Posts by Charles 9 16605 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
"Which has the greater right to exist, a cow or a cockatoo?"
How about one cow versus TEN cockatoos? Plus there are those who would argue we've over-predated the planet and are overpopulated right now, meaning unless we ease ourselves down, there's going to be a day of reckoning, followed by a population crash which we may not survive (not my thought, but I can see the reasoning at least).
Particularly since cows and other ruminants are herbivores. There's a reason their guts are set up the way they are, as there are few ways to properly digest cellulose. Ruminating stomachs happen to be one of those few ways and probably the only one that doesn't involve (literally) eating shit (which is what rabbits and other cacophages do to give the cellulose a second go-round).
"The whole point of blackmarking them on mainstream media is so they get relegated to the fringe publications which are inhabited by people just as crazy as they are, if not more so. So in that case, let them have at it."
But someone crazy enough will just plan something SO ostentatious that the MSM will be FORCED to cover it...or risk getting scooped and panned for not covering something THAT big. That's why ignoring bullies doesn't always work. Some are willing to go further than survival instinct will allow.
"Not only are plants alive, they have feelings, and talk to each other. Even worse, we often don't kill them completely before eating them."
So go on to establish PETPV--People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants and Vegetation.
"A lot of them actually "want" (yes I know, I dislike anthropomorphism as much as the next deity, we're talking selection pressure success here) to be eaten so we will later deposit some of the seeds in a pile of damp compost. Evil human beings have developed seedless grapes, but the principle is the thing."
And seedless watermelons. And practically all bananas are seedless, too (the Cavendish is cloned).
"The human population that could be supported on a fruitarian diet probably isn't that high but the death rate from PETA being allowed to mandate it would certainly do wonders for soil fertility for a few years."
There is an ongoing argument that one could easily support many more people by turning over grazing land to crops and letting the hillsides go wild again to support the ground-level ecosystems and prevent monoculture. But then, that starts another argument about the nutrients that we can ONLY get from animals.
The problem with your strategy is that it doesn't work with crazy people. People starved for attention will go to ANY lengths to get it. Thus the streetside campaigns at furriers and so on. If their current campaigns stop working, they'll just find something even more shocking while hiding behind Freedom of Speech.
PS. I heard about their survival rates, but as a frequent watcher of Animal Cops, I will take the number with a grain of salt since we don't know why the high rate. I mean, if they're constantly getting terminally-ill or grievously-injured animals, then that might provide an explanation.
"CC: No, because I tend to lose concentration and my reaction time drops."
See, it's the opposite for me. Not having to worry about the speedometer and my foot's position on the accelerator allows me to keep my head up and scanning the road better, especially in areas prone to "bear traps" (jurisdictions that live off outsider traffic tickets).
The lithium in battery packs as I recall isn't raw metallic lithium but rather in a compound. The result is that the material is not nearly as water-sensitive. That's why airliner guidance for a phone battery on fire is to douse it; for something as sensitive to fire as an airliner, they wouldn't be saying this if they didn't consider the ramifications carefully. In this case, cooling down the battery to prevent further thermal runaway is clearly more of a benefit than the risk of a lithium reaction.
How does the car know where it is on a road junction with no lines and poor markings otherwise? Especially at the bottom of a stack in stop and go traffic (which can throw off GPS and inertials, tespectively)?
Suppose the driver is in a fugue? Or sleepdriving? Both can result in false positives for driver awareness.
Put it this way. If WE can't always get it right, what chance does any technology we make have?
If that were the case, why even call the stinking thing an "autopilot", which evokes specific imagery in people's heads, for better or worse (and image matters a lot--image was partly to blame for the panics that kicked off the Great Depression)? Such things should be barred from being called anything of the sort, seeing as how You can't fix Stupid and leaving them to Darwin leads to lawsuits and cries of being inhumane so you can't win.
But therein lies your problem. They're MULTI-national, meaning they can play sovereignty against you. Try to change the laws, they'll just pack up and move somewhere friendlier, and thanks to small countries like Ireland with low upkeep costs, there will always be some haven with less need for taxes than the other countries.
Or the ad folks could just offer themselves as proxies so that all content becomes first-party to the ad slinger. That's another way to tie the ad part-and-parcel to the article to make it impossible to skim (because you can now even inline the ad with the text of the article--try blocking THAT). Furthermore, they can probably host the proxies outside the EU or any other country that tries to impose ornery rules and start waging sovereignty conflicts until a decision comes to block parts of the Internet wholesale.
That STILL sounds like "this generation that decided not to pay" because if it hadn't been for the "free samples," they STILL wouldn't pay for the dead-tree copy, meaning they STILL aren't paying. Because they're not paying no matter what you do, you basically have to squeeze blood from a stone before someone else does, undercuts you, and runs you out of business (and it's happening in the media as well as in retail, all over the place--it's THAT cutthroat).
"I had a great business mentor years back that taught me to bin all of the junk mail straight away on the walk back from the mail box."
They're getting sneaky, though. They try to disguise the junk mail as government mail, and since there can be consequences for not replying in a timely manner to government mail (say a tax audit notice), it makes things difficult. As for trying to return it, they'll probably just repackage it and RE-resend it. They have the infrastructure you lack to outwait you.
"It's not unusual to find 3-5 layers of NAT in some countries - and at one point the _whole_ of Vietnam was NATed via one IP address. NAT screws up connectivity pretty badly and that many layers makes things a clusterfuck as you can't rely on helper programs like you can if you're only NATing a small /24"
Thing is, if they're resorting to multiple CGNAT layers versus IPv6, they probably don't care about the side effects. Worse, they may WANT the side effects as a means of control.
"I've been running servers out of my home for decades without my ISP's permission. Their NAT doesn't stop that."
If you're running servers without the ISP's permission, odds are you aren't behind a carrier-grade NAT (otherwise, how would the other end know how to reach you without the ISP's OK?). I'm not, and I can run servers. But I'm noting that ISPs that DO use a CGNAT probably find the ability to control the customers' use of servers a bonus.
"You've seen something that approaches real world accuracy in sci-fi and police TV?"
Yes, you should check out the shows made by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited, which includes Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency!. All three were particularly noteworthy for their real-world accuracy when it came to actual events. Indeed, the first two always included a True Events disclaimer ("The story you have just seen is true" for Dragnet, "incidents" for Adam-12).
"I'll say it again, you cannot do this reliably with v4."
Bull-crap will say the higher-ups. We're not plunking down and that's that. No budget. And messed up routing tables? Explain the jumble of telephone numbers. Now JFDI...or rather, DIE before we decide to start looking for someone who WILL JFDI.
"No, it's more like IPv4 has been kept around by a whole heap of kludges and workarounds (mainly carrier NAT)."
But there are lots of people out there who LIKE (even LOVE) the kludged because they come with side benefits. For local network admins, it's a free layer of defense against outside intrusion (It's not like someone from the outside can directly connect to a machine behind a NAT, right? Instant benefit). And ISPs will probably accept the management of NAT's (especially carrier grade NATs) because it hamstrings their customers. No home servers without THEIR permission, for example (at a premium).
But IPv4 devices can't talk to IPv6 devices that doesn't co-exist in the IPv4 address space. This lack of forward compatibility (I mean, can't you use SOME kind of adaptation like a special pre-addressing packet?) scares people away from adopting IPv6 because they KNOW there WILL be some of us stranded on IPv4 for better or for worse. No one wants to strand customers.
"(Then there are the indirect effects, like forcing all IoT stuff to go through a relay server because it's just too difficult to avoid it when everybody is behind three layers of NAT.)"
They're going to go through a relay server anyway, because it's also the C&C server which means the vendor gets to feast on all your personal data by hiding away in a country not subject to privacy laws. Don't believe me? Why did Skype do it when it wasn't really broken to begin with?
Sure they can. They'll just go into the address market and say they're seeking an IPv4 address of a certain range and see if someone's willing to sell it. Simple supply and demand are why people aren't absolutely forced into an IPv6 address even now.
"'If it ain't broke don't fixit' is sometimes used as an excuse for the lack of courage to tell some other person that doing something will cost money now."
Which could STILL mean someone's not that willing to jump. After all, aren't there tons of firms on razor-thin margins that still use lots of IPv4-ONLY equipment, meaning jumping to IPv6 isn't an option? And unlike with Y2K, a lot of the problem is hardware in basis for performance reasons, so they're basically stuck.
Who gives a soaring screw about boundaries and all that? It's still a lot easier to remember 24 digits than 32 alphanumerics, especially since we've spent decades memorizing telephone numbers which are practically all numeric. About the only random alphanumeric we encounter every day is the license plate, and who remembers any given license plate, let alone their own? Plus numbers are easier to convey orally, especially if you only lifeline is inconsistent.
"No it doesn't. IPv6 doesn't seek anything as such. It's just a standard - that can quite happily coexist with IPv4. It's your choice if and how you implement it."
No, they exist apart. To COexist (meaning existing together), then IPv4-only devices would need to be able to talk to IPv6-only devices.
"Things that require internet connectivity require internet connectivity. A web browser is just a boring white square without."
Makes you wonder, though, what happens when (not if) EVERY version of an appliance available on the market is smart (against your wishes) with no way to remove them at any price, the stuff is tamper-resistant (break it, break the appliance AND void the warranty because you tampered with it, giving them the excuse of end-user malfeasance), and all the old ones have gotten scrapped due to environmental regulations (introduce a new refrigerant mandate at the same time to cover their kiesters).
"Nobody wants dirty water/air. And don't try telling me Republicans are FOR it, either. (That's just FUD)."
Sure they do. They just don't want it in their backyards. The other guy? Let them rot. And that won't change even with automation since there are various strings attached to the whole manufacturing process that won't change (because of basic physics and chemistry) barring some unforeseen mining, refining, and/or manufacturing breakthroughs.
"The main sticking point is how to dispose of the body afterwards without leaving traces."
That still won't deal with families and friends who can and will get suspicious, and not all of THEM are stupid. Plus there's still the matter of the stupid greatly outnumbering the smart, and numbers count in our society. Ask the polls...
Incorrect on the incorrect. ALL orbits have acceleration because the direction constantly changes. Remember, acceleration, like velocity, is a vector, meaning it has both scale and direction. Changing direction changes velocity, meaning there is an acceleration.
I believe time seems to fly when you wake up because your brain isn't quite up to speed, so it's a bit sluggish and your perception of time is a bit off, making things seem to move faster than you would normally perceive them. It would also probably explain why time is perceived to slow down when you're in an adrenaline rush or similar: only the opposite this time, you're hyper-aware.
The count would have to drop pretty significantly to make it stick. Otherwise, social pressures will probably see them come crawling back. What could conceivably make people go away and STAY away is what you really need to ask. Remember, most people don't care too much about privacy (see all the Facebook posts in addition to NSFW selfies and so on).
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