Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing the Ultimate 3D Community as a guest. This means that you can only read posts, but can not create posts or topics by yourself. To be able to post you need to register. Then you can participate in the community active and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!

If you are already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
What's on your mind?; Your daily crap.
Topic Started: Jul 29 2010, 05:18 AM (64,000 Views)
skarik
Member Avatar
kitten eating scum
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Post whatever is on your mind at the moment. It doesn't matter what, just post it!
Blog|EHS
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Replies:
Gandalf20000
Member Avatar
Geek
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Reikyrr
Oct 18 2013, 02:16 PM
Dr. Best
Oct 17 2013, 11:24 PM
I have no trust at all in politics to overcome this complete surveillance. The most effective thing we can do at this point in time is to use as much cryptography as possible. The only problem is that both ends have to use the same cryptographic protocol and that's where things become difficult. We need widely accepted software solutions. People need to develop a sensibility for the issue and they need to be willing to sacrifice some convenient features (like cloud synchronization with password recovery) to gain privacy back.

Unfortunately, it does not seem that this is going to happen any time soon. The Snowden disclosures have had their impact but still many people willingly exhibit sensible personal information in ridiculous amounts without considering this problematic at all.

On a side note: Putin reigns like a dictator and is a homophobic or at least allied with homophobics. Currently the maximal number of participants in a legal demonstration in Russia is one and anybody who talks positively about homosexuality in public is considered criminal.
Too bad that in quite a few countries encryption is illegal in some way,
For example in England you are punishable by law if you encrypt something and you refuse to decrypt it when the police asks you, (Wheter you don't want to, or forgot the password)

http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/unitedstates
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/russia
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/netherlands
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/germany
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/china
http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/

I wonder who the world is 52,008,809,598,864 dollars in debt to. (US has more than 1/3rd of the world debt)
I can't speak for other countries, but in the US, close to half the debt is owed to the federal reserve and other government functions. That lines up just perfectly with the fact that our government prints off money every time they decide to spend money they don't have. I would imagine other countries are similar, although that's just conjecture.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
alexmach1
Member Avatar
Graphics addict
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
zelda4evr
Oct 18 2013, 06:53 AM
If they were tracking us very well, most criminals couldn't succeed. I heard what was supposed to be an actual order from a police chief or whatever to his patrols over radio that in Minnesota if anyone has a political bumper sticker opposing Obamas campaign that they are to be approached as a terrorist. I drove into Minnesota once and the welcome sign says, welcome to the #1 state in vote fraud. I'm just curious what Obama is going to try to accomplish before his term ends, and how things will change with a new president. People keep making predictions and at least one is going to happen.
Obama's influence over the entire US government is incredibly small. literally everything he tries is turned down by the republican-controlled house, which was also responsible for the shutdown. if you still believe that Obama is responsible for the shutdown somehow, all you need to see is the final votes for the reopening of the government to see how wrong you are.

as for the debt, the reasons why it's so high is because stupid people kept demanding lower taxes and Bush handed them out like candy, and even cut taxes during wartime. he even pulled a political move on a vote for a tax cut to reduce the number of votes required. Obama has no control over the economy, yet somehow people still try to find ways to blame it on him. basic economics.

and now that a massive percentage of the american populace is about to retire, the debt is only going to keep rising higher and higher because nothing was ever done to prevent it. we can get out of debt, sure, but only if people think of the overall long-term instead of the individual short-term.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dr. Best
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
zelda4evr
Oct 18 2013, 12:02 AM
I read somewhere that windows 8 laptops have a new chip that grants the NSA a very easy to access back door to the pc, and basically lets them remote view anything you may even type into notepad. Also if you google search things like, Marijuana, sick, hurricane or anything else in their list you become highlighted. The only problem with coming up with an encrypted or protected system, is that simply discussing it lets it be discovered. Did you hear about that guy that uncovered the NSA because he was using TOR network and noticed he was being tracked and all his personal info was being viewed, he is now accepted in Russia and got some sort of award for directly confronting the NSA and will probably never return to America. TOR prevents you from being tracked, it creates anonymity but they can tell when you're using it, just not what you're doing. And yes I am very aware(afraid?) of freedom of speech.
There is so much wrong with these statements :doh: .
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Gandalf20000
Member Avatar
Geek
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
alexmach1
Oct 19 2013, 12:39 AM
zelda4evr
Oct 18 2013, 06:53 AM
If they were tracking us very well, most criminals couldn't succeed. I heard what was supposed to be an actual order from a police chief or whatever to his patrols over radio that in Minnesota if anyone has a political bumper sticker opposing Obamas campaign that they are to be approached as a terrorist. I drove into Minnesota once and the welcome sign says, welcome to the #1 state in vote fraud. I'm just curious what Obama is going to try to accomplish before his term ends, and how things will change with a new president. People keep making predictions and at least one is going to happen.
Obama's influence over the entire US government is incredibly small. literally everything he tries is turned down by the republican-controlled house, which was also responsible for the shutdown. if you still believe that Obama is responsible for the shutdown somehow, all you need to see is the final votes for the reopening of the government to see how wrong you are.

as for the debt, the reasons why it's so high is because stupid people kept demanding lower taxes and Bush handed them out like candy, and even cut taxes during wartime. he even pulled a political move on a vote for a tax cut to reduce the number of votes required. Obama has no control over the economy, yet somehow people still try to find ways to blame it on him. basic economics.

and now that a massive percentage of the american populace is about to retire, the debt is only going to keep rising higher and higher because nothing was ever done to prevent it. we can get out of debt, sure, but only if people think of the overall long-term instead of the individual short-term.
I hate to start a political argument, but please realize that the debt rose approximately $5 trillion during the eight years of Bush's administration. It rose that much during the first four years of Obama's administration, and it hasn't ceased to grow since. The deficit has decreased over the past few years (which isn't hard given the massive deficit in 2009), but most economists predict that it will start to increase again. If Social Security and Medicare had been used as intended (basically as a retirement fund and medical insurance for retirees), they would be solvent and we wouldn't have the impending retiree crisis. However, the programs have been expanded and modified and borrowed from such that they're spiraling out of control and will likely never be in the black again. The only other point I will contend is a logical fallacy you seem to have used: according to you, Bush handed out tax cuts. However, you say the president has no control over the economy, so Obama can't be blamed for a lousy economy. These statements are contradictory. Either Bush personally made tax cuts, which would imply Obama has some control over the economy as our current president, or Obama has no control over the economy, which would also imply that tax cuts during the Bush administration cannot be attributed to him.

I won't argue with your other comments because they are more opinion than fact, which makes having a reasonable debate unlikely.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
alexmach1
Member Avatar
Graphics addict
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Gandalf20000
Oct 19 2013, 03:23 AM
The only other point I will contend is a logical fallacy you seem to have used: according to you, Bush handed out tax cuts. However, you say the president has no control over the economy, so Obama can't be blamed for a lousy economy. These statements are contradictory. Either Bush personally made tax cuts, which would imply Obama has some control over the economy as our current president, or Obama has no control over the economy, which would also imply that tax cuts during the Bush administration cannot be attributed to him.

I won't argue with your other comments because they are more opinion than fact, which makes having a reasonable debate unlikely.
Obama has little to no influence over the economy because he holds a minority in the house; anything he tries to do has to go through the majority, which is the opposing party. Bush, however, held the majority and could basically pass what he wanted because, believe it or not, the general public wanted tax cuts. nothing contradictory in that at all.

I think this is a tight enough community that any argument we have won't devolve into mudslinging.
Edited by alexmach1, Oct 19 2013, 05:22 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Gandalf20000
Member Avatar
Geek
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
alexmach1
Oct 19 2013, 05:19 AM
Obama has little to no influence over the economy because he holds a minority in the house; anything he tries to do has to go through the majority, which is the opposing party. Bush, however, held the majority and could basically pass what he wanted because, believe it or not, the general public wanted tax cuts. nothing contradictory in that at all.
Remember that Obama himself agreed those tax cuts should be extended. He has also gotten most of what he wants in spite of House opposition. The majority is slim enough that there are almost always enough Republican Congressmen willing to jump ship just to end the fighting. However, public opinion has not been kind to either the president or Congress. A majority of Americans think every single member of Congress should be replaced, and Obama's poll numbers have hit the same level as Bush's at his lowest. In my personal opinion, the shutdown is the fault of both parties and the White House. The Republicans could have picked a better strategy to fight Obamacare and the budget crisis, but the Democrats refused to negotiate. Every day featured Senator Reid screaming, "NO!" at anything the Republicans proposed. In fact, since Obamacare rolled out anyway (using funds from Medicare, I might add), it's much more likely the issue at hand was trying to get a real budget ironed out to prevent having to raise the debt ceiling again. It was agreed from the beginning that the debt ceiling needed to be raised, but the Republicans didn't want it to be raised without cutting spending to prevent raising it again, which was an excellent opportunity to target the healthcare law.

All of these idiot politicians need to go. They keep focusing on the symptoms, not the problems. For example: the economy is in the dumps. People are broke, so giving them money will help them buy stuff to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, once the money runs out, most people haven't increased their standard buying power, and the economy collapses again. The housing market is a perfect example of this. Random Joe decides he wants to buy a house, but can't really afford it. A public loan program (partnered with the federal government) decides this isn't fair, and gives him a loan anyway. Joe can't afford the payments and gets foreclosed on, and the federal government just lost money because the loan program just lost money.
However, if you loan/give money to businesses or programs (such as through a development contract) capable of expanding and using the funds to create sustainable jobs, the economy will be able to continue running, even once funding runs out. Something has been produced that may be useful for more than just its original purpose (see NASA for plenty of examples), and so it stimulates production, not just retail. In other words, investment works, handouts don't.
Healthcare is a similar situation. There are millions of people without health insurance. So, we'll just mandate that everyone buy health insurance and give subsidies to make it more affordable. Well, that sort of works, but it doesn't do anything to account for the fact that insurance is expensive because healthcare is expensive. Giving the money to the insurance companies doesn't make healthcare cheaper because the insurance companies aren't the ones setting the prices for medical procedures and medicine. It makes it appear cheaper to the consumer, but it doesn't hide the fact that the healthcare costs are continuing to rise. I don't know enough about the healthcare industry to state what might reduce the cost of medical care, but I know that trying to increase the insurance base to encourage lower premiums will only work for so long. Whatever the solution is, I'm sure it's a top-down approach similar to investing, rather than the bottom-up approach of throwing money somewhat in the direction of the problem and hoping it goes away.
The same logic applies to our education system. The US spends more money per student than any other nation in the world. However, a quick visit to the comment section of any American news site or social media website quickly shows that more money doesn't equal better education. As a wonderful example, we'll use my (not so long ago) high school days. A few years ago, the school district was going through a massive budget shortfall thanks to the economic collapse (it took much longer to hit Texas than some other places). The school, much to their delight I'm sure, had been given a grant (how old it was, who knows). What was this grant for? New computers? New textbooks? Study guides for all AP students? Giving performance reviews on questionable teachers? How about redecorating the perfectly acceptable cafeteria? I rest my case.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Despellanion
Member Avatar
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I got a new setup.
Posted Image
Attached to this post:
Attachments: 1403658_401388519989696_648942742_o.jpg (60.8 KB)
Edited by Despellanion, Nov 6 2013, 09:54 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
RonBurgundy
Member Avatar
Forum Borat
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
@Desp Lol! Never seen a monitor angled like that, that's a good idea though for programming, or if your mailbox is full of spam! :P
!!! DEFEND POP PUNK !!!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Despellanion
Member Avatar
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
RonBurgundy
Nov 11 2013, 07:31 AM
@Desp Lol! Never seen a monitor angled like that, that's a good idea though for programming, or if your mailbox is full of spam! :P
Yeah, I bought 2 monitors specifically for the purpose of coding on one side (portrait mode) and design on the other (landscape mode). You can still use the portrait view for other things. Browsing through YouTube comments and forums is a breeze :P
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
zelda4evr
Member Avatar
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
googles strategy http://i2.wp.com/memecollection.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/h7mpdq4.gif?w=900

Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Reikyrr
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Haha so true
~Inspirational quote~
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Despellanion
Member Avatar
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Yeah, well it seems to have paid of since everyone is automatically using Google+ now. So they have the last laugh.
The only thing I don't like about it is that the new YouTube comment system doesn't make any sense. I have no idea from where the comments come from, what they are replies to and why I am not allowed to reply to some of them on my own videos.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
alexmach1
Member Avatar
Graphics addict
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Despellanion
Nov 21 2013, 03:52 PM
Yeah, well it seems to have paid of since everyone is automatically using Google+ now. So they have the last laugh.
The only thing I don't like about it is that the new YouTube comment system doesn't make any sense. I have no idea from where the comments come from, what they are replies to and why I am not allowed to reply to some of them on my own videos.
comments are now organized by upvotes rather than post date, and any comments posted before the update cannot be replied to except your own. on the plus side, it looks as though(on my side) rewinding on certain videos no longer rebuffers the whole thing.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Reikyrr
Forum God
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
It's a sad day, when spam bots are more active than actual users.
~Inspirational quote~
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dr. Best
Member Avatar
Administrator
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Reikyrr
Nov 26 2013, 12:34 PM
It's a sad day, when spam bots are more active than actual users.
True that. I suppose it would take some cool new release to revive this forum. Too bad that I don't have the time to prepare one :dunno: .
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
Learn More · Register Now
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Off-topic · Next Topic »
Add Reply