Posts by trindflo 51 posts • joined 6 Jan 2011
The answer is why change for a fad? Am I to make a daily practice of enumerating my vocabulary to remove the words that have fallen from grace? I get no joy from making someone else feel miserable and will make accommodations for others, but the constant calls to reprogram ourselves strike me as a cruel game in itself.
I doubt in general that learning more about a conspiracy theory than one of its advocates will help you convince them to refocus on reality. I'm reminded of an anecdote from a psychiatrist. They had a patient convinced he was dead. The psychiatrist asked the patient if dead men bleed. Apparently the patient somehow understood that a cadaver does not bleed, and since he was dead and also didn't feel anything he cheerfully volunteered to prick his finger. Astonished, the patient exclaimed: huh, I guess dead people do bleed.
I went looking for an online reference, but all I could find was somebody selling a book on how to be a medium.
I'll pull out my crystal ball and tell you what they are up to (although said ball has developed smudges over the years that will not go away).
Marketers have a pipe dream that if they have perfect information about their target they can make them do whatever they want. It is similar to the pipe dream in the tech industry that someone is going to make a code generator that will preclude ever needing to deal with a programmer again.
People selling these ads to marketers have no incentive to tell their customers they are wasting their money.
The spooks in the US have found out they can just buy much of the data they want from the firms aggregating and hording the data.
The idiots delivering our tat have helped erect a Stasi for us, sent us the bill, and got paid by our government for their service as well.
Don't forget Microsoft was instrumental in creating all of these needs. They reworked Windows specifically to make IE integral to the OS so that they could claim it was impossible to ship Windows without IE. Nice Frankenstein monster you built there - nice try blaming others that the monster still vexes you.
In case that doesn't seem egregious enough, this is a worse example of why it is a problem: Donald_P._Scott
Here in the states they have been mostly removed. The excuse given was that everyone has cell phones anyway now. When confronted with the fact that not everyone does, officials launched a campaign to provide cell phones for those that can't afford one, because of course everyone needs their electronic nanny. Free cell phones for the homeless.
The IRS prosecutes people differently depending on whether they can reasonably claim to have made a mistake or whether they are willfully perpetrating a fraud when they fill out their forms. The IRS has their own court system, so the prosecution can become quite draconian.
It was phrased strangely in the fine article.
I like to explain it this way:
How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? A: None: it's a hardware problem.
How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: as many as can possibly get their hands on it at the same time.
As a Software Engineer, I'm a programmer that will change light bulbs when necessary.
"We believe the Court will reject any reasoning that permits copying verbatim vast amounts of software code, used for the same purpose and same way as the original. That is not 'transformative,' and certainly not fair use."
And they would have a point if that was what was going on. Is this the new way that lawyers present themselves in public? Just keep insisting that black is white?
The US has history here: Prohibition
I've been that person with the understanding to make things work on occasion and can attest at least JPL will put a stop to that. Engineers and programmers are not let anywhere near live systems: there are separate groups that compile programs, install them on machines, and operate said machines. As a developer we were only ever allowed to observe then make corrections on our development system eventually to be distributed to the groups that were allowed to touch live systems. And that was for ground-based systems; I'm sure the systems that flew had a lot more hoops to jump through.
Can't speak to the specific officer on the scene, but it sounds to me like the county sheriffs have a beef with the state courts and decided to take it out on their consultants. From the article: "The Des Moines Register notes the Iowa state judiciary and the county sheriffs are in a power struggle unrelated to the test".
I'm mad at your employer, so I'm going to take it out on you.
Again, not speaking to the officer, but as an organization the Dallas, Iowa sheriffs office sounds childish and vindictive.
After 9/11 it was easy to point at anyone that was not on-board with "get tough" measures as weak or unpatriotic. The initial authorization was called the USAPATRIOT act. The rhetoric is wearing thin, but that doesn't mean a bunch of legislators in fear for their jobs can't be cowed again. And there is no reason to believe there will be any serious consequences, so why not give it another try.
As for throwing them in jail, for the most part it comes down to "the state does not consent to be sued". As long as they can claim with a straight face they believed they were doing their job it is almost impossible.
For prison sentences under 10 years involving non-violent crimes, you can be sent to a "club fed" prison. There are no longer tennis courts, and I can't imagine anyone wanted to go there, but it is not the horror stories you hear of maximum security pens.
https://www.businessinsider.com/white-collar-prisons-2013-12
From the article:
As Kerik explains it—and I had to keep reminding myself that he was once a prominent authority figure in the system—"there are four or five classifications for the BOP [Bureau of Prisons]. You have super-maximum security, if there's a terrorist or a super-violent criminal. You have maximum security, which is the next level down. After max, you have medium." That's where Bernie Madoff is, by the way. "Then you have low. Then you have minimum." To be eligible for a minimum security "camp," your sentence has to be less than 10 years (or has gotten to under 10 years) and you need to be considered "nonviolent."
I recently tried to find a replacement brush for a hedge trimmer. The hedge trimmer even has convenient screws for replacing the brushes. Good luck finding a brush in a local hardware store, but they will happily sell you a new trimmer. Computers may be the worst for it, but the trend is omnipresent. Say "moo" and enjoy your milking.
@Mr Benny
Fingerprint analysis has been largely discredited as being not much more than a police hunch, at least as it is practiced. Is that part of your point? It has, no doubt, been effective in sending criminals to prison because the public and importantly juries believed it to be much more conclusive than it is. Innocent people railroaded by the same mechanism are no-doubt in the minority, so good of the many at the expense of a few?
Two problems as I see it.
Just because someone is willing to buy the product does not mean it is an appropriate price. Tulips have come up as an example. That is the economics 101 argument against ridiculous pricing.
Second problem is more of a macroeconomics issue. People do things for a variety of reasons, mostly having to do with money and social interests. Abusing your customer base will eventually get you to a tipping point where your company becomes "uncool", the bulk of your fan base vanishes, and you will *never* get them back as they now feel betrayed. This is likely why Apple is so sensitive about this audience reaction; they know they are dancing on the precipice.
I was taken by the cheerful description of the procedures along with the new euphemisms. So now the process is called Deep Brain Stimulation when used in the classic manner, and repetitive Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the kinder, gentler form. By limiting the administration to the right side of the brain, "patients" no longer exhibit speech anomalies - only the seat of our dreams is affected. And new and improved drugs that prevent us from remembering means we feel no discomfort. Excuse me if I still do not see a lot of difference between the modern practice and the technique developed by Cerletti when he observed pigs being electrocuted and apparently decided he would really like to try that out on people. It all sounds very Frankenstein to me. It is quite cost effective however.
http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam
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