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Comment Re:Asimov's three laws (Score 2) 139

Well, for one, anyone who has read his stories knows that they're all about how the Three Laws are no good. They're about failures in the Laws, loopholes, oversights, inadequacies. They were absolutely not supposed to be a perfect set of rules that should be used, but an illustration of how a simple set of rules could never possibly work properly.

Comment Re:Season 2 was great! (Score 1) 42

You get told what the general subject of Season 3 is right at the end of Season 2. And, in fairness, it does actually make sense, both as a progression of the story, and as a massively world-altering/ending event. Not sure if there could reasaonbly be a Season 4 though. I enjoyed Season 2, but it was... smaller than Season 1. Same number of episdes, but they were more padded. Aside from a few important events, most of it did rather feel like a filler arc. Which is what it was. Apparently Pratchett and Gaiman had considered writing a sequel to Good Omens, the ideas and whatever notes there were are what Season 3 would be based on. Season 2 was written to bridge the events that would be needed to set up this thing. So, it certainly has its moments, and it did fill out a lot of backstory, but it wasn't at the same level as Season 1. Generally worth watching, but unlike Season 1, which tied things up, this one very, very clearly expects there to be a Season 3, so the ending is a little unsatisfying, and will be until there's more to watch. TBC is not a good way to end a storyline.

Comment Re:This is not the end (Score 2) 279

It's the second half of the fourth. Apparently the fourth book was getting so long that he separated out roughly half of the plotlines and set them aside for another volume, which is why a lot of characters don't show up in the fourth. Since he was originally planning on 7 books, this may push it to 8 or even more volumes for the series.

Comment Re:Makes sense (Score 3, Insightful) 1123

If the many quiet and pleasant religionists (not my chosen word, I'm just working from the phrase) don't do anything to curtail the few loud and obnoxious ones, if they don't step up and deny any connection at all, then they are providing a tacit endorsement of the loud and obnoxious ones - they are, by their silence, allowing the obnoxious ones to represent them too. If they don't speak up, how can we even know that they disagree or for that matter, exist? Don't try to shift the blame onto a minority, all religionists are responsible in one way or another.

Comment Re:Why?? (Score 1) 753

An opinion that seems very prolific on Slashdot is that consumers have a right to consume anything that has been created. They don't. The right to consume is not recognized by law, nor should it be.

On the contrary - it is. That is, after all, the whole point of copyright: The temporary granting of control over who can copy your work in order to encourage you to produce more. Once that temporary period is over, it's freely available for anyone to consume. Sure, there may be production costs, which is why paying for a copy of Shakespeare's plays is acceptable under law (and they'll usually come with commentary, thus being a 'new' edition), but you can freely obtain the basic text without anyone complaining. In other words, the default position - for the majority of the lifespan of the civilisation - is freedom to consume anything that you like. It's only for a very small space of time that this freedom is waived. The problem is that this temporary period is getting longer and longer, and that people (such as yourself) are believing the propoganda that this is How Things Should Be.

Comment Re:Third Party (Score 3, Interesting) 785

These are all good points, but as it stands, the the US has a major problem - patents and copyrights. These are causing the country to slowly tear itself apart due to stifling innovation and creativity, and the resulting feeding frenzy of lawsuits. Maybe dealing with the RIAA is low on people's lists, but it's one of the pieces that needs to be dealt with before the situation can be repaired. Going along with them is not only permitting this problem to continue to exist, but it gives them a form of tacit approval - after all, if people from the RIAA are given high posts in the DOJ, surely they can't be all that bad, now can they. /sarcasm

Comment Re:How do you get membership? (Score 2, Interesting) 271

It's true that some people should be killed, but for me that's more about mercy. As far as I'm concerned, a death penalty is no big deal. I'd rather not die, but at least it's over and done with. Being locked up in prison for years and decades? Only to emerge vastly older, out of touch and with no hope of operating in the world, not least because of the stigma that's attached to being an ex-con and likely made worse when people find out why you were there? Not terribly appealing, you know. "But at least you're not dead." Pfah. There are worse things than death.
Privacy

Researchers Find Problems With RFID Passport Cards 172

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Washington have found that RFID tags used in two new types of border-crossing documents in the US are vulnerable to snooping and copying. The information in these tags could be copied on to another, off-the-shelf tag, which might be used to impersonate the legitimate holder of the card." You can also read the summary of the researchers' report.

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