Comment What about Dos, Win 2000, NT 4? (Score 1) 727
Our company still uses Win 2000 and NT 4 on most of their machines. Whats an upgrade?
Comment The biggest problem (Score 2, Interesting) 422
The problem as I see it is that Americans, or at least American politicians, would rather pander to the portion of the religious right who claim that evolution isn't real, the rapture is near, the Bible contains everything man is meant to know, and science is an instrument of the Satan. It isn't just the right either. The only way I see the US getting into science is if there's money in it. We have been shutting down basic science for years in favor of things like biotech that make big money for business. Not that I have a problem with biotech but come on, if the basic science is done elsewhere then the engineering will follow. You can't just keep suing everybody for "stealing" your 20 year old ideas; you need to keep coming up with new ones. That's where basic research comes in.
Comment Security Theater (Score 1) 1060
This is just more of the security theater we have all come to love. First of all I think we should question why most of these secret documents were secret in the first place. Is it really a surprise to anyone that Iran’s neighbors don’t want them to have nukes. I’m sure Canada and Mexico would be happier if the US didn’t have huge stockpiles of nukes and God knows what else. Wikileaks and Julian Assange are not doing anything wrong, the government officials just don’t like to be seen as fools. How much trouble would it be to just not say things that might be insulting to people, or at least not to write them down. If I did something like this I would be called unprofessional, they scream about being caught and how some “traitor” has betrayed the country. I agree that some things need to be kept under wraps for a time, but when you make everything a secret people are bound to open their mouths up, particularly when the things you are trying to hide make you look foolish or if the person judges them to be immoral. Wikileaks is performing a valuable service bringing these things to the forefront. As to the sexual allegations against Mr. Assange, I seem to recall several US Presidents being accused of promiscuity.
Submission + - A Nude Awakening — TSA and privacy (oudaily.com)
DIplomatic writes: The Oklahoma Daily has a terrific, well-written editorial about the current state of airport security. Though the subject has overly-commented on, this article is well worth the read.
The risk of a terrorist attack is so infinitesimal and its impact so relatively insignificant that it doesn’t make rational sense to accept the suspension of liberty for the sake of avoiding a statistical anomaly.
There's no purpose in security if it debases the very life it intends to protect, yet the forced choice one has to make between privacy and travel does just that. If you want to travel, you have a choice between low-tech fondling or high-tech pornography; the choice, therefore, to relegate your fundamental rights in exchange for a plane ticket. Not only does this paradigm presume that one'(TM)s right to privacy is variable contingent on the government's discretion and only respected in places that the government doesn't care to look — but it also ignores that the fundamental right to travel has consistently been upheld by the Supreme Court.
If we have both the right to privacy and the right to travel, then TSA's newest procedures cannot conceivably be considered legal. The TSAâ½Â's regulations blatantly compromise the former at the expense of the latter, and as time goes on we will soon forget what it meant to have those rights.
The risk of a terrorist attack is so infinitesimal and its impact so relatively insignificant that it doesn’t make rational sense to accept the suspension of liberty for the sake of avoiding a statistical anomaly.
There's no purpose in security if it debases the very life it intends to protect, yet the forced choice one has to make between privacy and travel does just that. If you want to travel, you have a choice between low-tech fondling or high-tech pornography; the choice, therefore, to relegate your fundamental rights in exchange for a plane ticket. Not only does this paradigm presume that one'(TM)s right to privacy is variable contingent on the government's discretion and only respected in places that the government doesn't care to look — but it also ignores that the fundamental right to travel has consistently been upheld by the Supreme Court.
If we have both the right to privacy and the right to travel, then TSA's newest procedures cannot conceivably be considered legal. The TSAâ½Â's regulations blatantly compromise the former at the expense of the latter, and as time goes on we will soon forget what it meant to have those rights.
Submission + - Robots Deception (eurekalert.org)
Comment Sounds like a job for... (Score 3, Funny) 711
Illegal detention.
Comment My! What a surprise; Shoot the messenger (Score 5, Insightful) 1088
So when did reporting secrets become illegal Reporters do it all the time, it's their job. Half the time it's the politicians who leak the information in the first place. I really didn't see much in the stuff that everyone didn't already know or suspect anyway. Anyone remember the Pentagon Papers?
The 1-Second Linux Boot 156
An anonymous reader writes "Less than one second Linux boot! This video shows an OMAP3530 capturing video data from a camera and rendering it to an LCD display — the video appears on the LCD display in less than a second from reset."
Comment Why stop there (Score 1) 466
Why don't we just give them direct access to our bank accounts and keys to the front door. Maybe they would be happy if they could just erase every movie from your mind after viewing then charge you extra if you want to remember it. Of course, with many movies this would be a benefit, perhaps they will charge extra fees to remove those.
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We gave you an atomic bomb, what do you want, mermaids? -- I. I. Rabi to the Atomic Energy Commission
