Whoever made this patent should be taken out behind the barn, tarred, feathered and shot. They made a device which will take control of your TV until you watch propaganda about sugar water or pony up some cash. Incredible…who would ever buy such a product?! And shame on any legislator who forces this technology on consumers.
The New Republic has staggeringly good advice about reasons we need more personal transparency, more government privacy
Transparency makes politics a running argument about decision-making, not about decisions. A few years back, Washington spent more time discussing which lobbyists were in the room when Dick Cheney crafted energy policy than actually debating energy policy. That perfectly captures the politics of transparency: The key questions are always who knew what and when, who was in the loop and who was left out. The merits disappear, drowned in a sea of procedural detail.
The Chinese president will visit Microsoft. I guess that explains why I saw people protesting Chinese organ farming today. It is a stain on humanity that we allow the Chinese to imprison dissidents so they can harvest and sell their organs.
All my ideas are passing. I watch them blow by in the wind. Most I catch but small glances; others I grab and hold, fluttering in the wind. I would do well to ride more flights of these fancies. Only he who fails at the ordinary has the chance to sail to the extraordinary. I spent my life to date searching out normalcy. One can only hope I will eventually learn.
I have been shocked at the relative ease one may sail through any walk of life. Keeping myself on task, focused and free of boredom is the most strenuous part of any activity. This is my achilles heel. By far the hardest, most challenging and rewarding thing I have done is teaching English in Japan. Learning the secrets of humanity in Psychology has been the most invigorating.
I hate computers. They are a drug. A disease. And a plague on humanity. Yet they are as inseparable from the future human condition as any other vermin. Rats, the common cold and computers will all journey with us, thriving with us, far into the distant future. We cannot be rid of them, and so I make them an intimate part of my life.
I hope only to shape a small aspect of the nature of the beast as it fully assimilates itself into our lives. If we do not already, we will soon rely on computers for our very existence. Just we can no longer live without the bacteria in our intestines, just as Mitochondria and cells can no longer live without one another, human culture will no cease to function without the organizational power of the integrated circuit.
Here’s a website called The Religion of Peace. Their “On this day in Post 9/11 Islamic History” is interesting.
I know little to nothing about Islam. My entire understanding of the culture comes from two sources: them blowing stuff up (generally themselves); and Hollywood. Given my ignorance, I am interested in learning more about the culture.
Sadly, learning more about Muslim culture does little to change my prejudices. It is hard for me to respect a culture which enthusiastically recruits children to use their bodies as human mine removers is hard to view favorably.
It is also interesting to me that Shiite Muslims believe strongly in a second coming of the last direct descendant of Muhammed. It feels very Christian. It is also one more example of a religion which encourages one to endure hardship because there is a better life in the hereafter.
Islam split into Sunni and Shia sects because of disagreement of who should run the religion. This also parallels the division between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox sects of Christianity. I do not know how many men died fighting over difference between those two Christian sects, but we have different calendars to this day as a result; uncountable lives were lost during the establishment of Protestant sects. I hope (but doubt) that Christians have finished this teething period filled with self flagellation.
Muslims seem right in the middle of their battles over ownership of the religion. Tolerance is a word few, if any, could use to describe this religion. A great number of Buddhist statues, Christians, Jews and–most of all–Muslims will yet perish during the quest for ownership of the Islamic religion.
Around 100 generations ago, a Jew by the name of Jesus was born. He changed humanity in ways as few before him. Thousands of years since his death, humanity still drapes his spirit around the fabric of our culture.
His spirit has borne witness to an astounding amount of human progress in that short time. We have grown from million to billions; we now choose our weight, our weather and our level of safety; we now travel from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in hours to a couple days, or communicate with people there instantly; we have built structures thousands of feet high and sent structures thousands of feet below; the majority of us are literate and many have instant access to the entirety of human knowledge.
One hundred generations ago, wine and leavened bread were luxuries. Two to four hundred generations ago we were still learning how to write, and spent huge shares of our spare resources learning the concepts and patterns of winter and summer.
There has been astounding progress in such a short number of human lifetimes.
But, strangely, we are no happier than our Roman, Greek or Egyptian ancestors. We may live longer, fatter, more stimulating lives. But we today are just as likely to be unhappy as if we had been born any other time. We find our lives just as empty as our ancestors, and struggle just as hard to find meaning. We seek out religion to fill this void.
Religion has benefited greatly from our lackings. Buddhism believes life is suffering and teaches us how to endure. Christianity believes in a better place and teaches us endure the present to go there. But billions of people following the doctrines of Christianity and Buddhism has done nothing despite thousands of years of practice. We are still unhappy, leading empty, meaningless lives.
We must overcome.
Your drivers should be easy to find. Here are ones for the ActivIdentity ActiveCard USB Reader V2
Real, live, Mortal Kombat. The guy who won was pretty clearly playing cheap though. Button masher!