Posts by Ken Mitchell 57 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Dec 2014
The classification of a document is inherent in the document based on the contents. Classification MARKINGS aren't dispositive. Many of Hillary's emails were not MARKED as classified but WERE classified based on the content. The creator of the document is REQUIRED TO apply appropriate classification markings such as "Secret" "Top Secret" or "NOFORN" or "CANUKUS EYES ONLY" and failure to apply the appropriate marking is an ADDITIONAL crime.
That's easy to answer. When two trucks collide, which one "wins"? Neither of them; nobody "wins" in a collision.
But galaxies aren't solid, and the individual stars will only very rarely collide. What's likely to happen is that they will fold in upon themselves like water splashing from the collision of two bucket-fulls of water. Most of the combined mass will be in the consolidated "MilkyDromeda" galaxy, and some of the star systems will be whipped out into intergalactic space. And there will likely be a frenzy of star formation as the combined gas clouds are blended together.
So Andromeda is guilty of galaxy-cide, by consuming smaller neighboring galaxies, and now it's coming for us. Isn't the Milky Way equally culpable? It was only a year or so ago that I was reading about how the Milky Way had hoovered up five or seven smaller galaxies.
In any event, we personally and humanity in general will be long gone before that happens.
Once again it must be pointed out that if companies actually could manage to pay equally-credentialed, equally-skilled, and equally-experienced women less money to do exactly the same jobs men do -- working exactly the same hours, having the same willingness to travel, and taking the same number of sick day and personal days -- no company would ever hire a man again.
Pokemon Go got more people walking outside in the first couple of months than all of Michelle Obama's nagging.
HOWEVER, everyone knows that the "winners" of any class action lawsuit. are the plaintiff's lawyers. Everybody else gets pocket change or a discount voucher for your NEXT purchase.
Or in this case, 200K miles. That's not especially close, even in cosmic terms. You want to talk about a NEAR miss? A billion-ton comet may have missed the Earth b a few HUNDRED miles in 1883.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/425780/billion-ton-comet-may-have-missed-earth-by-a-few-hundred-kilometers-in-1883/
Amazon carries a line of automatic sprinklers that might do.
This one https://smile.amazon.com/Orbit-62100-Activated-Sprinkler-Detection/dp/B009F1R0GC/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2OWYLKTK6VPE0&keywords=automatic+sprinkler&qid=1564171562&s=gateway&sprefix=automatic+spr%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-4 is actually overkill for the skunks in my yard, but it might be just the ticket for foxes.
The Defense Department banned DJI drones from use or purchase a YEAR ago. Military personnel are forbidden from purchasing them, or using them on any military property. Like Huawei, it's a camel's nose in the tent, collecting intel and surveillance here at home for the PRC intel agencies.
The solution to such abuse is simple; SEVERE financial penalties need to be imposed for EVERY spurious copyright or terrorism claim. If anybody files a copyright infringement claim that turns out to be bogus, the penalty should be at least five times the fine for the infringement itself.
Y'know, If I had been a government IT guy, and there was even a CHANCE that there would be a budget stalemate, I would have looked around and asked "If the government were to "shut down" and go on autopilot, what will go SERIOUSLY wrong in the next month?" Security certs are something that could EASILY have been renewed for another year well in advance.
Pure incompetence. Or malice; take your pick.
I agree with all except #11, Any computer game invented after 1994. There have been a plethora of newer games. Granted; I still enjoy playing the original "Wizardry" game from 1981, I think, and "Might and Magic" of a slightly newer vintage. But the 1998 "BattleZone" game was outstanding for vector graphics.
But I'm still a big fan of the "World of Warcraft" and "Starcraft" series, from Blizzard.
Donald Trump wants a "Space Force", but that's the wrong name. We don't need a "Space Force" modeled after the Air Force; we need a Space GUARD, modeled after the US Coast Guard. Search and rescue, because there's nothing like that up there now. Maintenance and repair of navigational aids such as satellites, much as the Coast Guard maintains buoys. Removal of "hazards to navigation", and there we are; collect all the space junk and broken satellites, and bring it back to the Space Guard space station.
Let's face it, ANY sort of mass that's already in orbit is very valuable. Use it to build new satellites and space stations.
Can't be done NOW, of course, but I think this would be a valuable goal.
While we did - a few times, 45 years ago - put men upon the Moon, we cannot do so NOW - nor will we be able to do so for longer than the entire Apollo Project took. If the cures for AIDS and all cancers were deposited on the Moon by godlike aliens, we couldn't go get it for at least 10 years.
And going to the Moon was trivial compared to creating crypto that the USA could crack - but that nobody else ever could. Any crypto backdoor _WILL_ be used against us. Not only are there more Chinese and North Korean programmers working on that, one of our own people would most certainly sell it to them. Aldrich Ames; the Walker brothers; Edward Snowden; Bradley Manning - the list of traitors goes on and on.
It MIGHT be possible to create crypto that they cannot hack - but not if there's a backdoor anywhere. By claiming that they want a way to hack our computers, they're flat out stating that the FBI and CIA and all the three-letter agencies DO NOT CARE about _OUR_ security. It's the "clipper chip" all over again!
When I hold my conventional Android phone (from my first HTC Evo to my Google Nexus 6 to my current Essential PH1) up to my head in the ordinary way, I frequently have problems. Because the "Mute" button on the phone's touchscreen is positioned so that my cheek often touches the Mute button.
I know, the phone is SUPPOSED to blank the screen when it's next to my head - but it often takes a significant fraction of a second to do so, and during that period it's susceptible to "Cheek Mute".
That's one reason why I prefer using a headset, either BlueTooth or wired.
I spent 20 years as a computer trainer. I was sent out to do software training for a company where everybody had their own laptops with built-in trackballs. (LONG ago.) One user could make the cursor move up and down, but not side-to-side. Classic dirty mouse symptoms. So I turned the retaining ring, popped out the trackball, and looked in. This model laptop was light gray plastic, but hers was orange, and gritty.
I asked her "What have you been eating?". She held up her (orange) fingers and said "Cheetos". It took about 15 minutes to scrape the Cheeto-dust off the rollers in that trackball well. .
Download the UBIT Toolbar for Office. It adds a new "Menu" Ribbon which contains most of the Office 2003 menus and toolbars. So if there were some things that you like about the Ribbon, use the Ribbon. And if there are times when you need the old Office 2003 menus or toolbar buttons, select the "Menu" button and you're right back to 2003.
It is _literally_ the best of both worlds.
My 4-year-old Dell laptop gave me no end of fits last year with the first of the "Creator's" updates. I eventually got it installed, and haven't had any large problems since.
A 3-y.o. Lenovo desktop and a new Dell desktop worked with no problems for the latest round of updates.
The problem is that these aren't Windows "UPDATES"; it re-names the "Windows" folder to "Windows.old", and it does a complete fresh installation. If you've got anything in the Windows folder - such as MS SQL Server LocalDB - then you're going to have to move those files back into the new Windoze folder.
I knew a woman who swapped out her mouse for a trackball, and then put it on the floor. She had fairly severe carpal tunnel syndrome, and it was easier for her to keep her hands on the keyboard, and use her foot to control the mouse/trackball.
But since sewing machines have pedals to control the speed, it's sort of a natural mistake to make, to think that a computer's mouse might work the same way.
In the case of the San Bernardino murderer, he had destroyed his personal iPhone, but the Feds wated access to his work iPhone, to see if there was any record of contacts with other terrorists. Since that phone was owned by the county, that should have been easy - except the county hadn't installed the Apple software that would have allowed them to manage all of their phones. And then the Feds changed the shooter's iCloud password, so that they couldn't even connect to the phone that way. When they finally did get in, there was nothing useful there. Big surprise, right?
In this case, there's no reason to assume that there is anything useful on his phone. There wasn't anybody else involved. And the phone wasn't owned by any government agency to give them any pretense of right.
I support Rosenstein's proposal with two amendments.
1. Only to be used for terrorism or national defense issues. MANDATORY 10 years in prison for any government official who abuses this.
2. ALL government officials are subject to the same surveillance in order to detect and deter government corruption.
I _might_ be inclined to believe the government when they said that they needed complete access to all communications to prevent or punish terrorism, if only the creeps making those claims hadn't already demonstrated that EVERY police power that they claim will prevent terrorism is immediately used for petty crimes like tax non-compliance or divorce or child custody disagreements. EVERY tool that the police obtain will be used in EVERY case in which it might be useful.
Cops demand the use of "Stingray" cell site simulators to catch terrorists - and then use them to find low-level drug dealers and cigarette smugglers.
No! Police, you have abused EVERY tool that you've ever been given. NO MORE!
The article (or perhaps the doctors, it isn't entirely clear) is confused about the meaning of "triage". The original (Napoleonic War-era) definition divided combat casualties into three categories. The first group was expected to die, no matter what treatment was provided. The second group would probably survive, if treated immediately. The third, less severely injured, group would survive with minimal, perhaps "first aid"-level treatment.
The first group would get palliative, comfort care to make their deaths as easy as possible. It is the SECOND group that got the doctors' attentions, because they were the ones who could PROBABLY be saved.
Suppressing the evidence obtained by an illegal search - the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine - allows criminals to go free, but does NOTHING to discourage rogue cops from doing the same things again. I'd allow the evidence of the crime to be used in court against the criminal.
But I'd ALSO like to have the court bring charges against the cop and the prosecutor, and the judge who issued the flawed warrant. Cops are supposed to be BETTER people, and we're allowing criminal cops to go free because they deserve a second chance. Baloney! We give cops expanded powers because we expect them to be better than the average citizen. If they're going to be just criminals with a badge, then they should lose the badges and should go to prison themselves.
As long as they were sticking to reality and urban legends, Snopes had some purpose and value - but about 10 years back, they veered hard left into the political mire, and at this point it's difficult to trust them for ANYTHING.
If you see that Snopes has validated something - especially something political, like "global warming" or "climate change" or whatever name Algore is using for it these days - then you really ought to get that confirmed by a few other sources. Because Snopes is less trustworthy than whatever lies David and Barbara are telling about each other in their divorce..
"(There's already a black market for pirate tractor software that allows farmers to circumvent John Deere's proprietary systems.)"
That's an inaccurate description of what's going on. The "proprietary" systems are designed to prevent farmers from making their own repairs, or from going to a non-Deere-authorized repair center. And those rules are starting to be overridden by state "Right to Repair" laws. These will affect virtually ALL high-tech companies that try to limit competition in the repair business.
The question is, if I buy a car - or a cell phone, or a computer, or any other tech - do I OWN what I paid for, or do I merely have a non-transferable license to USE my car in accordance with the car's EULA?
There will be another major solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 twice the duration of this one.
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2024Apr08Tgoogle.html
The path of totality starts in the Pacific, crosses Mexico, into Texas, and north into Canada.
If you live near Carbondale, IL, you're in the path for BOTH eclipses!
The Space Shuttle, as magnificent as that system was, was a primitive first-generation attempt at a "space truck" to get things into orbit. They were practically rebuilding those things after every flight, and every reasonable person knew that it was risky and complex.
So what REALLY puzzled me about the Challenger disaster was that NASA didn't have PR response to a crash that should have been seen as "inevitable someday". Why hadn't all the astronauts recorded video messages of the "If you're seeing this, then I've died doing what I loved and trying to advance the causes of humanity. But we cannot allow my tragedy to derail the effort" category? It would have seemed to be an OBVIOUS way to mitigate, in some way, the PR disaster that would accompany the loss of a shuttle.
NASA and the news media together conspired to to the unthinkable; they made space travel BORING.
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