Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Ghost in the Shell (Score 1) 196

You seem to have missed some of the darker shades of the GiTS future. Do you remember that they didn't even own their own body, because only the government and/or high profile criminals could finance such hardware?
So only the very rich could enhance their body any way they like, creating a world where a persons value is tied even stronger to their wealth
The Internet

College Credits For Trolling the Web? 1164

A user writes "Some undergraduate and masters level courses at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary require trolling as part of their requirements. In William Dembski's classes on Intelligent Design and Christian Apologetics, 20% of the final grades come from having made 10 posts defending Intelligent Design Creationism on 'hostile' websites. There seems to be no requirement that the posts contain original writing; apparently cut-and-paste jobs are sufficient. Is this the first case of trolling the net being part of course requirements?"

Comment Re: potential diplomatic damage (Score 1) 154

I merely added "after the event" to exclude ongoing investigations and operations. Although I'm not a big fan of wars, I can understand how some general wouldn't like the position of his snipers broadcasted in realtime.

However I don't think the public should be kept in the dark about these operations indefinitely, therefore I can't agree with your examples, except maybe the UFOs.

Comment Re: potential diplomatic damage (Score 1) 154

Publishing information that is classified is certainly unlawful, but it's not the same as "taking the law into your own hand". They don't judge the parties involved, but merely allow the public to come to their own conclusions.

Of course some people can and probably are misusing sites as wikileaks to further their own agendas, by only posting documents that support their side of the story. But is in this case the damage done by the information that the "lesser knowledgeable individuals" received or by the information that was withheld?

I'm not saying that every information should be available to everyone at any time, but I do believe(because it's hard to prove) that more damage has been done by missing or false information then by exposure of information that should not have been available to the public.

BTW: What would be a good example for information that should been kept secret (indefinitely/ longer then one month after the event)?

Comment potential diplomatic damage (Score 1) 154

They do this without realizing the potential impact to national security or potential diplomatic damage

Would you prefer that none learns of human rights abuses, executions or torture and therefore everyone believes your country is "good", or that the world knows and your country is forces to become "better" in order to improve its public image?

Comment Re:Scary that they sold the disk at all (Score 1) 369

It doesn't have to end up as a constant magnetization for someone to be able to recover the data. A predictable pattern would suffice.
Actually not even overwriting the disc with random data might be enough to ensure that noone can recover the data. Dedicated forensic experts can read overwritten data, by distinguishing between a 0 -> 1 and a 1 -> 1 magnetization (Simplified example).

Comment Malice? (Score 1) 414

You're quoting the first sentence and conclude:

the phrase "market share" means that they are only counting things that are purchased

Even though the second sentence says:

This data is derived by aggregating the traffic across our network of websites that use our service

It is hard to believe that this was a honest mistake.

Privacy

EU Data-Retention Laws Stricter Than Many People Realized 263

An anonymous reader writes with a snippet from the Telegraph: "A European Union directive, which Britain was instrumental in devising, comes into force which will require all internet service providers to retain information on email traffic, visits to web sites and telephone calls made over the internet, for 12 months."

Slashdot Top Deals

"Aww, if you make me cry anymore, you'll fog up my helmet." -- "Visionaries" cartoon

Working...