And make the fuel grade ethanol / whatever using GM algae. That would just as "green" and "renewable" without sacrificing land where one could produce vegetables and fruits already so bloody expensive.
Tried it
Their response : Companies also have been collecting data for many years. FB, Google, credit card transactions, etc...
I try to suggest that maybe we should do something about this, but to no avail...
More recognition : I work surrounded with MDs and PhDs in biomedical research. 95% of my colleagues just say "I have nothing to hide / I don't see what's the problem with this? / If this is necessary to combat terrorism, I'm for it"
I just don't see it coming...
I don't know if should thank you or
No I did not know that it's a fake.
Still, the billion dollar data center in Utah will be used for something - I just hope the reality is not worse than what the fake page suggests.
First : I don't think the Guardian copied images for their famous article from here.
So no, I don't have the recollection that before the article the government admitted to doing anything.
Why I don't believe they will only collect metadata:
1) Data storage capacity : The storage capacity of the Utah Data Center will be measured in "zettabytes". What exactly is a zettabyte? There are a thousand gigabytes in a terabyte; a thousand terabytes in a petabyte; a thousand petabytes in an exabyte; and a thousand exabytes in a zettabyte. Some of our employees like to refer to them as "alottabytes"
2) Eventually, all of the domestic data flow will be routed to the new Utah Data Center when it opens in Fall 2013. The NSA also monitors all satellite communications in and out of the U.S. via satellite receivers located across the country.
In fact, they just state that they will collect all the data they can get their hands on. Say hello to Big Brother.
Maybe we do not appreciate being considered as future illegal immigrants by default?
As I pointed out in my post just seconds ago - me and my wife, we already had inconveniences and extra runs with administration just because something did not add up in a database (DHS in this case).
The more information lingers about you in central databases, the more things can go wrong, even unintentionally.
As for how much NSA has : they admitted to collecting "metadata only" but I don't really buy that. This place is capable of doing much more...
Boring individuals are safe : that's a nice way to cement in 100% compliance from citizens.
That's a good one, too.
Personally I had enough experience with federal databases and tracking individuals. I'm in the US on a J-1 visa, my wife is a J-2 dependent. Now we had to have our drivers license renewed every year as my contracts were one-year each time and they did not want to give me a DL valid longer than my lawful status in the US.
Renewing included checking with DHS if we are lawfully present - if my contract is valid. For me it was always OK right away. For my wife, it was 2-3 weeks before DHS gave the nod, the automated system never cleared her right away even though her visa was sponsored by the exact same program ( since she is a "dependent"). Why? We'll never know.
The day they will link the NSA dabases up with DMVs, FBI, DHS,
I'm not worried about a conscientious NSA employee coming after me.
The real problem is that the NSA servers {will be / are} a one-stop shop for heaps of interesting information about individuals. And I'm pretty sure that they will be breached sooner than later.
Conservation : I'm not speaking about conservation, I speak about not being wasteful - I agree that not living in the city, driving oversize cars, buying 2000+ sqft single family homes is the American way but hey, maybe it's time for a change?
Government subsidized : and so what? Germany is still doing fine and you should factor in the humungous amount of money they pour into the Eurozone. It is their choice. Just as the average american house is oversized, poorly isolated, costs too much to cool/heat and far from civilization. Now step up and pay the bills.
1) Preserving domestic energy supplies could be a huge future asset when the rest of the world has none.
2) You could make a drastic reduction in the dependence on foreign petrol/energy by making Better use of it. Let's just mention vehicle fuel efficiency, average one-way commute of 16 miles and setting AC at 70F during summer.
3) Renewable as expensive boondoggles? Germany can make it work, how come it is not possible here in the US?
Nothing made its way up in a year, hardly surprising.
I'm sure people will be happy when they see these chemical showing up in the water a couple hundred years from now, then discovering records about fracking in archives. They will probably say things like : they could not have been this stupid?!
Again, the problem here is timescale. One should not think in decades but in centuries.
At least the NSA says it doesn’t read the contents of your email. Google does, and it admits that it does.
Like I believe NSA does not look at the contents... If it weren't for Snowden, we would still not know about PRISM.
Bundling the OS to the PC what gave a lot of mass appeal. See first sentence at 1990:Breakup.
The cost of Windows is still hidden on pre-installed machines. I doubt you pay the >$100 like for an OEM version when building our PC yourself. This was even better in the early days - when a PC was sold for thousands of dollars, a couple hundred bucks for the OS were not a big deal.
As for changing platforms : most people would not notice that they are using a popular Linux distro if they have a start menu with programs. Compatibility is an issue : I can't watch Netflix on Linux ( but can buy a set-top box for $100, running linux?!), I can't submit a CV (in most cases) in
So Windows became widespread because they had a very good business plan, and a functioning product "good enough" to establish a monopoly. But you cannot claim, in retrospective, that nothing better would have come up within a reasonable timeframe (5 years?), and neither will we know what personal computing could have been during the 1990s and 2000s had MS not succeeded securing their 90%+ market share with PCs early on.
All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin
