Posts by DuncanLarge 1024 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2017
"Print out the document
Scan to email
Forward the email to the recipient's secretary
It gets printed out and placed on the recipient's desk"
You missed a critical step: before forwarding the email, encrypt it and then sign it using the recipents public key. You were going to encrypt the very secret and personal scanned copy of a patients data wernt you?
I've always been concerned with people thinking that email replaces fax. Lol, how cant it? Its not used because people are lazy. Its used because email was never designed to replace fax, is terribly insecure and unreliable. Today I WOULD NOT email a scan, certainly a colour one of any of my ID documents to a solicitor. I once had to, and it was crazy I had to.
The only thing that can replace fax is a fully implemented GPG/PGP email system with a correctly set up web of trust. This is why GPG/PGP was created, to implement just that.
People have to understand that Email is as secure as using a postcard, and was never designed to be more secure as that. So I really hope for everyone's medical privacy that the nhs.net system that will be used to replace the fax machines has been designed to do so i.e uses some form of email encryption with signatures.
"Insecure maybe"
How are they insecure?
Intercepting a FAX is vastly more difficult these days than intercepting an email, or grabbing the entire mail server with access to all emails ever sent and received.
I'd have to tap into phone lines, digital multiplexed ones at that. Back in the day it was easier when phone lines were analogue and phreakers could commandeer a line by blowing a special kazoo made from a comb and paper.
I've always been concerned with people thinking that email replaces fax. Lol, how cant it? Its not used because people are lazy. Its used because email was never designed to replace fax, is terribly insecure and unreliable. Today I WOULD NOT email a scan, certainly a colour one of any of my ID documents to a solicitor. I once had to, and it was crazy I had to.
The only thing that can replace fax is a fully implemented GPG/PGP email system with a correctly set up web of trust. This is why GPG/PGP was created, to implement just that.
People have to understand that Email is as secure as using a postcard, and was never designed to be more secure as that. So I really hope for everyone's medical privacy that the nhs.net system that will be used to replace the fax machines has been designed to do so i.e uses some form of email encryption with signatures.
Perhaps we can teach them how impossible it is to create selective end to end encryption that decrypts itself for the police on command by giving them this task:
Put them on scrapheap challenge!
Give them the challenge of creating a lawnmower that must cut grass like a normal mower but on command, when detecting it is being used by a specific person, not cut blades of grass that are of a specified grass species. So the mower must cut all blades of species A normally while not cutting any blades of species B. The lawn has species A and B mixed throughout.
When they say it cant be done, tell them that it will be done because you will legislate that in order to leave the set it must be done.
When they finally convince you it cant be done, legislate that they can no longer use a lawnmower to speed up the process and must instead inspect and cut each blade of species A by hand.
Then maybe they will get that with end to end encryption its all or nothing.
"Cloud providers have been taking advantage the open source community for years by selling (for hundreds of millions of dollars) cloud services based on open source code they didn’t develop," he said, pointing to widely adopted projects like Docker, Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Redis and Spark. "This discourages the community from investing in developing open source code, because any potential benefit goes to cloud providers rather than the code developer or their sponsor."
So, you shun the "Open Source" or should I say Free Software community (as its the affero GPL) by closing off your software because the big guys are not helping fund the projects they use?
I agree that bug corps should help fund these projects, many do, as we nearly lost GPG and OpenSSL ended up with heartbleed because the sole developer made a typo. Its a good thing for a compnay to chuck a bit of cash towards the project, users should do that too. Hmm perhaps projects could thing about using patreon, just thought of that.
Oh so, you removed the freedoms you gave us when using the AGPL because you wanted to help us encourage big cloud users to help fund the project. I.. I dont understand your reasoning.
Its like you have a Dad who owns the local sweet shop and you convince him to close it, because you are not happy that some of the kids in the school were not sharing enough sweets. Instead of suggesting to them to do so, you get your Dad to close the shop, thinking you are helping everyone by removing the problem.
Like your decision my example doesnt make a lot of sense. I have never heard of your software and now I know there is no way I would be able to use it anyway.
Ho hum.
It shouldn't be hard at all for find a developer who can make a GUI that runs on multiple platforms.
Java does it, .Net/Mono does it. There are no real differences, a button is an instance of the button class regardless of the underlying OS or graphical subsystem. This is precisely the main drive behind these languages. Sure there may be a difference in IDE but anyone who has used an IDE long enough will be able to adapt and anyone who hasnt will just see it as part of the same learning curve as before, assuming they do the development on the LInux system itself! They could just keep using their proffered IDE and simply test on a Linux system.
My god you could even use the most universal of cross platform of interfaces, HTML!
I have developed stuff for android. The IDE runs in Java, on any OS that runs Java. The VM that I test on runs on any platform that runs a supported Java, heck I usually just forgo the VM and push the app to my personal phone, using USB! With full debugging, live over USB. In Linux, just by plugging it in. I dont do it in windows because I cba to hunt down the driver I need.
Also, if anyone is using Visual Basic nowadays to do anything other than making a GUI for prototyping I'd be very worried.
And windows PC's can run virtual machines nowadays. Download a development environment turn-key VM, run it in a hypervisor. Develop on windows, compile, move to the Linux VM, run.
I've been doing this since the early 2000's there really is no excuse any more.
Once all the kiddies with their Linux running raspberry Pis grow up and expect to program on Linux because "everyone had a linux RPi" we will see the opposite argument I bet: "Nobody will develop a GUI for windows because everyone runs Linux and ts hard to find developers who can write a GUI for windows".
Everyone running Linux would be great of course. But that argument would still be stupid just as it is now. Cross platform development is EASY. The hard stuff was done by other very clever people a long time ago.
Hey, did you know? Minecraft runs on Linux, and windows. One executable. What is this sorcery?
Really?
Do these things really exist?
Why?
Why do they exist?
Who thinks they need to exist?
WHY DOES MY EXTENSION LEAD NEED WIFI FFS?
I'm assuming diy stores will start selling IOT self tapping screws next.
What about door hinges? Use an app to see which doors are ajar in your home when you are skiving at work. Get home to find your door hinge was used to infect your PC with cryptolocker, taken over your toaster to have it mine monero and installed a backdoor in your front door lock to allow access to your home for anyone with the magic key they bought off the dark web.
Jesus.
GCC has been used to build software in UNIX like operating systems for decades, way before Apple even had much of an operating system.
There is totally nothing unusual from seeing gcc in OSX seeing as its a UNIX. GCC was so popular that its was the compiler used to compile Linux before it was put inside the rest of GNU.
There is totally nothing unusual about any of it and the only time anyone needs to provide code for GCC used in their product is when they have actually modified it. Anyone can use GCC because it is Free Software. Its the whole point of its existence.
Note I said Free Software and not Open Source. Although Free Software is accepted as Open Source by the Open Source Initiative, its still Free Software licensed under the GNU GPL which is designed specifically to protect and enable the freedom of the user to use said software, for any purpose with or without modification and to distribute copies (for money even!) either verbatim or modified. The only restriction is on distributing modified copies, where you (the modifier) must provide access to the modified source code upon request.
"Pillaging" of Free Software projects is only possible if you take the code from said software and insert it into your own without licensing your project under a compatible license. It would be easier to pillage an Open Source project however as these projects can use licenses that do not provide or defend their freedoms, such as a BSD license.
Also, think about it. If they cant use Free Software like anyone else can, what do you want them to do? Give you more proprietary stuff? Or develop something that is Open Source but not Free Software (cough microsoft) where you can see the source code by all means, but dont you dare touch it?
@ Esme
I work in IT as a systems analyst and do a bit of 1st line/3rd line support as needed.
I can see you are not really recently experienced with the true state of hardware found INSIDE laptops these days.
After reinstalling windows via the method of the manufacturer (not necessarily talking about big guys like Dell etc) you find that half the hardware wont work because the stuff they put inside is non-standard enough for windows (8.1 and 10 are used) to not locate a driver automatically via windows update.
So, you go and try to use the vendors driver disc that has ancient and possibly buggy drivers that caused you to reinstall in the first place as recommended you do so by kind windowsy support peeps you found in the internet. This disc, hopefully you did not throw away. Hopefully the vendor provided you with the disc and you dont need to download it.
Hopefully the disc contains just the drivers you need, and not ones for other laptops that throw up errors when you try to install them causing you to talk to the same nice windowsy peeps who will tell you to either reinstall/refresh windows again or to open up device manager (good luck finding that) and googling the PCI hardware ID of the device to locate a device driver.
A device driver that is not provided from the original manufacturer because they are chinese and only make the chip, not the PCB and rely of the laptop vendor to provide drivers, which they may not do so without proof of purchase (pc specialist, I'm looking at you) which you dont have any more leaving you t wonder why you didnt just buy that ASUS machine, as they have a driver for the same PCI hardware ID but it wont install because you are not using an ASUS.
If hardware dont work in Linux, its so much simpler! Its either not going to work for a while or never will. None of this faffing about trying to get something working again only to discover that it having worked at all the first time round was simply a miracle.
Imagine if your TV remote stopped working due to dead batteries. You go and get batteries for it to find that it uses a non-standard size that nobody stocks but some guy from china on ebay can get you one for more than the cost of a universal remote that stakes standard AA's. So you get the universal remote to find that it wont work with your TV but only with the previous model as the codes changed.
You discover that the codes were added later and can be uploaded to your remote!
So you download the update, run it to be told that there is an error. You google the error to find you need to install .Net 3.5 whoch requires running DISM from the command line and having a valid windows install disc...
I think I've made my point about the state of windows driver support vs linux. It can be a load of shit no matter which OS you are using. Your point is moot.
"Indeed, explaining about the package manager is almost the only "training" I find I have to do when introducing newcomers to Linux."
I would expect you to have to do this less and less now seeing as package repositories on Linux pre-dated the "app store". Most users of phones / tablets and modern versions of windows and Mac would expect to find such a function. My young nephews certainly would think the idea of downloading software off the internet and running an installer as a novel way to do it!
"If the linux world was friendly and not so condescending."
Seriously, show me one that is.
Go on. Find one. And no, you cant suggest a customer support line with paid for employees.
I dare you. Find a windows support forum that does not have any condescending remarks or attitudes to newbies coming along and asking "what does this button do"?
Find me one that does not have a single person saying RTFM or how about the classic: "Use the search to find the post that was posted years ago! I wont repeat myself".
"MSWin can fubar itself simply by booting up."
I did a fresh install of WIn10.
Windows update broke when installing updates. There was nothing else on the machine. I was simply patching it after a fresh install. No 3rd party drivers either, Just windows.
Windows update broke itself after a fresh install. And after a second, third even. The forth install finally worked, because I too control and manually installed each update and rebooted each time.
I dont see a normal user doing that!
"Not everyone can move to Linux at the drop of a hat. Most normal people would not have a clue about how to do it or how to safely transfer their data (pictures etc) to the new system."
People move between Windows and Mac, Android and IOS everyday and seem to be able to do this. I seriously doubt moving to linux is that much more difficult as you can simply dump everything onto a 32 or 64 GB usb flash drive and copy it over using the same drag and drop techniques that everyone has used since they were a kid in the 90's onwards.
"If you are so confident that 'just using Linux' is the solution then why not put a detailed guide of how to do it on the internet."
Do you know how to use the internet? Or how to read? This has been done hundreds of times on the internet and in magazines over the last several decades. You can literally walk into a newsagent and pick it off the shelf. Today.
Jesus you make it sound like moving from making toast under the grill to using a toaster is so difficult that nobody has ever managed it.
"I cut my teeth on some old and decidely cruddy BSD systems a few decades ago and moved to Linux when Slackware 1.1 came on the front cover of Computer Shopper."
Ah so thats the problem here. You last used linux like 20 years ago. Perhaps you should try it again. In fact, why dont you put your foot where your mouth is and try those guides on installing it off the shelf? There are only 2 things that people need to make sure they have done today to solve any issues:
1. Have a backup of your data. This is dead easy and has been for decades. Only people dont do it.
2. Have the ability to reinstall the original OS from scratch. Again, this has been stupidly easy for decades as provided by the manufacturer on the machine. The only issue is some manufacturers are crap and dont do a good job of this, which thus is not a fault of Linux on being difficult but the fault of the manufacturer being a dick.
I remember a time in the days of windows 3.1 and up to 98/Me where updates were simply not required.
The latest version of the OS fixed issues and applied new features, sometimes MS would release the odd exe to patch this or that but basically you just went with what you had. Sure win 2000 ended up with about 3 or 4 service packs but back then I think there was much more effort put into getting it right as much as possible before release.
Updates obviously are required to patch security issues in an online world but many of these updates are fixing bugs in functionality or introducing new bugs when fixing the existing bugs.
This simply seems too strange to be true. We started with releases of windows that did not get updates so were presumably heavily tested (on a functional level at least) before leaving the door. Once XP came out and allowed MS to patch on the fly we ended up with bugs squashed and security holes fixed to the point that XP became one of the most secure platforms due to its maturity. Win 7 got much the same but since them we have been going downhill with unfinished, untested, freshly compiled code being rushed out to beta test on us lusers.
You can tell something is up when you see "preview" security updates coming through. Preview?? WTF give me the final update!
I started my IT career as a Software Tester. When I was a software tester I was determined to not let the code out until I knew and could prove that my real world test files, regression tests, hardware tests etc showed no reproducible issues. I even had an old Pentium 2 machine under the desk running at 200MHz. This was really useful as it was frequently the only machine that could show bugs caused by timing errors due to its slow speed!
When I let the code out, some of it would exhibit a bug due to a real world file coming along that happened to break something. Yes I tested the patches but we certainly did not end up in a mess where:
1. Updates are rushed out to updates that created bugs
2. The update mechanism itself breaks itself while installing its updated from a fresh install (I fresh installed win 10 and win update killed itself requiring a re-install and luck to get it working again)
3. We didnt release previews of updates. Previews were something you watched on TV
4. We didnt add new functionality outside of a proper upgrade. When it was released it had been tested and didnt need updates 2 weeks after release to fix a situation where it was unusable.
5. All our developers talked together, ate pizza together and basically knew what has going on with everything on at least a high level.
@Emperor Zarg
I also watch Fear The Walking Dead but you know what, its not real.
Looks like you got a tad carried away there.
1. Dover: If it gets gridlocked due to no deal then we should lock up the idiots who did not use the time to plan for it. That includes companies that want to sell to us. Also its not like Dover hasnt locked up before for some reason or another.
2. Food shortage: Well that would solve the obesity problem for one as we would all be eating properly because we have to. We had rationing during WW2 and Dig for Victory etc so its not like we cant do that again. We will move away from growing loads of oil-seed and back to growing potatoes etc. People will enjoy the chance of a free bag of potatoes for gleaning in the fields (which you can do today btw). Those with gardens will grow and eat stuff. Most of the food we have now is terribly energy dense, we will be able to go very far on much less if we just learn to eat less.
3. Why not buy more staples now. Take advantage of the deals etc to have a nice (but not necessarily excessive) "overstock". Make your own bread or get fresh from the new bakers that suddenly pop up due to demand. Buy veg now and chop them up and preserve them. Carrot chutney is very nice.
We wont get to the Good Life levels of self sufficiency considering that many live in flats and cant dig up their gardens due to lack of gardens but we can certainly all do little things like eating less and supplementing the rations with home grown stuff just like we did in WW2.
The difference is we wont need to do it as long as we did during WW2, maybe a year or two at most! We also can start fishing again, bringing back to life all the old fishing ports. In fact we can build more fish farms fairly quickly if needed. Dont forget that rabbits were not rationed either, plenty of them in the fields. Much of this means nothing really as its going to be for such a short term.
And if any of this does happen, like I said, what idiot didnt do their job of planning for this so that disruption to the movement of trucks is as short as possible?
"why would the euro collapse? its doing quite well against the pound thankyou. "
Yeah, ok... yeah.
Ever heard of Greece? The Euro helped them loads.
Are you too young to remember how the UK fought hard to stay out of the thing? I was a teen at the time and I was so relieved we stayed out. As were almost everyone else at my school that I bothered to ask.
https://goo.gl/images/KHhvFt
"1/ Hard Brexit: Civil unrest as food and gas become scarce"
Yeah, I'm sure. Food might be a bit more expensive. Most of the gas comes from russia anyway and brexit wont affect that. We can also switch to wood burning stoves .
"2/ Soft Brexit: Civil unrest, as it's not want Brexiters wanted, and didn't understand our reliance on EU trace"
We are British. Our civil unrest needs a lot of motivation to get to what you are imagining. We will mostly duke it out amongst ourselves by calling into LBC and Talk Radio. Those with good old typewriters will send letters that have more weight than a inkjet printed one. God help the recipients if someone sends a letter handwritten in pen!
"3/ No Deal: See 1/"
See comments for 1
"4/ Second Referendum, See 2/"
See comments for 2 but add: The result of the 2nd referendum will reflect the state of mind of everyone who is fed up of the crap management of brexit. If the result is to stay or leave it will be a large margin and not be generally politically motivated even though the winning side will think so.
"they'll just create their own shadow IT on dropbox or OneDrive and you will then have zero control."
We have control. It's called a IT usage policy that each and every employee must read and sign. We block access to cloud storage beyond anything we have set up, even webmail is blocked.
Anyone discovered getting around this (like when we jump on their machine to fix something we can see everything they can) will have a good long disciplinary with HR. Some people have been fired for breaking the usage policy numerous times.
With GDPR having come in and with every employee having had the same GDPR training then anyone copying company data into the public cloud knows just how risky it is. Unless they love the feeling of getting away with it. Might give a few peeps a rush I suppose.
Multiple screens? :D
I have one screen. Only really need one. But I have since the early 2000's gotten used to using virtual desktops.
Two screens is more than enough when you have 4 or more virtual desktops, plus all the tabbed terminal emulators and even the ability to switch directly to one of 8 virtual consoles in addition to the window manager.
If I learned emacs correctly, I'd never need more than 1 screen or 1 desktop ;)
At work I'm using 3 screens but thats mostly due to the fact I work in IT and it looks impressive to the users and also to counter some limitations of windows 10's attempt to do virtual desktops.
"Apparently a lot of people are half-educated"
Apparently you didnt proof-read your post before posting did you. Maybe you would not have so many downvotes if you mentioned the word compiler instead of insisting that the CPU runs C which unless you are building a C interpreter/VM in your RISC-V CPU is completely ridiculous.
When you eat food, does your body digest it before burning the energy? Or will you insist to your doctor that your circulatory system pumps the chewed bits of sandwich directly to your muscles and then complain to him/her about the idiots who down vote you for insisting that is how the human body works and anyone who believes in stomach acid and bowel movements is as un-educated as a flat-earther.
You show complete lack of understanding on the subject of the CPU.
It does not run C. CPU designers do not adjust the CPU to run C any better just because the programmer wrote in C.
The CPU ONLY runs machine code. The performance of a C program vs a program written in Haskell for example depends entirely on the compiler (assuming you compile the haskell).
It is the compiler, for any language, that will take into account for any performance features implemented in a CPU. It is not restricted or exclusive to C but C compilers are likely the first to support that CPU feature because a heck of a lot of stiff is written in C.
The instructions in a CPU do not differ based on the language used by the programmer. In the past some CPU's were created to run LISP directly, being essentially a hardware VM interpreting the LISP byte code. But today generally your CPU implements the X86, AMD64 or ARM RISC instruction set and that is completely ignorant of your haskell or C coding preference.
When you write in Haskell and compile your get an executable blob of machine code. When you write the same program in C you get a blob of machine code. Both blobs use exactly the same machine code, the only difference between them being what instructions the compiler chose to use in creating that code. Thus the compiler is the cause of performance differences, not the hardware. The Haskell compiler may always be slower than the C compiler because its not taking advantage of advanced features of the CPU because the programmer who wrote the compiler has not added the code to do so. The CPU dictates nothing that affects this.
Its the same as saying that your electricity supplier makes electricity that is designed to work in LED lightbulbs but not in CFL light bulbs or a certain brand of toaster that they dont like. Trust me, I'm getting solar panels when my supplier denies power to my kitchen socket when I plug in my toaster that was made by a company that insulted them.
electricity = electricity
machine code = machine code
assembly -> assembler = machine code
C -> compiler = machine code
Haskell -> compiler or interpreter = machine code
Java -> compiler = bytecode -> JVM = machine code
C++ -> compiler = machine code
Perl -> JIT compiler = machine code
See any pattern there?
I suggest you read the datasheet for a CPU you "think" provides different instructions based on high level language choice and then write machine code to disprove yourself.
I've used both. Ran away from Notes the first chance I got. Outlook is what we use now at work, with Notes still performing a few legacy things.
Our Notes was installed poorly. Had I done it I would have created the infrastructure needed to allow us admins, heck even the users, to do password recovery! I spent a whole day once trying to guess the original password we gave a user that started 10 years before I arrived because they went on holiday for a week and forgot the password they set the week before.
When I go home I even stay clear of Outlook. There is only one email client I use above all others (thunderbird is second) and thats: mutt.
A scanner can behave like a fax machine now? How does it prove receipt?
The reasons why fax is still used is:
1. Sending and recieving happen live, in REAL TIME. Mail is not real time. The two endpoints are in constant comms back and forth during scanning, sending and printing. If the fax machine at the other end breaks, the sending fax knows this. Email has some way to alert of delivery failure but its not able to tell you the email never got to the users inbox because the disk failed after the smtap server accepted the message.
2. You get a status report printed by the sending machine that will let you cover your arse when the other side claim you never sent it.
In basic terms the fax machine is the digital (i doubt many analogue ones are left about) version of a live phone call, only with images. Email is what it allways have been, the electronic version of paper post.
There however is something the NHS can use to replace fax. EDI. Electronic Document Interchange is a well defined standard for doing this sort of thing over almost any link from morse code to email or direct as2 connections. However, it is typically used for ordering and invoicing of products so im not sure if it is fully suitable.
To replace fax, you must replace fax. Not squeeze something that does half a job into the same hole because its more modern. You need a direct replacement.
"I doubt writeable DVDs are stable."
General purpose ones, probably not.
But the M-Disc versions use a very different type of recording layer (not organic). This is true of most bd-r discs too (as long as it dont say LTL on the packaging). These are certainly much better for archival.
"I'd rather clumsy optical discs not make a comeback."
Er how are optical discs clumsy excactly?
USB flash is much more clumsy. The USB connector only fits one way, resulting in funny memes. The flash chip can die losing all the data at once. The thing runs firmware that can be programmed to act as a keyboard, ever heard of badUSB? They stick out of the USB port, flapping in the breeze until you fall asleep, roll over and snap them off :D
The biggest annoyance i have with usb flash drives is they come in weird shapes and dont stack!
The only thing i like about them is they can be fucking fast and fit nicely in a pocket. But i wont expect one to hold data as long as i would expect optical discs.
"If we in the EU decide we don't like the rules, then we, and we alone, will vote to get them changed."
But thats it isnt it. We have to kill this before it gets in, just like with what happened with SOPA. Once this gets in getting it out will be next to impossible, as we all know that the system is skewed. Once something becomes law it will usually remain law for a very long time unless it becomes quite clear that something is terribly wrong with it. The decriminalisation of homosexuality is an example where the law was changed due to significant social pressure/rethink, we then slowly labeled those who were opposed as homophobes.
Recently laws banning the use of cannabis for medical use have been called into question (along with other "revelations" surrounding the people involved) but only due to the life threatening situation of a child.
I seriously doubt that such pressure will be available to assist the future public for voting this out within the lifetimes of the people who knew the "old ways". Once those people get too old/die off, the only ones left are their kids, who grew up with these amendments as "status quo". They wont think to have this changed and if they do they will likely see it as a retro call back to the old internet that grandad used to talk about.
It may not change the way the internet works but it does threaten to change the way the internet is used. Everything the internet has brought humanity is due to its inherent non-bias and freedom. Taking that away, bit by bit, along with other laws essentially destroying the publc domain today will hurt the public at large.
Copyright was supposed to protect the public and the public domain while giving perks to the copyright holder for a certain and reasonably limited period. It was supposed to make the public richer, within their lifetimes, while encouraging creators to create more. But as it stands today and with these and future changes like these, you as a creator can live off one or two single creations that are doing incredibly well with no incentive to do more. If it continues to bring in money, your descendants need never work, inheriting the royalties and becoming a the new rich elite.
Speaking aloud the license is crazy?
What if you are blind?
What if your software has no visual interface because the hardware has no visual interface at all?
Shouldn't Alexa speak out its license terms if you verbally ask it or should you find a sighted person (assuming you are not) to browse to the webpage that has the license text? What if, all you have is alexa. No computer to speak of. No smartphone. You make calls to your family via alexa and their alexa, you order stuff from amazon through alexa, have it remind you of appointments etc. How did you set up your amazon account without a laptop? Well maybe you popped to the local library and did it there or being blind had a mate set it up for you leaving you with a functioning voice operated speaking computer that can not display license text as the whole idea of a screen for alexa was not in the designers mind.
So "Alexa, read me your license", "OK, blah blah blah blah", "Alexa, STOP!" seems quite appropriate to me.
So, basically you are sayng that you want the freedom to take freedom from others?
Or you dont care if you give the freedom for others to do the same?
The copyleft "restrictions" are there to specifically enforce decent behavior out of people who do such things.
But I suppose its fine as YOU have total freedom even if someone else doesnt. One rule for you, and another rule for the others.
You know that YOU are not free to do many things in society yes? And you agree that nobody should be above the law? Then again maybe you are of the opinion that we should be free from laws as they restrict your freedom to do what you want to others including making your own laws that they must follow lest you retaliate. I know a type of person that thinks that way and I'm glad that the GPL is doing its best to prevent such people from affecting computer users in general.
"Fiat currencies are backed by governments and the whole economy that uses them"
1. Government gets into debt, invents more money (ahem Obama) = inflation goes way up.
2. Government falls, paper currency = firelighters.
3. Economy fails due to war, famine, corruption, mass suicide of religious side of population due to discovery of alien life = paper notes can be used as firelighters or in Molotov cocktails. Metal coins can be used as shrapnel (bottlecap mines from fallout 3 comes to mind).
Vale in any currency whether fiat or virtual is always an agreed upon HUMAN construct that has no real value. How much is a Deutschmark worth today? Nothing. Unless its has collectors value which again is a human construct based on human wants, not needs.
Food always has a value as does shelter, water, freedom. We only use fiat currency or crypto currency as an EXCHANGE medium for what has true value to humans. Any currency, even leaves, can become worthless on a whim. It is true that long term established currencies will need a very long time to get to that point without any of those mentioned disasters but at the end of the day they are still worthless. Again how much is a Deutschmark worth? If I find 10,000 of them buried in a field, how much do I get?
Everything you own (other than food, freedom etc) only has value to YOU and those who want it for some reason. They can give you something worthless that has an agreed value in exchange for it, or simply rob you of it. Whether it is a pound or part of a bitcoin it does not matter, they are the same.
So stop deluding yourself and saying that fiat currencies are anything more than what bitcoin is. The whole bitcoin bubble argument is a fallacy that falls flat on its face once you realise that the only difference between bitcoin and fiat is age. Fiat is older so its critical vulnerabilities and worthlessness are hidden so those who are blinded by it and narrow minded never see any of it. Bitcoin is the same but due to its young age is essentially showing you what fiat is under a magnifying glass.
Its all the same stuff. There is no argument ti make here other than investigating if the exchange was at fault somehow.
Wrong, its more than that. It will be mentioned in retro gaming magazines and top 10 failed consoles lists for the next 20 or 30 years.
Kids in 20 years time will read about it and then someone will find a prototype or a selection of "nearly complete" machines that will end up on the ebay of the future selling for thousands :D
I switched a long time ago.
Started playing with Linux back in the late 90's shortly after I had played with DOS/Win 3.1 and settled on win 98 and up on PC's that I built myself as a teen by reading up in the library (no internet or computer access outside of school).
I played with all aspects of Linux from installing a different distro regularly to building kernels and my own custom live systems running off bootable floppies. I was in heaven! I almost ate man pages for breakfast. Windows and DOS paled in comparison and I wondered how they were considered operating systems when they came with basically nothing more than notepad and paint.
Anyway I soon realised I was no longer dual booting to windows. I came home from uni, switched on the pc, booted linux (it did it by default), opened XawTV which let me watch TV on my PC (Fresh Prince and Buffy were on BBC 2) while eating some dinner and doing coursework (slowly as Buffy was followed by Farscape). I even would browse teletext on it, watch VHS tapes and DVD's.
It must have been about 3 months before I realised I hadnt booted windows once. I only realised this when I HAD to boot windows, to play a windows game.
So to this day all my machines except 1 run only Linux (I intend on playing with FreeBSD and Haiku again). That single 1 machine dual boots windows and linux and windows is used only booted to play windows games or use sony vegas.
"I think governments will intervene."
A government that thinks it can intervene is living in a fantasy land.
I guess the UK government qualifies as they already proved they dont know the difference between dreams and reality when they started trying to fiddle with the maths of encryption.
https://goo.gl/images/LunXPM
Back in the days BEFORE we used all this tech the same issue was present.
There were no call logs or sms messages that could be data mined to detect the sale of a pressure cooker.
Nothing has changed. There is no difference between the information then and now other than the digital information would allow new and convenient abilities to detect sales of pressure cookers so that money can be saved and less police need to be employed. Let the computers do the work so we can help survive the budget cuts.
The information on mobile devices is essentially non-existent just like it was before those devices were invented. So why do you need access to it? Just continue to police using the same tried and true methods or is that a lost art?
You can also ban pressure cookers ;)
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