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   Beware-ware?

   "Free" as in not-ware?

 

 

 

It's all crafted very meticulously, carefully, control-freaky, secretly.  So what kind of positive conclusion are you supposed to draw from that, especially when *that* is what the actual facts are?

The conclusion I've drawn is:

   a) That we are being systematically lied to by those who are supposed to providing us with accurate information.

   b) I'm getting awfully tired of being lied to.

Don't know if that qualifies as "positive", however.

 

Those are the conclusions I've drawn as well.  The harder question is what do I do about it?  And funny enough, the most reasonable answer I've been able to come up that actually works in practice is......ignore it.

You know, this is why I have bouts with distrust and skepticism.  Everything that I've personally learned in life is that most important *things* have a lot of meticulous work put into it.  But whenever a curious person inquires into such *things*, the picture they receive is normally pretty mellow, harmless, careless, "it is what it is" type of attitude, "right place, right time", mr. magoo.

However...every time I look into one of these things, you notice how NOT like that it is.  It's all crafted very meticulously, carefully, control-freaky, secretly.  So what kind of positive conclusion are you supposed to draw from that, especially when *that* is what the actual facts are?

(had to look up browncoats...ah, firefly, why is joss wheden so prolific?!)

bitmessage...very cool, very excited about it.

has anyone had Listary crashing upon startup? i see a message box asking permission to send a report then it crashes.

i'm on Win 7 Pro 64bit, btw.

I also have win7 64.  I don't think it has been crashing on startup, but the latest version did have a couple of regular crashes recently.  But upon relaunching, it seems to work.  i don't know the cause.

  It's really not that funny of a joke, real dry humor IMO.  It has always bothered me that we have massive radio telescopes (SETI), that for years has sent out messages into the cosmos telling any possible life-forms where we are in the universe with hopes they would send messages back.  The U.S. gov't stopped funding SETI in 1995, and now it's still being run with civilian grants and funds.
  So why does it bother me?  What makes us think that any intelligent lifeforms out there somewhere are friendly?  If they are advanced enough to speed of light travel, we would most likely be like ants for them to study and/or conquer.  Yeah, just like the series Falling Skies.  We have a plethora of resources here that would make for a nice pit-stop for any conquering entities looking to expand into the cosmos.  Hell, we may even be a food source ourselves!

I think more along the lines of the Marvel comic epics, where some kind of cosmic egg is being incubated in the center of the earth, and the job of humans is to protect the egg until it hatches.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_X

[which is apparently dominated by more than a dozen 50 feet tall Super Humans]

Is there a joke I'm not getting here?
http://guardianlv.com/201...-earth-with-super-humans/

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered over 50 new alien planets (Sept 12), which includes 16 so-called “super-Earths” and a Super Earth with Super Humans. The newly found alien planets consist 16 Super Earths with one called HD85512 which is apparently dominated by more than a dozen 50 feet tall Super Humans.

“This is the lowest-mass confirmed planet discovered by the radial velocity method that potentially lies in the habitable zone of its star, and the second low-mass planet discovered by HARPS inside the habitable zone,” said exoplanet habitability expert Wendy Waldman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany and Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Boston.  “It’s the only one we’ve seen with outsized human beings.”

SuperboyAC, your prayers (at least one of them) may be answered - http://feedproxy.google.c...3/7C7lZGVL0jo/story01.htm

oh baby! 

^^ You're the man, 40.

Man, Traci Lords really did a number on the men before my generation.  Every time I hear one of you guys talk about her, it's like a special thing.  I keep trying to relate and can't.  I have access to thousands of hot porn chicks at any given moment, none seem special.  I'm always blown away by that.  I guess the closest I can relate was all the hubbub in junior high about Sharon Stone and Basic Instinct.

Most Americans back NSA tracking phone records, prioritize probes over privacy
  What?!  I call BS on this one.  Most Americans??  Really??  Nice try, media.

Idiots.  The title should read "Most americans will give the finger to anyone invading their privacy."

i don't get a lot of chances to use this, but I just did some annoying archiving through folders, and this saved me at least 2 hours.

My brain keeps telling me the name of this software is ALMOST racist.

I will be adding indexing option to FARR.

 
Oh man, that's terrifying.

[such as]

Her comments echoed those of a senior Obama administration official, who said Thursday morning that the order “does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls” but relates only to “metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call.”

The official said such information “has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.”

Such as??  How about you tell us exactly what data is being collected?  Can't be too hard or technical to list in a simple paragraph.  I somehow doubt that the "harmless" metadata they insinuate is very helpful in preventing a terrorist attack.   

What if it said this:
"Her comments echoed those of a senior Obama administration official, who said Thursday morning that the order “does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls” but relates only to “metadata, such as a telephone number, or the gps coordinates of the caller, or transcription of the call”

That would be a more useful paragraph to write.  But why should journalists be anything but vague?

Administration, lawmakers defend NSA program to collect phone records

It's funny how I'm pretty sure the "administration, lawmakers" that are making these decisions are personally probably uber-paranoid about privacy and wouldn't let a shred of their own personal privacy be affected.

 
This reminds of a couple weeks ago when I lost it after watching a couple of video reviews for gadgets.  The script is usually:
--looong useless introduction
--they hold the phone in their hands and DO NOTHING.  just wave it around, make hand gestures while talking.  They will POINT at things on the phone, but not actually touch it.
--The exciting part...they will touch a button or something and...now they will talk about it for several minutes.
--oh yeah, they will repeat over and over the stupid specs.  i don't care!!

So I lost it.  And of course got the reactions "what is wrong with you?!" from all my iphone peers.

But it drives me nuts when people cop an attitude about something - or ape somebody else's opinion - and they've got absolutely nothing to back it up with.

(er...perhaps I'm pessimistic, but wouldn't that be like 90% of the people you know?) 

^^ very interesting.
Question: who built the fence, and whose idea was it?  'cuz it wasn't the foxes or orioles. 

Probably somebody who truly had the best of intentions when they walled them in "for their own protection."

That or Obamacare.

Freaking obama.

It's all because of Obamacare. Just like it's the cause of everything else - according to some people.

oh yea, the singer of the band I'm in...whenever she gets angry, she says "f---ing Obama." 

^^ very interesting.
Question: who built the fence, and whose idea was it?  'cuz it wasn't the foxes or orioles. 

Yes, the magnetic pole is shifting.  no big deal.  nothing much will be affected.  But...if it just so happens that the sun gives off a massive solar flare during a window of the pole transition where the field is neutral or weak, it could be the end.  hell on earth.

I used to get angrier at the companies for "conspiring" together and limit our technology options, progress, etc.  But after talking to a lot of people, now I'm angry at how little most people care, so they are just completely rolling over and going along with everything.

Normally, I'd attribute such behavior to personal preferences.  Not all people are geeks and care about computers and technology.  But here's the issue I see: the people that don't care still rely and need these devices.  But they almost go out of their way to refuse to learn anything about it.  I don't get it.  They scoff at the geeks and technology like it's beneath them, they curse devices out when it doesn't work they way they expected.  Their expectations are completely uninformed (hilarious that they get so worked up about it!).  They proactively hassle those who do know more than them.  There's a whole culture around it like that...it's like an aggressive ignorance.

I'm consistently surprised by this sort of situation:
--A friend complains that the youtube that comes on his cable box has a limited content compared to the normal youtube on the web.
--I explain that the copyrights and stuff limit it, and you can only get everything through a normal browser.
--I show him how some devices can be hooked together so the tv can get access to unadulterated internet.  It involves some cables, some little pc device, a remote. done.
--friend not interested.

Again, i get it.  People are busy with their lives.  But this is all stuff that will make your life a little easier.  And you are complaining about it!  But this is how it goes.  And eventually we end up in the situation that we are in.