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* Posts by Ember

8 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Jan 2011

London's Met Police has missed the Windows XP escape deadline

Ember

Second best after 3.11

I can understand the love and loyalty to XP, it is the least buggy Windows OS and the second most stable Windows after outdone only by the DOS based 3.11. Going to 8 or even 8.1 is a downgrade in all points, might as well just install Vista and attach a St. Christopher sticker to ward off bugs. Not that 10 is any better, with several hover text Help info-boxes almost openly admitting that it is nothing more than a collection of spyware.

The moment 7 no longer is able to run the software I need, I will learn to use Linux or go for MacOS. Windows is only for people too lazy to learn Linux anyways.

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Mars One puts 100 Red Planet corpses colonists through fresh tests

Ember

To boldy go home and stay put

All these Mars missions and Venus ideas are a waste of time and money, at this point of time.

If we were able to stop wasting billions on war, targeted extinction of the caucasian white male, political smear campaigns, strictly come dancing and similar TV shows that carry the expressed purpose of reducing the population's IQ, etc...., then we might be able to get enough science done to start fantasising about off-world colonies again in....say....120 years....

The way to go would be for starters researching technologies for isolated bio-dome colonies, improving existing artificial gravity technology, finding solutions to the problems of low-gravity related bone and other physiological problems, shooting corrupt politicians in the head, finding more economic and ecological methods of getting us into orbit and beyond, getting rid of the need for fossil fuels of any description, .....

And then, when all that is done, build a world-ship type, or at the very least generation-ship type, ark and go straight to a planet that already is habitable...The colonists on whatever planet we settle will within two generation no longer consider themselves as beholden to Earth anyways, so best put them in a distance that a planetary war of independence would be neither necessary nor possible in the first place.

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Boffins build CYBORG-MOTHRA but not for evil: For search & rescue

Ember

You are being remote-controlled. Resistence is futile.

I am not against the prospect of cyberisation, being a longstanding fan of the Cyberpunk RPG franchise, but that system is based on the idea of controling machines with our brains. Having machines controling brains however, especially if those machines are remote controlled and the controlled beings having no say in who exactly is sitting at those controls...Haven't those researchers learned anything from Sci-Fi writing? or from the actual history even? Or are they just so hot for money that they don't give a toss?

After moths for surveilance of desaster areas (allegedly...next, they will be used for anti-terror and to check that you seperate your recycables correctly), they might think they can remote-control dogs and cats, again (as propagandarised) for desaster response. And don't think they will stop at "only" controlling the brains of "dangerous criminals and terrorists" to "motivate" them into comunity service....

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NASA working on faster-than-light drive capable of WARP TEN

Ember

Star Trek Warp Scale

According to the (allegedly) official Star Trek Roleplaying Game, warp in the old series was

lightspeed x (Warpfactor ^ 2)

In the next gen and after the warp speed calculation was

Lightspeed x (Warpfactor ^ 6)

Warp 10 is Transwarp, an impossible speed that would be equivalent to instant transition, teleportation faster than what the transporter can do with no limit to distance. In the Borg Transwarp scenes it is displayed almost like the creating of a wormhole of the "FoldedSpace" type, unlike the the "Safe passage through subspace" version of the regular DS9 wormholes (which is merely a shortcut, not faster travel and no folded space).

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Sellers flogging vid games to underage kids face jail, unlimited fine

Ember
Pirate

REALITY CHECK

Another move against several civic freedoms, since it places the judgment of what other adults may play or not into the hands of a few stuck up, paper pimping, puritanic idiots but also its a further exercise in futile waste of taxpayer money. Instead of baning games that have no rating, or fine the shops that sell them, they should fine the officials WHO HAVE FAILED TO RATE IT!!! It is not that long ago when unrated meant harmless enough for toddlers to watch. Buzzword "Child Protection" is again misused as excuse for increased intrusion on people's freedom.

Nobody will ever stop underaged kids from getting the games/booze/porn/whatever that they want. Kids are not stuid, they know how bypass obstacles to their enjoyment. Just think about when WE/YOU were young. Also, lets not forget that, most kids that are too immature for it would not even think about watching porn if it wasn't forbidden. it's the "forbidden" that gives them the interest and urge to watch, not the sex, it's the lure of the forbiddena nd taboo, it's the challenge of bypassing control and pushing of boundries, finding and pushing the limits.

Also, if I understand this correctly, even if the parents of the kid buy the games that some bored desk-jockey considers inapropiate, because the parents, who know the kid, decide the kid can take it, the parents can get finded or worse. It is yet another thing where parents have their authority denied while being dumped with the responsibility. After all, PEGI is merely a recomendation so that parents are aided in their judgement...this new system is a law.

And what is this nonsense about 18+ rated games having to be in special Adults-Only shops? without exception, all those shops are either off-licences that sell alcohol or sex shops that sell lingery, porn and sex toys...which of the two would be selling COD or GTA?

There are plenty of kids of age 13 who are mentally mature enough to handle media above their age and there is a even more adults of age 40 who still are not mature enough to be allowed to wipe their own nose. Magic numbers don't say anything about wether or not something is suitable for somebody.

The regulators make an effort to rule that kids are isolated form the world, kept away from everything so that when they hit the magic number, they still haven't got a clue what it is or how to deal with it. Maturity does not happen, it is learned and the only ones who are able to know if a kid is ready are the parents.

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Blighty's new anti-bribe law will do more HARM than good

Ember
Reply Icon
Pirate

Re: Where and When

I know that they can and will, yet they are by international law not allowed to. It is common for countries, especially european countries and the USA to think themselves as the measure of all standarts and to asume rights over other nations, judge other cultures by their own ideals and so on. But being a, supposedly, more moral or more developed nation soes not make it any more right or just. Quite the opposite. Claiming to be on the moral highground, we should even more respect other cultures and other nation's souverantiy and their right to have their own laws. It is acceptable of a fashist dictatorship to discriminate against the validity of other country's laws, that is after all part of what makes them what they are, but not for us.

As you say, travelling on a UK passport gives me certain rights and limitations, yet, if even during travels I am still bound to Brittish national laws, why am I also just as much bound to the laws of the country I am travelling? And when two laws oppose each other, how dare a country claim their law to be superior to the country where the deed happens? Answer, the country within which the deed is done decides if the deed is a criminal act, if it offenses, if damage is caused...or if not. Anything else would be proposterous, asumptous,arogant and exceeing the boundaries of one's authority.

It is just as wrong to demand the rights we have in our own country while being in a country where we would not have such rights. If someone form a country, say... Russia, to stay with that excmaple, travels to UK on a Russian passport, your reasoning would permit that said Russian to commit bribery in Uk. He isn't. WHy not? Because he is Russian and UK law is superior to Russian law? Or is it just a matter of, you get all the restrictions the authorities can possibly think up but non of the rights that come with the territory?

When in Rome do as the Romans.

If you refuse or feel morally or otherwise unable to comply to the cultural or legal precepts of the country you are entering, STAY OUT. If you insist that the country you are visiting or migrating to conforms to accept your culture and laws while you reject theirs, STAY OUT When it is the legal and moral norm in Russia to bribe your way, then when you're in Russia, bribe your way.

If any nation's law takes priority to others, then its the laws of the nation within whom's territory the law is applicable, UK law takes priority over other nation's law only within UK, Russion law is superior to any other nation's law only within Russian borders, American law rules America, etc....for any legal subject of border-crossing matter, we have international law, and this international law states, you can not be done for something that is legal at the time and in the place that you do it.

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Ember
Pirate

Where and When

I am all for strickter rules concerning bribery and any other form of corruption. I even would say that anybody found guilty of corruption should be disowned and baned for life from any position or office of authority..

BUT

Brittish law ends at Brittish borders. Once I am within the territory of another country, that country's laws aply, NOT Brittish laws. If one's nationality or main residency was the deciding factor and not the place of deed, then no country would be legally able to prosecute foreign criminals unless their deed is illegal in their own home country as well.

What right do we have to tell other countries what is right and what is wrong?

By international law, unless they changed it within the last 10 years, anything done at a place and time where it is legal can not be punnished even if it later becomes illegal. If bribery is allowed in Russia and i commit bribery in Russia, I can't be legally punnished for it. If it is illegal in Brittain and I do it in Russia, I still can't be prosecuted for it even if I live in Brittain and after the deed return to Brittain. If it becomes next year illegal in Russia, I can not be prosecuted for the bribes I paid this year, only for any bribes I pay AFTER the new law comes into effect, not for the ones before.

Ever wondered why authorities have problems to prosecute crimes happenning in International Waters??

If at the time I do it in the place I do it it is legal, I can not legally be punnished, I can only be punnished if it is illegal at the time and place it is commited

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Gov gone wild: Mad new pub glasses, bread freedom introduced

Ember
Pirate

Unspecified measures...

...seems to be also used when it comes to drafting the limits of authorities a minister has.....since when is the size of beer and bread within the authority of Science? Or are we lacking a proper Minister for Food that we have to resort to cross-disciplin? Or is it because all our food (including 'green' and 'organic') is genetically enhanced and labratory made?

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