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...with comparing reality and video games? It has nothing to do with video games.

That makes the who story pointless.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Microsoft's typical strategy at this point is to sue the ASA.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Nah, a kidney is only worth a few grand. These will be much more expensive for a while. :)

Jason
ProfQuotes

Wasn't it the government Al Gore helped run that brought us the DMCA?

It might not be a good thing having him as a director at one of the few big tech companies that is still customer friendly.

Jason
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I meant that as the college way is better; I was offering it as an explaination for why the K-12 level textbooks are so much worse.

Another clueless AC

Jason
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College textbooks are choosen for the class by the professor who has expertise in the area. K-12 books are choosen school or district-wide by committees.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Once the patch is installed, is there any way I can be sure my system hasn't been rootkitted without doing a clean install?

Jason
ProfQuotes

When can I get one to power my house? The power situation in Ontario is starting to look like California a couple of years ago.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Didn't you hear about the radiation belt? The new theory is no life on Europa

Jason
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When the EV1 came out, the chairman of GM said it would "define the GM of the future"

So what he's saying is the future of GM is to pull out of the market

Jason
ProfQuotes

A reptile is a retile if it weighs 1 gram or 100,000 tons. If it is warm blooded, it is not a reptile no matter how much it weighs.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Size is a incredibly stupid basis for the distinction. If you say anything over 2300km across is a planet, that includes a nebula. You can't say it has to be solid, that would exclude gas giants.

If you bring in other criteria, why include size at all?

Jason
ProfQuotes

I went to an astronomy talk at the University of Toronto a few years ago. The presenter defined a planet as any celestial body that doesn't radiate light. That explicitly includes asteroids and moons. Why is it necessary to make the distinction between planet and asteroid?

The whole point of the article is to arbitrarily define the distinction which just proves how stupid it is.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Yes, it is that product activation is bad all of the time.

I am against software piracy, and I've bought tax software every year from 1992 until last year (I still have every program). This year I'm doing my taxes by hand for the first time ever.

The problem with product activation is it turns the software from a product into a service. Even though I have the CD, I can't install the program with full functionality. When I buy software, I want to be able to run it forever. I still have a parition with DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11, mostly to play older games. I also run legal copies of Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Slackware. I do not run XP, and I won't as long as it has product activation.

I'm in Canada, but if I was in the US, I'd consider buying the software just to join the lawsuit.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Take on MS in the courtroom? That's where they're best.

Jason
ProfQuotes

But then I use a spatula

Jason
ProfQuotes

Now you can play *simple* games on your PS2. Hopefully that should mean eye candy doesn't get in the way of playability and the games will be better :)

Jason
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They're already jumping ahead to a new technology. I'm still waiting for there to be a real standard for normal DVD recording.

Jason
ProfQuotes

According to your own link, it was a joke. a CD-R is a WORM drive, not a WOM...WOM means you can never read it. That's the sort of media the RIAA probably uses for their complaints database.

With an IC chip, the term is OTP; One Time Programmable.

Jason
ProfQuotes

so get ready to toss out your motherboard

Since when can you upgrade to a new generation CPU and not have to replace the motherboard?

Jason
ProfQuotes

Can I run the program on music I might consider listening to and rule out anything it approves?

Actually, this is useful on a person by person basis. I can tell it which songs I like, and it can pre-scan new music and decide what I'm more likely to enjoy.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Shouldn't Michael Crichton have given this address? His novel, Prey, did a better job explaining this.

ProfQuotes

Toronto actually, and the BBS was Canada Remote Systems. They were bought and killed by I-Star who wanted to try and convince the users to subscribe with them. At the time, I was already using Interlog internet service as an ISP. Interlog's backbone was connected through I-Star, so I cancelled my Interlog account and told them exactly why.

I-Star was bought by PSINet, and then both PSINet and ClearNet were bought by Telus, so I cancelled my ClearNet phone and told them exactly why.

I know the companies don't care and probably got a laugh out of it, but it was still fun to tell them off.

Jason
ProfQuotes

What I really miss about BBS's were the game doors, Especially Tradewars and GTWar. I know people run Tradewares via telnet not, but it's just not the same thing. I got to know the other players and it was more fun because it was personal.

I still hold a grudge against Telus because they bought the company that bought the ISP that bought my BBS to shut it down and harvest their customers. I even cancelled my ClearNet cell phone when Telus bought them.

Jason
ProfQuotes

People don't want to know anything about how the world around them works. In a technical world, that's exactly what so-called nerds want to know. That's also why so many nerds have a passing interest in physics as well.

Jason
ProfQuotes

I'm talking about knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Explain to bev how the bubble sort algorithm works. It's simple enough that you could explain it in terms she'd understand, but her eyes would still gloss over. Explain how analog radio works, or an inkjet or laser printer, or virtual memory. The concepts behind all these are quite simple, anyone can understand them. But they will fight learning it with all the mental energy they have.

Financial reports and tax law are contrieved knowledge, not knowlege for the sake of knowledge.

Jason
ProfQuotes

People have an ingrained trait that they like to know as little as possible.

I'm sure most of the 'nerds' here have tried to explain something to someone and seen their eyes glaze over.

The majority of people who consider knowledge bad see nerds as being heritics for not resisting knowledge.

Jason
ProfQuotes

How can a deterministic computer create anything more then pseudorandom ?

By using lava lamps, of course

Jason
ProfQuotes

The Icon 3 computers that were used in Ontario schools in the early 90's had the computer build into the back of the monitor. The whole back inch came off as a module so the computer could be upgraded without replacing the monitor.

Jason
ProfQuotes

It might do a good job cleaning his clothes

Jason
ProfQuotes

I got UFied on Thursday and my site didn't even slow down. My web host is great. Find another host for under $20/month that will handle half a gig in 6 hours without slowing down.

Anyone with an account on that server can run scripts that will chew up all the processing power and bring down everybody's sites. Since everyone on the server specifically wanted ssh access, why should the webhost be liable?

Jason
ProfQuotes

How secure is this? My web host gave me ssh access, but they put my account on a separate server (with all the users who want ssh), and they warned me that they won't honor their uptime guarantee because having ssh reduces the security of the server. It seems like ssh would be a lot more secure than this script.

Jason
ProfQuotes

An infinite number of users using /dev/urandom on an infinite number of computers will produce the entire RIAA library instantly.

...and probably some good music too.

Jason
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It means we'll get more free coasters as AOL tries to compensate for the lost customers.

Jason
ProfQuotes

My understanding of the GPL is that as soon as that person re-sells one copy of my code, their version becomes freely distributable and the person who bought it can give it away to as many people as they want. As far as I'm concerned, this is good enough.

Jason
ProfQuotes

If you're really interested in the book suggestion, I got the name wrong, it's Distributed Operating Systems (he also wrote Computer Networks, which is an excellent book too).

Besides the synch problem, P2P distribution has reliability problems; people shutting their computer half way through a download or having corrupt copies to begin with. Many others were already mentioned on this discussion.

Another problem is that for something as small as a web page, the overhead in co-ordinating where to get the data from is greater than the size of the data itself.

My point with my site is that this is the best way to deal with possible surges in use. I'm sharing the pipe at least 1000 ways, but 99.9% of the time I'm not even using my share. However, when I need the bandwidth it's there for me; I have peaks where I hit 1-2 mpbs for a few minutes. Since it's shared so many ways by other people in the same situation, the overall price is very cheap (a small fraction of what I'm paying for my broadband connection).

Jason
ProfQuotes

The only difference between a "client" and "server" in a TCP/IP is that by convention we say the "client" is the machine that made the connection and the "server" was waiting. Once established, the connection is identical from both ends. The Internet is a peer to peer network, not a server client network. Read Network Operating Systems by Tannenbaum.

If you're creating a website for some friends, your 56k modem will easily be able to serve it. If it gets too many hits, pay a real hosting service. It's not that expensive.

ProfQuotes will easily withstand a slashdotting, it's on a 100mbps pipe. It would be impossible to build a 'real' site like that into a distribution service like you want because there would be no way to synchronize user submissions. A P2P file distribution network is good for large files that don't change often. Not for a 'live' website

Jason
ProfQuotes

If I'm a developer writing code that I'm willing to release freely for altruistic reasons, I don't want someone else taking my program, modifying it, and selling it for a profit. That's why I'd put it under the GPL.

You're saying you should have the freedom to profit from my work against my wishes.

Jason
ProfQuotes

You suggest they connect to you specifically with the P2P client to access your own page?

That sounds like you're just saying the P2P client should integrate a normal web server. Why not just run apache on your computer? Either way equally violates your TOS with your ISP.

Do you understand that the internet is fundamentally p2p?

Jason
ProfQuotes

Who would have thought that sitting in a chair for 8 hours straight without moving would be bad for their health?

I hope these researchers didn't have a big grant.

Jason
ProfQuotes

I had a computer chess board that moved its own pieces in the mid-80's. The board was a consumer unit and not that expensive either.

It used magnets under the board to drag the pieces. What was cool was watching a knight move where it had to move another piece out of the way and then back.

Jason
ProfQuotes

The best way to preserve this media would be over a distributed network. People sign up to voulenteer space on their computers and then download only the media they want to archive. To retrieve the information, have a simple search client that will show you who has that information...Oh wait, that's just a P2P network.

Jason
ProfQuotes

They're talking about creating a central database of letters sent to all the newspapers that will subscribe to the system, not doing a search on the web to see if the person put the letter on their webpage.

Jason
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Does this mean if you try to play a copyrighted work, the RIAA will DOS your guitar?

Jason
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I built my own ISA card years ago, all it has to do is decode port 80. It took 2 IC's to decode the address bus, and 2 to drive the LEDs. I haven't been able to find any info on PCI post codes (or much of anything on the PCI bus).

My latest MB (MSI KT3 Ultra) has a built in post display feature. I like that because it's my first board with no ISA slots.

Jason
ProfQuotes

This sounds like a virtual desktop screen larger than the physical monitor, only worse. The problem with the virtual desk top is it jumps around whenever the mouse gets near the edge, and it's a pain to see what you're doing

With the PDA it would be almost imposible to hold it steady enough to be useful, and what happens if you're in a moving vehicle? If you're trying to use the PDA in a meeting, you'll look silly trying to move the PDA around

Jason
ProfQuotes

Aren't they working together to bring about DRM?

Jason
ProfQuotes

$5,000/hour to rent studio time * 4 hours, and another $5,000 for post production work.

Jason
ProfQuotes

the software can be installed on any version of Windows you like. I have a home built PC running a self installed OEM XP Pro.

The box says it requires a pre-installed version of windows, and even puts it in bold print. I've read reviews from people who couldn't get it to install on their homebuilt machines. I don't know if it will work on my computer, and I have no way to find out short of buying one.

I don't mind re-ripping my CDs into the ATRAC3 format because there will be quality loss if I convert my mp3s directly to ATRAC3, but I will want to write the same songs to MD several times. I haven't touched my CD library in years. They're in a box in the basement. I do all my listening from mp3s on the computer because it's so much more convenient. I want to be able to rip all of them to ATRAC3 at one time and then have them on the HD to write to the MD whenever I feel like it. Having to dig up the CDs every time I want to write a disk ruins it for me. If I use your nero idea, I still have the quality loss problems.

Jason
ProfQuotes

It was a joke.

Jason
ProfQuotes