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"I wonder how well it would work for the porn industry too; nice automatic resizing of breasts without ruining the picture! Fetishists will be SO happy! :)"

They obviously "cherry-picked" the photos they worked with. Even then, there are problems with how they "distort reality", so that the landscape isn't what its represented to be. Somehow, I think it won't have such an easy time being so "content-aware" with this picture, or any of these "beauty contest" entries. And who'd want to - the reality is more than enough without being "enhanced!"

"I wonder how well it would work for the porn industry too; nice automatic resizing of breasts without ruining the picture! Fetishists will be SO happy! :)"

They obviously "cherry-picked" the photos they worked with. Even then, there are problems with how they "distort reality", so that the landscape isn't what its represented to be. Somehow, I think it won't have such an easy time being so "content-aware" with this picture, or any of these "beauty contest" entries. And who'd want to - the reality is more than enough without being "enhanced!"

"I wouldn't object to having to clock in and out for an hourly job to verify that I was at work."

You really believe punch-clocks work?

A friend of mine works at a company where they tried to enforce the punch-clock. All of a sudden, overtime shot through the roof. The reason? Employees also became a lot stricter in their accounting of their time - rather than taking off early sometimes, and balancing it out with staying a bit later other times, on an informal basis, any time they had to stay later it was an automatic extra hour or two on the punch card, at time-and-a-half.

Now they don't care who punches who's punch card, as long as the work gets done. The cards get punched so that management can save face by not rescinding the "you have to punch in and out" rule, and people leave early when they can, and stay a bit when they have to. Better a civilized solution; being a bunch of dickheads* can be expensive.

(*do not click on the link unless you're a dickhead)

"What right does a cab driver have to privacy from his company when he's in his company's car and working on company time?"

So you shouldn't have any problems with keyloggers and reading all your email, and a camera in the washroom so that they can make sure you're not reading a newspaper instead of/while "taking care of business". Or demanding all the details of any doctors' visit that was even partially covered by company insurance. And posting same on the corporate blog for all your coworkers to see. And you shouldn't have a problem with cavity searches to make sure you're not walking off with a red stapler ...

A lot of the taxicab drivers rent their rides for $X per shift + gas ... the only thing their boss needs to know about is that the cab is returned with a full tank at the end of the day, and they paid their $X bucks the the shift.

People don't have enough privacy as is ... maybe the fares don't want their movements tracked all the time. "Joe Blow took a cab ride from A to B on such-and-such a date" - booked off sick and went to the ball game, or his new wife checks and finds out he went to visit his daughter from his previous marriage, who doesn't get along with said trophy wife ...

People don't always lie for nefarious reasons. Removing another layer of privacy is just maing it easier for dickheads to make everyone else miserable.

Nobody has given the Executive Branch "unchecked power", and the Bush administration hasn't asked for it.

You're right. The Bush administration has not been given unchecked power, nor have they asked for it. They've simply taken it.

> >"Never shopped there in my life, never will.
> If you've never shopped there, how can you know its a worthless store? I'm not saying it isn't worthless (or that it is), just curious how you can claim that without experiencing it for yourself.

We're all awaiting your report on how it felt to try doing this, as well as your experiences wrt beastiality.

"on a respirator"

1. Breathe for "yes". Stop breathing for "no".
2. Can I have all your money and stuff and pull the plug now? Look she's breathing ... that means "yes".
3. PROFIT!

Of course, only a dickhead would do that ... Paging Dickhead Cheney ... paging Dickhead Cheney. (oops ... forgot, his preferred weapon is a few shots of booze and a shot to the head).

What Is A Troll?

The term derives from "trolling", a style of fishing which involves trailing bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The troll posts a message, often in response to an honest question, that is intended to upset, disrupt or simply insult the group.

Usually, it will fail, as the troll rarely bothers to match the tone or style of the group, and usually its ignorance shows.

Why do trolls do it?

I believe that most trolls are sad people, living their lonely lives vicariously through those they see as strong and successful.

Disrupting a stable newsgroup gives the illusion of power, just as for a few, stalking a strong person allows them to think they are strong, too.

For trolls, any response is 'recognition'; they are unable to distinguish between irritation and admiration; their ego grows directly in proportion to the response, regardless of the form or content of that response.

Trolls, rather surprisingly, dispute this, claiming that it's a game or joke; this merely confirms the diagnosis; how sad do you have to be to find such mind-numbingly trivial timewasting to be funny?

Remember that trolls are cowards; they'll usually post just enough to get an argument going, then sit back and count the responses (Yes, that's what they do!).

How can troll posts be recognised?

* No Imagination - Most are frighteningly obvious; sexist comments on womens' groups, blasphemy on religious groups .. I kid you not.
* Pedantic in the Extreme - Many trolls' preparation is so thorough, that while they waste time, they appear so ludicrous from the start that they elicit sympathetic mail - the danger is that once the group takes sides, the damage is done.
* False Identity - Because they are anonymous cowards, trolls virtually never write over their own name, and often reveal their trolliness (and lack of imagination) in the chosen ID. As so many folk these days use false ID, this is not a strong indicator on its own!
* Crossposting - Any post that is crossposted to several groups should be viewed as suspicious, particularly if unrelated or of opposing perspective. Why would someone do that?
* Off-topic posting - Often genuine errors, but, if from an 'outsider' they deserve matter-of-fact response; if genuine, a brief apposite response is simply netiquette; if it's a troll post, you have denied it its reward.
* Repetition of a question or statement is either a troll - or a pedant; either way, treatment as a troll is effective.
* Missing The Point - Trolls rarely answer a direct question - they cannot, if asked to justify their twaddle - so they develop a fine line in missing the point.
* Thick or Sad - Trolls are usually sad, lonely folk, with few social skills; they rarely make what most people would consider intelligent conversation. However, they frequently have an obsession with their IQ and feel the need to tell everyone. This is so frequent, that it is diagnostic! Somewhere on the web there must be an Intelligence Test for Trolls - rigged to always say "above 150"

Who is at risk?

Any newsgroup, bulletin board, forum or chatroom can attract trolls, but they don't have the brains to attack nuclear physicists, and they are drawn to the quick response where sex, religion and race are found; so politics is easy prey.

One troll famously tried to infiltrate a mensa group; the results read like 100 trolls

Sometimes I put NSA (Not Safe Anywhere), but conspiracy theorists start bugging out. BTW there are 16 new entries in the contest. They're clickable thumbnails, so you have the chance to skip over anything really vile.

"BTW, I left a comment at the site, basically summarizing the slashdot discussion (and linking back to it), and he blocked me :)"

Sounds like he's a real dickhead! (link is NSA - Not Safe Anywhere).

[Public Service Announcement]

Get with the program. The goat guy is so last century. pick a replacement, or submit one - voting takes place in a few weeks.

Now back on-topic - the lack of decent high-speed broadband is definitely hurting one sector of the economy - the lawyers working for the RIAA / MPAA. With ubiquitous high-speed, they'd have many more grannies to go after. There'd be no more "I don't even HAVE the interweb thingee" defense. The RIAA should sue the providers for harm to their business model. After all, we saw this week that it worked really well for SCO :-0

Well, if you're looking for something that's "not linux", you can always enter this contest - there are already a few entries that cover "open ports" that have nothing to do with linux - and one (# 12) that really nails "hardening" pretty good.

"The purpose of this post is to see the reasoning behind so many linux fluff stories making front page "

Its Sunday, this is slashdot, not PC Magazine, CmdrTaco is stuck reviewing submissions over dialup, and the big news of the MONTH was SCO getting kicked in the nuts. - but at least they got more than the $20 that guy got. Hopefully one or two will also get prison, but I'm not holding my breath.

Maybe they can turn the whole SCO fiasco into a tv show, like this kicked in the nuts video, but in reverse - have Darl wear the orange clown wig and PAY people $699 each to kick him.

Microsoft's continual lying and dirty tricks indicates a gross lack of integrity at the very top. You cannot respect someone you cannot trust, and still respect yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect

Respect is an assumption of good faith and competence in another person or in the whole of oneself. Depth of integrity, trust, complementary moral values, and skill are necessary components.

Respect adds general reliability to social interactions. It enables people to work together in a complimentary fashion, instead of each person having to understand or even agree with every detail of another's method.

Requirements

Respect forms for a person whose actions tend to create results that are generally considered good, beneficial to the appraiser or superior in some form. Integrity of principle is necessary for general consistency of action. Moral values of each party that complement each other lead to communal progress. This can happen consensually, such as with respect between disparate craftsmen working to build a house, or through conflict and elimination, such as respect for an enemy. Trust that some common goal is the actual intention of the other is necessary for respect, even if that goal is to leave the best competitor standing. Belief in the ability to reach the goal must also be assumed, even where the means is not known.

Respect is said to be "earned" when a party demonstrates all of the concept's requirements. Integrity is demonstrated through accountability of one's actions with outcome and adjustment of principles as necessary. Trust is demonstrated through consistency of claimed intent and action, with responsibility for inconsistencies and adjustment of moral values and expectations as needed. Skill is demonstrated by reaching or exceeding one's goals. Complementary moral values are achieved by either a consensual convergence of ideas or a combative elimination of inferior principles as demonstrated by failure to reach one's goal.

*WARNING - link is "NSA" - "Not Safe Anywhere"

"the UNIX copyrights are a horrible mess that no one in their right mind would dig into (or sue over)"

Oh, great - the insanity defense ... :-)

... because the stupidity defense won't work, and the truth that they're a bunch of lying cheating swindling dickheads (do NOT click!) will hang them.

"Owner of said passport is hauled off to some secret room where all of their orifices are checked by an ex-prison guard with large hands."

And if this (Warning: NSA - Not Safe Anywhere) or any of these (also NSA - Not Safe Anywhere) was the passport photo, pity the poor guard ...

The revised scenario:

Passport is scanned
Reader goes casters up
Reader is power cycled
Passport is scanned again
Reader goes casters up
Guard looks at passport photo
Guard throws up, as do the next dozen who try to intervene, they all claim work-related traumatic stress disorder, go on permanent disability.

They warned in their SEC filings that a loss in this litigation would harm their ability to operate as a "going concern."

The judge ruled that

1. both the Microsoft and Sun licenses were covered by the APA (That's 16 million)
2. that SCO was supposed to pass on 100% of the revenues, and receive a fee back of 5%
3. that SCO has breeched its fudiciary duty to Novell

They were big talkers, but now they're just dickheads.

Get ready to see SCO trying to trade as SCO.bk

Don't be such a dickhead.

Why not come up with an argument against what I proposed in my original post (that in may cases users would best be supported by switching to other browsers)? Because you can't - even the market (via market share figures of IE vs other browsers) is saying as much.

As for the "ABM" (Anybody But Microsoft) license, it makes sense for some projects; how many times has a project gotten flack because it runs poorly under Windows, but fine under the *nixes? This way, a dev can say "Sorry, we don't support Windows. Please read the license." rather than listen to foolish arguments about the "need" to support Windows, and the "need" to make things Microsoft-compatible. Microsoft needs to stop making itself incompatible with the "embrace - extend - extinguish" crap.

Any I'm attacking you personally. I think you are a dickhead.

"My thought exactly! I wonder what this algorithm would "fill the gap" with :P"

Wait a year for it to be sold ... then ... IMAGE ADS BY GOOGLE!

Probably a Pepsi logo ... (certainly a lot better than the pumpkin).

Besides, we're looking to replace the goat guy. Here are some submissions by others (you can submit your candidates as well - the poll will be done in September), and the first suggestion. No, they're not safe anywhere - not at work, not at home.

"My thought exactly! I wonder what this algorithm would "fill the gap" with :P"

Wait a year for it to be sold ... then ... IMAGE ADS BY GOOGLE!

Probably a Pepsi logo ... (certainly a lot better than the pumpkin).

Besides, we're looking to replace the goat guy. Here are some submissions by others (you can submit your candidates as well - the poll will be done in September), and the first suggestion. No, they're not safe anywhere - not at work, not at home.

"My thought exactly! I wonder what this algorithm would "fill the gap" with :P"

Wait a year for it to be sold ... then ... IMAGE ADS BY GOOGLE!

Probably a Pepsi logo ... (certainly a lot better than the pumpkin).

Besides, we're looking to replace the goat guy. Here are some submissions by others (you can submit your candidates as well - the poll will be done in September), and the first suggestion. No, they're not safe anywhere - not at work, not at home.

... after all, the swiss flag is the same, except that the colors are inverted. An "obvious attempt to hide a blatant ripoff of Swiss cultural heritage".

Johnson and Johnson are just being dickheads.

On a more serious note - they don't have a case. The International Red Cross created the symbol in 1863, and it was recognized by the First Geneva Convention in 1864

International treaty establishes the prior claim and trumps any later claim by J&J.

... So, you were wrong with your bullshit about the trades being executed on that Windows system, since you're trying to change the subject. You're just a dickhead. So, kid, now that everyone knows you're just some no-experience wannabe, rather than "15 years experience", what ya gonna do? Oh, right, nothing, since you can't even troll properly.

Get a job, get a life, then come back when you know what you're talking about.

http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/354702.html
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3

WoW... 2 dead links: Proud of you, that one, lol... I can't reach them, so, how can you show me this "proof" of yours, vs. this (and your OLD stale data, that's older than mine, here):

More bullshit - the links work fine.

And, if you had bothered to read the articles, you would have known that the upgrade was a 3-year program - 2005 to 2007. Not "old news", but a continuing program; and that the machines in question are Nasdaq's trading platform, have a much greater capacity than the Microsoft system you go on and on about, (which is a reporting system, not a trading platform) etc.

But you're just trying to troll, which we all already know. Your misunderstanding of the term "transaction" vis. databases makes it obvious that, contrary to your claim of "15 years experience", you never worked in this field.

So keep on, we're not impressed, you're just another dickhead shilling for Microsoft (and no, they won't front you a free laptop for this - you've got to do better than this lame attempt). Like Microsoft products, your trolling is third-rate.

Don't like it that those evil "open-sores" people are smarter than you? Awww, poor baby ... NOT! Both linux and BSD eat Windows for lunch. Of course you have no way of knowing that, since you don't know the difference between a transaction and an order, or a reporting system and a trading system.

Here's a question even an AC can sink their teeth into - why do people continue to extoll the "benefits" of Windows when, in hindsight, it was obviously a wrong turn in the road as far as computer systems are concerned? Do they feel "embiggened" by being able to click on stuff and occasionally getting it right? Or is it the psychological block from not being willing to admit that you've made a wrong choice, and that the time invested is a write-off (in other words, do Windows users labour under the "sunk costs" fallacy)?

If the goal is to incapacitate people by getting them to involuntarily close their eyes and want to puke, this works a lot better, its available today, and it doesn't need a huge development budget.

One guy came back from vacation and spent several minutes trying to change his wallpaper without actually looking at his monitor.

"he manager doesn't have the authority to detain her, investigate the quantity of movie she has recorded, etc;"

Any reasonable human being would have just asked, heard the explanation, explained the law, and asked her if she would cooperate by deleting the clip. If so, then let her back in the movie ... and she'd then go and tell all her friends that, while they could have been assholes, they ewren't so bad about it.

Instead, they come off as total jerks who are more interested in playing gestapo film nazis than in resolving the issue in a way that serves everyone's best interest (including the MPAA, btw).

They're still dickheads (NSA - Not Safe Anywhere) .

"The only problem is, that's not your decision to make. That's the content owner's decision. "

The theater wasn't the "content owner." And the theatre owner doesn't understand the concept of "de minimus" - the law doesn't deal in trifles. They're just being dickheads. A 20-second clip isn't a clear case of copyright infringement, since copyright allows for short exerpts to be used without the copyright owners' permission, for example, in reviews. Getting kicked out of the theatre should have been enough, but that's what you get for treating your customers like criminals (guess they've adopted the Microsoft CRM model).

Parent poster asketh:

Why is that so bad?

Look at what you quoted :

But he acknowledged that there was a "huge bubble" of patent assertions that needs to be scaled back. "The question with this bubble market, as with any bubble market, is 'Can we solve it without a crisis arising?'" he said

If the patent system has generated a "patent bubble", then it already IS f$cked up, same as the housing bubble, and the dot-com bubble before it.

Apple is just being a dickhead because they profit from the current b0rked system, same as real estate agents profited from the housing bubble to put people into homes they can't afford, and stock brokers got people to buy stocks that had no underlying real value.

First item on the agenda should be abolishing all software patents and all business method patents. Neither one is a "device" as understood by the original framers of patent law.

Who wants H.D. pr0n? Do you really want to see cellulite, open pores, wrinkles, etc. all in high-def? You'll end up wishing porn really did make you go blind. Hi-def makes it much harder to fulfill people's fantasies with real-life actors. Even the producers are complaining about it.

I demand a sample to assess the veracity of this claim.

This (NSA - Not Safe Anywhere) isn't even hi-def, and it will make you wish you were blind. Now imagine porn films where you can see the scars from the implants, the crows feet, the stretch marks, the acne scars, the pimples, the herpes sores, the needle tracks, the remnants of laser tattoo removal, the layers of makeup, the cellulite bubbles, the liposuction bumps, nose hairs, ear hairs, unibrows, the bad wigs and toupees, the jelly bellies, etc. Some things really are better left unseen.

It does not say "will intervene".

It says "may intervene".

What are the odds that "may" will turn into "will"?

In favor:
[X] RIAA has friends in congress.
[X] Lobbyists have a lot more "access" than the ordinary Joe or Jane Doe,
[X] Politicians know their RIAA reps can score them some good "juice" and will keep their mouths shut

Against:
[_] Politicians care about voters
[_] Politicians understand concepts like "fair use"
[_] Prosecuters are immune from political pressure.

Looks like 3-0 in favor of the RIAA from here ...

After all, do you really expect politicians' common sense will prevail in the face of free booze, sex, drugs, and power, if people are dick-headed enough to do this? (NOTE: NSA - Not Safe Anywhere)

"Vista is made for the Industry not the consumer. Consumer's are dairy cows to be milked for their money."

And businesses aren't? We all know the real reason Microsoft issued Vista in December was because otherwise they would have lost a lot of business customers with their "software assurance" program. They had to either issue a new OS before 2007/01/01 or face a revolt, because businesses were guaranteed between 3 and 6 years of OS updates for buying their plan. December 31st, with no new OS, would have made that "guarantee" even more worthless.

Microsoft is still in a position to abuse their customers, because most of those customers, both industry and retail, are too cowed to look at alternatives. Microsoft certainly isn't going to educate them.

"Software assurance" my *ss. But what do you expect from a bunch of ?

"only laser printers shed toner powder into the air."

... you forgot fax machines and photocopiers ...

Also, ink jet printers emit solvents - that's why they dry out, and also how they print. If the solvent in the ink didn't evaporate, your injet prints would stay wet, and smear.

Of course, even booze can be harmful to your health if you're a dickhead.

"e latter is a known health hazard on par with glass dust and asbestos. Just look at any IT health and safety handbook under "dealing with toner spillages". It is supposed to be collected using specialised vacuum cleaners, you have to have the floor tiles replaced and so on. Unfortunately very few people follow these procedures."

Lovely - now some "terr'rist dickhead" will bring toner onto airplanes in 3 oz bottles, to give the TSA a reason to ban ALL containers! Scary stuff.

Seriously, if you've ever spilled even a bit of toner, that stuff is almost impossible to clean up.

"I've worked on officer copiers,printers, fax machines since 1981. I've probably breathed in more toner & dust than any of you EVER will. I don't have ANY health problems what so ever! Until 3 years ago, I had BAD hay fever, but the dust & toner NEVER affected me, other than the occasional sneeze, blow your nose and your handkerchief comes out a little black. You need to read the material safety data sheets on toner. IT IS NOT hazardous, unless you snort the damn stuff. More nanny state BS..."

Different people are affected differently. Its like drinking - some people can handle their booze, some can;t. Don't be such a dickhead.

[tt] "

Only a real dickhead would install Vista at work ... but what Microsoft wants, Microsoft gets.

I hope I never go back to an IDE, unless its something along the lines of Borland's text-mode BC++/Turbo C version. It never "got in my way." My current "IDE" is a half-dozen shells opened at different parts of my source and release tree so I can run vi to dash of a quick 2-liner shell script or perl script, run ctags or mc; several copies of kate with different session hsitories, on different monitors; firefox for quick web searches (and to pop in on /.); and kopete so that everyone in the office can communicate. An IDE? My desktops ARE my IDE.

The only tools you REALLY need:

1. Multiple shells open, each with its own command history, so you can jump back and forth;
2. Text editor of choice that does syntax hilighting and code folding (vi, kate);
3. make;
4. some perl script fu, and some bash scrpt fu, and some python snake oil (great for automated testing);
5. mc (F2, 3 is handy for making quick tarballs);
6. a net connection so you can look up stuff fast;
7. IMPORTANT: a shelf full of O'Reilly books - do NOT skimp;
8. 2 or more monitors - this is an almost absolute necessity for serious coding;
9. a project wiki to keep track of things, etc.,
10. fgrep -n, ctags, doxys for a first peak at other people's code