>Sisko hit Q

He did? Man, that must've been right before Q's shift directing air traffic over ABQ.

It's been 14 years since I did any graphics programming, and I was thinking back, "Yeah, I remember this being an issue back then."

It will take time, but if the trend continues, the children of the the vaccine refusers will be in the majority when the disease reappears. They will eventually be left with a choice of risking the disease or "risking" the vaccine. As long as we keep our own children vaccinated, the vaccine refusers are the ones who will suffer in the end. A sad but highly likely result.

If my kids were allergic to vaccinations I would be forming groups with parents of other similar kids to investigate lawsuits against the vaccine refusers. A few of these, reported widely, might help turn the tide.

I am also heartened by the act that some doctors are refusing to treat patients who do not vaccinate their children. There was a good WSJ article in Feb 2012: "More Doctors 'Fire' Vaccine Refusers" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577209230884246636.html

I think the answer is, that the payload is a command and control utility.
That way, the people who deployed it can use it at any / from any location, which is infected.

It could be used to escalate privileges on the local computer or many more useful things, and would reduce the need to be tied.
Sure similar things have been achieved in different ways, this is just speculation

Driving will essentially become free time where I can read, study, listen to music, surf the internet or for those so inclined, even watch movies or television. We wont care so much about speed limits anymore.

Every time I see the gene patent debate now, I think about how my wife spent five years of 60 hour weeks (grad school, she just got her PhD) discovering that some genes from Castor Beans have no effect on the lipids that they produce.

Gene patents get us all backed up in a corner mostly because of the medical tests that can save lives. What people fail to consider is that gene research is not very well-understood yet. Individual researchers fumble around for decades before they get results worth sharing, if ever.

Last time this debate came around, I pointed to Myriad Genetic's financials. They constantly lose money, and rely upon investors to keep them afloat. The research that they do is extremely expensive. They're not some greedy corporation making money hand-over-fist. (My wife, btw, is highly likely to carry the BRCA1 gene that Myriad holds a patent on...three women in her family have been tested and all have it...but until recently we haven't had the financial security to consider getting her tested for it).

I guess my point in all of this is that if gene patents go away, expect genetic research to come to a grinding halt, at least in the private sector. Currently, the private sector is where most of the research is happening. There is some funding by NIH and DoA, but it's on the decline since some kind of financial crisis hit the US.

Since slashdot loves carrying a debate into another field: Imagine if, say, electronic patents were ruled invalid? I mean, electrical doodads are just really following the laws of physics, and processors and logic gates are following the rules of logic. These are concepts that are at their most fundamental mathematics. What would happen to the computer industry if such patents were ruled invalid?

The world is unfair in so many ways. I suppose it's not surprising that people forget that we can strive to make it better.

Honestly, I went the other way on this one.

Samsung has just had their product ruled demonstrably inferior by a court of law. Not exactly a marketing message they want celebrate.

Unless you've invented a device to transmit people's thoughts and intentions, then their words are all we have to go by.

Yeah, I'm over 40, and my father was a software guy before me (still working for Adobe).

Hi Sapphire Wyvern -

I'm the research lead of the Project Basecamp team, so hi.

I did hem and haw about releasing exploit tools for the vulnerabilities, but the truth is that Digital Bond tried informing the vendors years and years ago about these vulnerabilities. Starting in 2001, DB simply told people about the problems. In 2006 DB started releasing Nessus checks to demonstrate that PLCs were vulnerable without releasing the exact 'how' to exploit them. Neither path worked...we heard from more lawyers than engineers. Now that we're releasing exploit tools and causing bad days for the vendors and (unfortunately) end users, vendors are starting to come around and listen.

It stinks, but that's what has been required. Some vendors are taking the issues seriously, others are not. The ones that aren't are going to see a lot more pressure from us, I think...

Reid

See http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html . Perhaps the iPhone is worth $8 billion (I mean, you are technically stealing every song on the iPhone as well as the phone itself).

The word you're looking for is "Nerd". It's OK to say it, it's in the title-bar of Slashdot.

Obviously you think this line of reasoning is hyperbole and bullshit or doesn't apply to you since you're spending time debating politics on Slashdot and probably surfing the internet rather than working to provide food, shelter, and clothing to others in need.

So let's try again. What do you mean by stating that I owe everything to society? What is this society you speak of? I owe everything to all of it? Throughout all time? To which structures of this society should all the fruits of my labor go? The parts that make war? The parts that feed hungry people? The parts that make the economy work? The parts that create life-saving medical products and techniques? If I owe everything, why don't you owe everything? You seem to make your own choices about how you spend your time, why can't I?

So basically, what you're saying is that because I was born into a society to which I owe everything, I should be thankful for anything that society lets met do. Welcome to abject tyranny. What a shitty philosophy you espouse.