mean I disagree with your post. Every time an item passes through an entity, they need to make a 30-50% margin to get a 7-20% profit. But if you pass that through a couple of organizations, you quickly have a 200% margin compared to the cost of base components at the original point of manufacturing. My father frequently makes the point that the cost of the ingredients for a loaf of bread is about $0.05 US, while the store brand breads sell for $1.19 and the brand names sell for $3.79. Yet everyone knows grocery stores and food distribution chains have some of the lowest margins and profits of all US markets.
it isn't clear to me that will actually happen. When you and I see that statement we think "Joe Blokums who overpaid $40 for his 16" LCD is getting can get a check from X in compensation for overpaying." And if that's the case, yes justice will have been done. But, it could also be a case of X will send Joe a rebate coupon for $60 on his next purchase. It still gets recorded by X as payment of the penalty, but I expect you and I would agree that justice hasn't been done in that case.
Remember, the attorney's general arguing the case don't really give a shit about how the money is paid, just as long as the number is big enough to get them decent PR; what they really care about is the bit where the companies setup internal processes and departments to prevent it from happening in the future. Or, translated into plain English, the lawyers for the government now have a permanent seat at the decision making table of the companies.
and then tries to trademark or copyright or whatever to legally protect that usage deserves not only to have non-competitors use the words in their products, but to have no-name outfits in their own industry wallop them upside the wallet with no legal recourse.
are also used as an alternative method for subduing "potentially violent" suspects. This guy wasn't just "potentially". It's supposed to prevent having to enter hand to hand combat where both plod and perp can and do sustain injuries. Injure the plod and he's out on medical leave. Injure the perp and you're looking at ambulance chasers suing the state for millions for police brutality. Hit him with a TASER and the judge lets off the plod with very few questions.
they mostly fire a set of wires and then you have to hit the button to apply the juice. The perp undid the wire before the juice button was hit.
These devices are notoriously difficult to use. Leather jackets can prevent the deployment of the darts, and even if they don't insulate against the jolt. Get somebody high on the right stuff and they would feel the jolt even if you hit square on the naked chest....
Probably, but not necessarily. If the perp KNOWS he got stolen stuff because he bought it from a fence or a super-great deal, yes. But I can imagine a retailer receiving stolen kit and selling it as new to boost his profit margins. In that case, no. But if that's the case I would also expect him to immediately go to the police with his sales receipt, turn over the kit, and request an investigation of the retailer.
Money from private persons for their own reasons are fine, but I have a huge problem with megacorps donating money to some charity I might not even support and then expecting a pat on the back from the media. I give my donations where I feel appropriate and as I see fit. That's between me and God, not me and everybody else in the world. Same thing should apply to corporate types.
anything less than 0.1% isn't worth mentioning.
And yes, private giving is vastly morally superior to government giving. Government giving is some taking your money with the threat of physical violence if you don't pay, to give it to someone who didn't earn it. Oh, yes, there are layers and layers of obfuscation about it, but when all is said and done, you either comply with the orders of the state or you get shot.
on its technology were leaked from a government-assigned testing..."
Because yuns didn't keep up oy yur protection money payments, I mean make your political donations, in a timely manner, and according to the precedents long established, you are being chastised in The Chicago way.
but neither is is a minor thing either. The interface provides the ability to do keystroke logging, and from the user standpoint, it can't be removed. The phone itself provides the transmission interface. Regardless of whether or not any government agency is or is not using it legally or otherwise, someone could write a malicious app to steal the data. Since some (many?) people now use cell phones for accessing bank accounts, that gives the bad guy the info to empty your accounts. That's the bit I'm concerned about. I'm not important enough to be investigated by the FBI or the NSA. I'm not even important enough to be targeted by the bad guys, but they aren't above hitting me as a target of opportunity.
doesn't necessarily mean they aren't using it to monitor traffic. Get the appropriate authorization, kick up the reporting for the tool, and the traffic stream gets reported to the feds. I think the bit which tends to lean against them investigating the company is that if they were, the easiest way would be to submit the allegations, which provide a reasonable basis given the video, then seize the evidence and sort it all out after its been secured.
but your claim that it only affects the person not wearing the seatbelt is dead wrong. The worse the crash, the more the insurance company pays, the more everyone else's insurance rates get jacked up. Also, you potentially have the emotional trauma for someone else involved in a fatal accident, particularly if that someone else was not at fault for the accident.
Granted, I'm in favor of not having the law, but that's one of the few issues where I am a Darwinist: the sooner we get the stupid people weeded out of the gene pool the better. Of course, most people object to that point of view.
The thinly veiled claim in the report is that ANY conversation is a distraction. In my book that includes passengers and AM and FM radio stations. You want to see somebody completely unaware of the road while driving? Watch a goofball jamming to his favorite radio song (or yelling at a talk show host) while alone in the car.
where you will find that the Supreme Court has ruled precisely that it IS an individual right, not a collective one, which has been the meme of the unthinking left for too many years. The phrase "The People" was clearly a legal term of art at the time the US Constitution was written which we today would right as "rights of the individual."
But then you also got the bit on telephony devices wrong too. That would be covered by the much vaunted First Amendment which guarantees your right to free speech. There are limited provision against libel/slander, and some restrictions for public safety. The catch being that any restrictions for public safety must show an overwhelming need to enact such a protection, and even then it must be done in the least restrictive manner possible.
it is the TELCO MFGs who worked with Carrier IQ to include the stuff in your system.
Now, properly secured and disclosed, it CAN be a valuable diagnostic tool, exactly as Carrier IQ asserts. The objection is that it wasn't properly disclosed, and the question on the floor is whether it is properly secured. Given the publicized video, it would seem to be leaning 70-30 against at this point.
for essentially the same reason you can't blame the girder that failed and collapsed the building, you can and ought to blame the software in the sense that if the pilot isn't getting regular practice and isn't aware of the circumstance causing the emergency, he isn't going to be able to pull out of it. We've got the same problem over here in the states with passenger trains that are mostly run on autopilot. When they dump control back to the fleshy in a red alert emergency situation, the fleshy has no idea what the correct procedure is and lots of lives can be lost.
every time they use the range, and always discuss in detail with same the nature of what they are going to do at the range, don't you think maybe someone there should have thought of that as well?
They have been responsible about manning up after the fact, which is a lot more than I will say for many people.
the verdict of the Oregon court would be overturned in a heart-beat because the law does not offer equal protection to all citizens.
I'm strongly against shield laws because they create privileged classes in society. Journalist should be held to the same standards as anybody else who says something in a public forum.
*from the common knowledge quote "only a fool represents himself in a court of law."
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