Comment Zazzle.com (Score 4, Insightful) 264
Zazzle.com. A web site that I've never heard of before, but won't ever be visiting...
Zazzle.com. A web site that I've never heard of before, but won't ever be visiting...
"Plastic."
The use of laying a map on a flat surface or holding it in the air and making use of visual clues on at least one side of it to determine your position is a "system".
Driving over to the USPTO in Alexandria right now!
It's objectification only if you think it adds any accessor methods to them.
I prefer functional girls.
Yeah, they don't have any side effects or hidden state.
Enjoy your tail calls!
This transaction is obviously a cover for S.H.I.E.L.D. to fund certain research at CMU.
The exploit has been known -- to SOMEONE -- for a while. So why did it come out of inventory all the sudden right now? Afraid that too many valuable targets would switch off XP or install new protection? Hardly likely that XP users will really switch this year. And where did it come from anyway? Transmitted from secret MS operatives to the bad guys? NSA wants to scare people into switching? Stupid bad guys just decided to use it while it was still fresh? There are many conspiracy theory variants on this episode.
Microsoft had to issue the patch for XP, otherwise the timing might look too suspicious (whether they were involved in promulgating the exploit, or not). Regardless, MS has mitigated the impact and can now say with a straight face, "See! We told you this could happen!" Next time, regardless of who may or may not be behind the exploit du jour, they really really won't be patching XP. Microsoft is now in the position they wanted. They have tried to help as much as possible, everyone has had not only a warning but a credible scare, and needs to upgrade to a new version of WIndows.
(People who are running XP or DOS on embedded systems that can't be upgraded have worse problems; that's a whole other discussion.)
If your physical data is in the form of "fish", don't destroy it prematurely!
Back in 1983, your games didn't "Phone Home".
The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.
...have been posted by nerval's lobster?
I remember reading an article on Snopes about this, quite a while ago.
As I understand it, the fly's visual system evolved a beneficial mutation that glitches what they see. Zebras are in reality just black horses (look at their snout), but the fly's retina paints those white stripes on them. This allows the fly to more easily attack the zebra, although not as effectively as if the animal was all white. This effect is well known in our domesticated horses -- horseflies are attracted to light colored animals such as Palominos. Humans are also faked out into thinking there are stripes because we only see zebras on nature documentaries, and a TV cameras have similar scanning artifacts.
That's the way I remember the Snopes article, anyway, and I read it on the Internet so it must be true.
What I don't understand is why you'll have your DNA tested often.
Because (a) it will be a routine part of your examination, and because medical records are not easily shared between providers they can't just look it up in your file and (b) they won't be full genome analysis (just looking at certain different things at different times) and (c) the "raw data" won't be easily available. When the storage and sharing (and privacy) issues with your DNA are technically and legally and procedurally solved someday, then they won't be needing to sample you very often. We're a long way from that in this decade.
Your doctor doesn't tell your insurance agency anything beyond "He had a consult, it costs $X. Pay up."
If he tells the insurance agency anything else, he is liable for a whole mess of lawsuits
The insurance company receives every detail of every procedure and every prescription that you have (as well as how often you fill it, whether you do so at the appropriate intervals, etc.) There is a lot more detail than "a consult". The insurance company then uses sophisticated AI programs to guess (when it isn't already spelled out) what's wrong with you, and what might go wrong with you in the future. They know a lot more than you seem to think. They read and process tremendous amounts of this information in near real-time. They use this knowledge for a variety of purposes. At least, that's what happens in the USA.
Guess how I know. Hint: I can't tell you any details due to NDA.
The information that they're wondering if they should give you is often faulty, and results in people making bad choices. For example, undergoing preventive therapy that is costly, has serious side effects, and turns out to have been totally unnecessary. You weren't going to get that disease that you decided you needed to be treated for. Meanwhile, it caused you health problems, and untold mental agony, anda lifetime of worrying. Also for your relatives (children and parents). By giving them this information, you have failed to "First, Do No Harm."
If the genetic analysis were more reliable (like everyone reading this story probably assumes), it would be different. But currently, for most of the information that can be given, it's very dicey.
Facebook is not a place that everyone goes to. It is merely a hosting platform where people create zillions (of partially overlapping) "places" that they go to. Those millions of people are not on your Friends list. Facebook is millions of "places", not one. (However, George Takei's page is indeed the one single place in the world where everyone goes. But just for his stuff; nobody reads the comments.) As for Facebook "bombarding your news feed with useless information 24x7", ummm, that doesn't happen to me. Get a life?
"A car is just a big purse on wheels." -- Johanna Reynolds
