Slashdot Mirror

I'm not right wing. I'm kind-of a half-breed. In the UK I would be called a "cross bencher", or a "floater" (don't laugh). But yes, a lot of this is anti American and anti-NATO, and cuts right into the fact that we are all evil Imperialists, except the Left of course, who only have the good of the people at heart. This is why Lefties like George Galloway would say to Saddam Hussein's face "I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability". Presumably he had no idea that he was addressing a mass murdering Ba'athist gangster? Who knows. Another prominent Leftie in the UK, Jody McIntrye, writes, "This is not a revolution; it is a western-backed, NATO-sanctioned, colonialist regime change in a sovereign African nation" when discussing the Libyan intervention. These people claim to represent the masses but what, if anything, are they offering them? There's no rational explanation for views like this except as anti-American contrarianism.

Anyway, I agree with Nick Cohen about the abrogation of any kind of moral compass by the Left over the last 25 years. If you read his book, you might too.

Excellent comment! Have you read Intellectual Impostures by any chance?

Back in the day, I found Illustrating Pascal, ISBN 0/521/33695/3 by D.Alcock to be very useful. ref: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0521336953/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link It helped me make the jump from programming as a hobby, in various forms of BASIC, to proper programming languages.

That book may be considered a classic but is one of the poorest presentations of material I've ever seen to recommend to a beginner. It works better as a reference but even then thinking in those terms has a tendency to make you over engineer every damn thing unless you actively apply the KISS principle. A lot of the patterns covered are best shown to newbies with concrete examples rather than in generic theoretical form.

That's why I always recommend Head First Design Patterns (O'Reilly) to everyone. It has a great practical approach to teaching patterns, e.g. by starting with real world bad code, showing what's wrong with it, and then refactoring to a design pattern.

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

The first book that got me thinking deeply about computing, not as a collection of hacks and tricks, but as something to be done properly. It's not a programming manual as such, but it's chock-full of advice-by-example, illustrating some of the really good bits of design in the Beeb, how the various subsystems interacted with each other, how to make best use of extremely limited memory without sacrificing design -- and the value of writing something well, which could allow it to be used in ways you never thought of.

I've read many great books since then, of course -- K&R, Knuth, Sedgewick, Programming Pearls, Effective Java, Programming in Scala, and more -- but the Advanced User Guide has probably had the most influence on me and how I think about computers. It also has the most annotations and other scribblings all over it!

Most of the sci-fi I grew up with seemed to assume that humanity was sane enough to establish a world government before venturing to the planets and stars.

A world government would have to rule with consent of the majority and the majority are always sane so that's tautological.

Talking out of my arse, I don't think we're talking about "What the fu..." levels of asteroid aiming.

I grew up on sci-fi too.

As far as I am aware, advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers is illegal here in the UK. I have never noticed any such advertising anyway. This approach seems a hell of a lot more sensible than that of the US. At least this is from what I remember of reading 'The Truth about the Drug Companies' which seemed to raise a lot of valid points.

You've sideswiped a related point mentioning non-English speaking countries. The Vampire Hunter novels seem very promising (I haven't read them....yet), but have only been translated to English beginning with volume 1 in 2005. And that decision was probably only made worth the investment to Dark Horse because they knew an established fan base that guaranteed some level of ROI that made the risk worthwhile.

Here in the English-speaking world, I really have no idea if we've missed the Japanese equivalent of a Glen Cook somewhere because an anime or OVA was not based on it. Fantastic reading (on my 5th Garret PI novel at the moment) but just so unknown to most sc-fi readers I know.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SWISSGEAR-IBEX-NOTEBOOK-RUCKSACK-17/dp/B000VSFLCI

this has room for my laptop and my DJ decks and external hard drive and associated accessories. nicely padded and protective from a solid reliable brand

Sorry, this is closer (but $80 dearer as it has twice the memory and a much faster chip). I thought the one I linked to was a touchscreen, but it wasn't.

Equivalent (if not better) hardware ~US$100 cheaper here, though admittedly I wouldn't expect anything more than palm-off from Lenovo tech support if you asked them how to set up anything more than a dialup modem on M$ Windows. OTOH I've never been a fan of purchasing products on the premise that you will receive support when/if you need it, because you USUALLY (though I could be wrong with this particular company) don't get it.</disgruntled former M$ customer>
Also their website seems to say that $699 is $100 below RRP (inferring that the cost could increase), but that's probably just something a marketoid threw in

This device is aimed at people who want/need a VERY simplified computing experience, so just slapping Android/MeeGo/whatever on there is not and will not be enough.

My point is not that Android/MeeGo/whatever necessarily has a better UX for the elderly, but I just don't see why it was necessary to cause more fragmentation in the desktop Linux marketplace. Is saying "There is a large and able developer/user base for <platform(s)>, but we're going to throw it all out and more-or-less start again from scratch" REALLY sound business practise? Is it that hard to change around the landing screen a little and add some accessibility features? Now they've (presumably) created YET ANOTHER set of widget toolkits/platform integration APIs.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but we're practically there already: Hayfever quackery

Have you heard of this wanker and his sodding book? He was on the news a few weeks back, what a pretentious twat. I doubt he's actually ever met a chav. If he did, they'd call him a wanker. So would I, actually. Maybe the burberry baboons aren't entirely bad...

Demonisation of the working class my arse. Shirking class more like.

You don't have to be so negative. Collapse of civilisation doesn't imply mass death.
You sound like an American, so here's some good advice written by one of your more enlightened compatriots, the Arch-druid of New York:
John Michael Greer -- Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
I found it extremely to-the-point and well-written even though I had a bit of doubt at first because it was a Druid who wrote it (no offense intended!).

What it illustrates is that big money is chasing companies that haven't addressed the basics of running their business.

I was trying to tidy up my "office", which has mutated into a junk room, and among a heap of paperbacks I found Boo Hoo.

Seems I misoverestimated people's intelligence. I figured shit repeats at maybe a twenty year cycle. It's not even ten. Jeez.

Amazon offer free delivery from the UK to the Netherlands (under EU rules they may be forced to charge VAT on books sent to other countries [in the UK books are free from VAT])

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200402870#ssd

I would suspect that there is a limited range of books published in Dutch (compared with English) due to the limited number of speakers.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-F2CD008ng1-5M-Apple-Cable-Display/dp/B0038FI326%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAISRIXQ6RZDSZIFDA%26tag%3Dprodurevie0e6-21%26linkCode%3Dsp1%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0038FI326

Okay here's a semi-secret which shouldn't be so secret. I use something called PitRok Crystal Deodorant (perhaps try this if you're US based), but any Ammonium Alum based deodorant will be good. It's meant for the armpits, but I find it works good on feet too. 5 stars on Amazon.co.uk by almost everyone including me.

I only wish I knew about this sooner. It's completely odorless and nonsticky, which is great, but also lasts over a year (you wet its hard crystal tip and apply). Anybody who benefits from this, feel free to buy me a beer or 10 according to how generous you feel.

To be fair, the terms of use for Amazon's MP3 Store permit every one of those things when you buy your licence to listen to a particular album. You are explicitly allowed to make copies for personal, non-commercial use, including backups and copies for portable devices. See for yourself. You are simply not allowed to share, broadcast, rent or resell them, which is hardly unreasonable.

I know you're just joking, and yes, "whoosh", but things are not as bad as you make out.

I think you need to read the book "What's Left?: How Liberals lost their way" in order to understand why there is some confusion here.

Flat Earth News published in 2008 goes into this in great detail from a British point of view. Interestingly, it's not the internet that started the rot but massive cost cutting - which for ten years created huge profits - started in the mid-80s. By the mid to late 90s serious journalism and local news were already dieing. The internet merely savaged the corpse.

some disagree

some disagree

actually according to amazon themselves it's bullshit

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200493090

check under "files kindle recognises": "Kindle (.AZW, .AZW1). Text (.TXT), Unprotected Mobipocket (.MOBI, .PRC)"

then check under the files you can email amazon to have converted:
"Microsoft Word (.DOC)
Structured HTML (.HTML, .HTM)
RTF (.RTF)
JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)
GIF (.GIF)
PNG (.PNG)
BMP (.BMP)
PDF (.PDF): Look below for details.
Microsoft Word (.DOCX) is supported in our experimental category."

i don't know what this guy's been doing (other than trolling), but i'd suspect he's been converting his epub into a mobipocket himself (using one or other of the many tools around that will do that) and then loading it onto his kindle. fair enough, but that's very different from "My kindle from four years ago, which has never been updated, eats ePub just fine. So does my DX." which apparently isn't true.

Not sure which Xen book you read, but the grandparent makes a lot of errors and I'd be surprised if a book was that inaccurate. Mine is slightly out of date, but at least was accurate at the time of printing (technical review was done by the original Xen developer).

Let's start at the end. KVM VMs and userspace Linux applications do not share the same address space. This isn't even true if you remove KVM - userspace processes have isolated address spaces. KVM requires the CPU have virtualisation extensions, which means (among other things) nested page tables. This means that there is hardware-enforced separation between the pages. The guest OS sees page tables that map from virtual to pseudophysical address space, but thinks that they map from virtual to physical. The host (Linux) sets the mapping from these pseudophysical pages to real memory pages and the CPU enforces this mapping. Xen uses exactly the same mechanism in HVM mode (it uses some other tricks in paravirtual mode).

The driver domains are correct, but it's worth noting that Xen will use VT-d or equivalent to protect against malicious use. Linux can't give a userspace program direct access to the disk controller, because if it did then a rogue DMA command could compromise the kernel. Xen will use the IOMMU to ensure that each peripheral may only issue DMAs to memory owned by the driver domain. The Solaris VM that you have accessing your block device and exporting virtual disks from ZVOLs, for example, can trample its own address space with rogue DMAs, but it can't touch any memory in other VMs.

This means that Xen (in theory) has a smaller attack profile than KVM. Xen is basically a microkernel, and it enforces low privilege on the services (OS instances) that provide drivers and the management console. With KVM, the entire kernel runs in privileged mode. It's fairly common these days for the management console domain to have either no network access, or highly-restricted access, and be separated from the driver domains. If there is a flaw in the network stack in Linux and an attacker compromises it, then with KVM they now have access to all of your VMs. With Xen, they control that driver domain, and they can inject packets into the other VMs, but they are no more able to compromise them than they would be if they controlled the router one hop away.

KVM recently gained support or live migration (this has been stable in Xen for a long time - they were doing demos of live-migrating a Quake 2 server with clients connected since the early 2000s), but it doesn't have any of the high-availability stuff that Xen 4 includes. This allows you to do things like run two instances of the same VM on different machines and transparently fail-over when one dies.

2500 W? Where do they plug it in?

In any normal socket? My kettle even has 3.0 kW

Explain to me how you swat a fly or, in an emergency situation, rip out a page to start a fire with an E-reader?

Fine, then explain to me how you can use a papaerback book to send an email requesting emergency help when your phone is lost, stolen or run down!

When you buy from Amazon UK, the invoice comes from Amazon EU Sàrl in Luxembourg. Go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_cou?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1040616 and see for example section 26 & 27 of their T&C.

The Jersey loophole is still there. The limit will at some point be reduced from £18 to £15.

Yes, it is a fact well known to those of us with tinfoil hats on top of our tinfoil hats that there is no longer a single white male CEO at any US company. It's true! And it's now illegal to vote unless you're a foreigner!! And Obama's 'birth certificat' is a blatant forgery!!! And I'm hoarding gold and guns against the coming Apocalypse as prophesied in the Turner Diaries!!!!

You seem to share a vice common among some Europeans of having difficulty telling friend from foe.

WikiLeaks: fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London bombings
University campuses are 'hotbeds of Islamic extremism'
Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister
Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target
Does the BBC view Israel's existence as a legitimate 'grievance'?
Sadly, I've been proved right. Britain IS a centre of terror. Tragically, our rulers can't see the truth

Well, at least someone is being deported:
Afghan Christians to be deported despite death fears

You should probably get out more. Mmm... quite

Well,... do let us know how that whole thing works out. I'm sure you'll be happier with that lot than any Americans. Cheers! (You might want to take that literally ... I understand they aren't too keen on alcohol.)

Yes, it is a fact well known to those of us with tinfoil hats on top of our tinfoil hats that there is no longer a single white male CEO at any US company. It's true! And it's now illegal to vote unless you're a foreigner!! And Obama's 'birth certificat' is a blatant forgery!!! And I'm hoarding gold and guns against the coming Apocalypse as prophesied in the Turner Diaries!!!!

You seem to share a vice common among some Europeans of having difficulty telling friend from foe.

WikiLeaks: fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London bombings
University campuses are 'hotbeds of Islamic extremism'
Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister
Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target
Does the BBC view Israel's existence as a legitimate 'grievance'?
Sadly, I've been proved right. Britain IS a centre of terror. Tragically, our rulers can't see the truth

Well, at least someone is being deported:
Afghan Christians to be deported despite death fears

You should probably get out more. Mmm... quite

Well,... do let us know how that whole thing works out. I'm sure you'll be happier with that lot than any Americans. Cheers! (You might want to take that literally ... I understand they aren't too keen on alcohol.)

First, I would suggest RTFA. Newell is talking about adapting the price to each player (based on how he or she plays the game and deals with others in multiplayer games), not about changing the price based on which shop you buy the game from.

Second, Rift isn't published by Valve, they dont' set the price, so Newell has nothing to do with it.

Third, Valve's games can't be significantly cheaper on Steam, or retailers would accuse Valve of unfair competition.

In any case, I suspect you're comparing prices in different countries and "forgetting" to include shipping, customs fees and VAT. Left 4 Dead is currently £12.50 (+ shipping) at Amazon and 13.99€ on Steam. £12.50 is approximately 14.30€, so Steam is 31 cents cheaper (more, if you include delivery). Of course, those 31 cents get you a boxed version of the game, so it's probably worth it if you're a collector.

Steam is mostly for indie games and game packs. Big publishers won't sell game significantly cheaper on Steam because they'd be hurting their relationship with retailers (which are still by far their main source of income).

Here you go

It appears that there is a Facebook group where people are putting up translations of small parts of it now.

baldness might very well be an indicator of virility

It is, and this has been proven since the 1970's! Men with less tetesterone usually keep a full head of hair - but they are often more "womanly". A great book on the subject is Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps. Sounds sexist, but it's very fact-based - women and men don't think alike, and this book explains even teh gay. It all comes down to how much of the 'correct' hormone your particular chomosome pair receives...

I think someone needs to let him know that anyone who thought, even for a moment, that there was really such a thing as a "petite lap giraffe" and was over the age of 12 is a complete idiot who has no business ever writing anything. No-one needed him to point out they were fake.

Missing the point. He pointed out who was behind it, a marketing firm, and how it was done showing the stock images they used. That's interesting information and if the "journalist" who lifted it had any common courtesy or professionalism he'd at the very least provided a link back to the original source. It's not like it would have cost them anything to do that. But there you go, actual journalism is pretty much dead and this kind of thing goes on all the time in an effort to prop up the corpse. Read Flat Earth News some time.

> You do realize that even though it's called the finance industry, it doesn't actually output raw units of finance, right? It's not just a bunch of douchebags sitting in front of computer monitors speculating and earning money on the market

The first statement there is wrong. The finance industry very much does output raw units of finance, primarily through the use of fractional reserve banking. As for the second statement, I have several good friends in the industry so I'm reluctant to call them douchebags. I just don't respect their choice of profession as much as if they had done something more beneficial to society, like dealing smack. We could do with a lot less of the money in circulation being invented in the form of debt. The cost of the invented money is distributed through society (in the form of inflation etc) while the benefits are disproportionately concentrated in the finance industry. This is not the only possible way of doing things. Take a look at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grip-Death-Slavery-Destructive-Economics/dp/1897766408 for a good rant about this. My understanding of this subject is not great: I'm not a professional but I have had extended conversations with bankers who very much are professionals and I'm lot less wrong now than I used to be when my thinking was like yours.

Do you therefore thing Amazon should remove Mein Kampf from its book store? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mein-Kampf-Uncensored-Adolf-Hitler/dp/0984536132/

OK, we can make an exception for Mein Kampf, perhaps, because anyone can put it in its historical context; but what if something similar were written today? Should Amazon not stock it? What if Amazon refused to stock material about some niche political view that you happened to agree with?

I would thoroughly recommend The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies as a very good discussion of at least the first few of your questions; it considers various current hypotheses on the creation of the Universe along with that of a creator god, and explores the consequences and logical issues with each in a very even-handed way. One of my favourite books.

Unfortunately, by the time I've told my phone to make the drive mountable, the stereo has decided that it doesn't recognize the USB device. Yeah, I'm using the makers integrated stereo - I had a much nicer Bluetooth/iPod/MP3-friendly head unit in my previous car :-(.

I don't like using my car's USB connection, because I use that to charge my phone, especially on long trips.

If you just want to charge, get a USB to cigar lighter adapter (mine's a no-name, not Belkin, but it does the job).

This makes particular sense in my car (BMW pseudoMini) because the USB socket is a complete bugger to get at, but the upshot is that if you get one of the smaller USB pendrives it is almost invisible.

Seriously, do the makers of car stereos need a tap with the User Interface Design cluebat or what? Next job for Apple?

With regards to the EPR paradox there's been lots of experiments done, the most famous probably being Aspect's in 1981; they all show that Einstein etc. were wrong, and local realism is violated by entanglement.

I very much doubt anyone is saying Hawking radiation is disproven; that's almost akin to saying QM and thermodynamics are wrong. This book is a very good overview of the last 30 years or so of black hole research, and has a brilliant title to boot :)

The 'stupid' Drake equation takes into account the likely lifetime of a civilisation.

The best book I've read about the likelyhood of life being out there is The Eerie Silence witten by Paul Davies who is involved in the SETI project.

He actually thinks we may well be alone

So, I did a little looking around on the web and my question is where do I buy an HDFury? As far as I can tell it is no more. Nobody seems to have any inventory.

Well, you could try here if you're in Canada, or try here if you're in the UK, or try here if you're in Germany, or try here if you're in Australia, or try here if you're in South Africa.

These were all from a quick google search (it found many others also), and some of them claimed to have the items "in stock". However, the search results did not seem to have any sites in the US which are still selling them, so maybe you're SOL if that's where you live.

Two BBC journos have written books denouncing left wing bias throughout the BBC. Most recently Peter Sissons, but before that Robin Aitken.

No they're not; not if you buy through official suppliers (i.e. MNOs like Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica, etc)

You were saying?

Amazon - perhaps you have heard of them?