Slashdot Mirror

Some people have superior internal strategies--I'm one of those people; I always did great without structure because my brain internally dissects everything. Of particular note, I don't deal well with inconsistent data: when I have new knowledge, I compare it to all other knowledge I possess, and resolve any inconsistencies. This has lead to reasoning out information I haven't yet been given, or identifying when someone gave me a simplification of a concept which is just plain incorrect. The effect is so striking that, on a few occasions, I've been able to reason out things people don't want anyone knowing simply by spending too much time around them--even things their actions and words don't obviously imply, just based on models of consistency ("a person developing this particular set of behaviors most commonly has experienced..."). It's reflexive for me.

I still don't come anywhere near a number of great people (many of whom are assholes, somehow; please explain how such infantile people as Brad Spengler, Ulrich Drepper, and Theo da Raadt manage to wield great mental abilities while being such narrow-minded children); and I've steadily found my two biggest flaws to be motivational (I spend almost zero time studying anything; my self-activation is shitty, and my response-inhibition is unrivaled by all except firewalkers) and structural (applying enhanced study techniques gives a *huge* return over my baseline intelligence).

There is a commonality here. The manner in which I think is an extreme form of reflection. Students who practice reflection in a non-extreme way universally learn much faster and better than students who try to cram material bluntly into their tiny little skulls. I've observed the same of memory: instead of mnemonics systems (which would let me memorize facts and figures rapidly), I use basic association, storage, and visualization strategies, which lets me sort and access my memories in a less-efficient but still highly-effective manner, and works *extremely* well for people who think they simply have bad memories. The techniques of basic arithmetic taught in Japanese schools produce students who are unrecognizable as individuals of normal intellect to the rest of the world.

All of these things are some manner of structure. Reflection is a structured activity: it is a task you perform during and after learning new information. Mnemonic systems are highly-structured; and basic mnemonic behaviors including association and visualization are more structured than simply letting information hit you and hoping it sticks, even if the only step is "stop and think about that for 4 seconds". Basic arithmetic operations are a highly-structured task when using a soroban, and those tasks translate to highly-structured mental operations which produce human calculators.

It's true that applying structure takes additional energy--as I pointed out: learning to establish and modify schedules requires energy, and carrying out this activity after you've become practiced in it takes less energy. The point is not to "do fine"; the point is to *maximize*, to produce the absolute best strategy. Such strategies are complex and state-based, which is why they're called "strategies" and not "algorithms".

I had relatives who I know to be absolutely trustworthy who liberated one of the death camps AND I knew some of the Apollo astronauts AND I am an engineer in the Aerospace field. I am absolutely certain that the NAZIs massacred millions of Jews in death camps. I am absolutely certain the moon landings happened and the 300,000+ Americans working on that program were not in on some grand hoax.

The Holocaust was one of the the most well-documented events in human history, and it absolutely did happen. I had relatives who died in the death camps and one or two who made it out. Yes, they did have ID numbers tattooed on their arms, put there by the Nazis (the deniers will probably say my relatives tattooed themselves just for kicks and sympathy).

The Moon landings involved far too many people to be a hoax. If it had been a hoax then then the Russians would almost certainly have figured it out since they sent unmanned craft to the Moon as well. Anyone who believes the Russians would have kept quiet about a hoax like this should go have a CAT scan immediately.

But never mind the Russians, anyone with a couple of thousand dollars in laser gear can go out into their backyard and hit one of the laser reflectors left on the Moon, and verify the returned signal themselves. That's pretty fucking convincing all by itself.

Finally, and this is the best part, the technology to fake the Moon landings didn't exist in 1969, as S G Collins explains in detail in this video.

Moon landing deniers, flat-Earthers, and holocaust deniers all like to think they're in on the "big secret" and that only they know "the REAL truth". In reality they're just a bunch of pathetic clowns who are so gullible that they're willing to suspend their disbelief in order to feel like they're part of the "in" crowd.

Allow me to push one of my favorite YouTube channels to you. :)

New Elements Named - Periodic Table of Videos :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Uhhh... I don't see your issue? Perhaps you could elucidate.

The bit after the comma may not be the direct opposite of the bit before - but common sense would say they are opposite. If you ignored politics, you'd generally expect that the ones that fear not enough is being done would generally be the ones that voted against it. If you ignore politics.

Your example is also slightly odd - given the common opinion that it can be too cold to snow.

After all it was an American, namely Al Gore, who invented the Internet.

I have it on good authority, that back then it was essential a series of tubes.

That is what we would call an ad homina attack

I recall this from 30 years ago (when in middle school):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

If it was culturally acceptable for males to wear heals once more, I can guarantee those numbers would be a lot more even.

They still wear them today while driving.

When GRiD Systems released their first laptop, the Compass 1101, in 1981 it had a built-in 1200 baud modem. It ran GRiD OS, a multi-tasking operating system. They also had the concept of an app store, where a user could purchase apps and the laptop would connect to a central server and download the apps. I'm sure their patents have expired.

Note: I worked at GRiD while in college.

Here is a good talk about the GRiD Compass by Jeff Hawkins, who later founded Palm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

First, you have to obtain a copy of GAY NIG.GERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it.

You can watch GAY NIG.GERS FROM OUTER SPACE on Youtube.

Second, you need to succeed in posting a G_N_A_A "first post" on slashdot.org , a popular "news for trolls" website

Third, you need to join the official G_N_A_A irc channel #G_N_A_A on EFNet, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #G_N_A_A, the official GAY NIG.GER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is EFNet, and you can connect to irc.secsup.org or irc.easynews.com as one of the EFNet servers.
If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the G_N_A_A Java IRC client by clicking here.

If you have mod points and would like to support G_N_A_A, please moderate this post up.

This post brought to you by Penisbird , a proud member of the G_N_A_A

G_____________________________________naann_______ ________G
N_____________________________nnnaa__nanaaa_______ ________A
A____________________aanana__nannaa_nna_an________ ________Y
A_____________annna_nnnnnan_aan_aa__na__aa________ ________*
G____________nnaana_nnn__nn_aa__nn__na_anaann_MERI CA______N
N___________ana__nn_an___an_aa_anaaannnanaa_______ ________I
A___________aa__ana_nn___nn_nnnnaa___ana__________ ________G
A__________nna__an__na___nn__nnn___SSOCIATION_of__ ________G
G__________ana_naa__an___nnn______________________ ________E
N__________ananan___nn___aan_IGGER________________ ________R
A__________nnna____naa____________________________ ________S
A________nnaa_____anan____________________________ ________*
G________anaannana________________________________ ________A
N________ananaannn_AY_____________________________ ________S
A________ana____nn_________IRC-EFNET-#G_N_A_A________ ________S
A_______nn_____na_________________________________ ________O
*_______aaaan_____________________________________ ________C
Gary Niger gary_niger@G_N_A_A.us G_N_A_A Corporate Headquarters 143 Rolloffle Avenue Tarzana, California 91356
Enid Al-Punjabi enid_al_punjabi@G_N_A_A.us G_N_A_A World Headquarters No.33 Kyutei Bld. 2F, Shinjuku 2-11-7, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan ????????2??11-6
Copyright (c) 2003-2015 Gay NIG.GER Association of America

Ich Bindawalross (London) - G_N_A_A (NYSE: G_N_A_A) Presiden

Well said, sir. But I respectfully point out that the key to your analysis is "if".
IF all the infrastructure for monitoring, enforcing, and monetizing data caps results in an angered, unsatisfied customer,
and IF that angered consumer has choice to go elsewhere where caps and their operating costs are absent (admittedly, in the U.S., that's a big "if"),
and IF the company finds itself abandoning this cost structure as being too unpopular with its customers,
THEN the marginal profit is never realized - instead you just have sunk costs in equipment and complexity, and billing staff to lay off.
But I suppose, the accountants can spin that into a win as a write-down. Not sure. Not a tax attorney.
Then again, IF the ambitious VP who came up with this scheme in the first place can keep the fiasco going long enough to get himself hired somewhere else at a higher salary before things go south for the company, then, well, mission accomplished.

I really, really, want to see more management and owners considering the points of view of their customers, and seeking first to provide the best product or service as a means to accomplishing the end of greater profit and market-share.
But unfortunately, another model can be successful as well. I call it "Fuck the customer, any which way you can." and it begins with the question, "can we corner the market?"
The local cupcake store probably cannot - they had better make consumer satisfaction their top priority.
But telecommunications, for example, BEGINS with arranging a contract with a local municipality for a de-facto monopoly, because of all that nonsense of telephone poles and rights-of-way and hundreds of miles of wires going through people's neighborhoods.
There's nothing preventing your local cable company from putting customer satisfaction as their top priority, even at the expense of some profit distributions to shareholders, but somewhere in some exclusive, expensive country club where they still permit smoking in the bar, some member of the board asks over his 12-year-old Scotch, "why bother?"
That is, IF the company has achieved the un-holy grail of market capture (kind of like achieving "air superiority" in war),
THEN, the Board has to ask itself a question: re-invest profits into customer satisfaction for customers who don't have any alternative anyway, OR take a bigger cut for themselves and re-invest the rest into protecting their market-lock position, say, with lobbyists, lawsuits, press campaigns, all of which might impress Wall Street to raise the value of the stock because stock analysts love companies who have achieved market capture.
Particularly IF the Board bows down to the Milton Friedman principle, THEN there will simply be no question to which course or action to take, and any dissenters will be politely asked to take their "Blowin' in the Wind" hippie let's-get-along wasteful leave-good-money-on-the-ground goody-goody-two-shoes asses elsewhere. This ain't no charity we're running here. This is Business, only (grizzled, one-track, money-worshipping crush-your-enemies dead-on-the-inside greed-is-good kneel-before-the-glory-of-Ayn-Rand) grown-ups allowed.
Not that I'm getting all long-winded here. And there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with making money, particularly in return for providing excellent goods and services for your customers. A little "marginal profit"? Why not? We all gotta eat, feed the kids, take some time off so we don't go insane.
But there is a mechanism available in our "free market" that permits shit to happen. And it starts where there's an opportunity to either work without competition, or else where the competition can be made to disappear. Then your customers become your captives. And then, you can fuck them. Because they're captives

Slander is spoken, libel is written https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

That's assuming Trump doesn't provoke North Korea into nuclear war. As a citizen of Earth, I implore all USA voters to recognise the dangers of a Trump presidency. Not all of us get a vote on this matter.

What the hell are you talking about? Trump doesn't give a crap about North Korea - Hillary is MUCH more likely to start wars than Trump, who is more interested in domestic issues, renegotiating trade agreements (we don't really trade with NK), and invigorating manufacturing and productivity of companies within the US. Hillary already started wars in Libya, Syria, and stirs up conflicts all over the globe.

If you're concerned about the next US president starting wars, you should be way more concerned about Hillary. Her foreign policy is practically identical to the neocons. Yes, the warmongering neocons. Who hate Trump, because he has already stated he thinks the US has too many military bases abroad.

Perhaps we could persuade them to help with some Monty Python:

I Like Chinese - Monty Python

I wish I had mod points to mod you up. Much more accurate then parent. Rust is alive and well. Check this out this app written in Rust: https://ethcore.io/parity.html and I can't wait for Servo, it's going to leapfrog all the other browsers in performance and reliability and security. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

False. His actual contention seems to be that this particular judge might treat him unfairly because of his own ethnicity. That's not a judgement on ethnic Mexicans, it's a judgement on one person.

Nooooo

This looks pretty bendable to me.

A residential street...is almost always 25 miles per hour or even less. Not many peopple who are trying to avoid traffic eve drive that speed.

This is why they need to put back in the roadside trees, the ones they remove with great enthusiasm because motorists keep hitting them. Roadside trees give motorists a greater sense of speed so they will drive more slowly.

These neighborhoods only need to convince their local traffic "engineers" (I use this word in the most optimistic sense possible) that a few airbag-equipped cars hitting trees is a much better outcome than neighborhood children getting mowed down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Play some banjo music, and start shootin' at their their tires.

The following original work is provided with apologizes to Billy Joel:

He's absorbed with himself, you can see in his eyes
He can spoil his party with demagogue lies
And he won't show you tax forms you thought you would see
He calls-names like a child but he's always The Donald to me

He can tweet you in hate, he can bromance and leave you
With a waive of his miniscule hand he can peeve you
And if you throw a punch he will counter with three
Yeah he lies like a rug but he's always The Donald to me

Oh, he just cares for himself, he might win the big race
He's forever unkind
Oh, he never gives out and he never gives in
He just changes his mind

And he'll build a great wall to the south of our Eden
Then he'll send back brown parents whose children still need 'em
So he panders and brings out the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself if you voted him POTUS-to-be

Oh, he just cares for himself, we might have him as Prez
Yet to tyrants he's kind
Oh, he never gives out and he never gives in
He just changes his mind

Not only that, you'll be able to keep warm on cold winter nights by using Steam Heat.

Things that make you go hmmmm.

something similar from that era

pets.com and their sock

Some of us are old enough to have grown up w/o AC.

But we were happy in those days...

"you're fucking a white male!!!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

For some reason, this whole fiasco reminds me of this scene from Office Space.

With the part of the printer played by Mr. Zavodnik?

At least they aren't piping in ads into our dreams... ...Yet.

Which reminds me, does anybody know which Android app(s) now pipes ads onto my phone? And, in particular, which pipe in videos with sound, that just start up at random times and start blaring?

For some reason, this whole fiasco reminds me of this scene from Office Space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

"I'm activating your killswitch."

Anyone who has worked with products from prototype through commercial production knows that purpose built tooling will always produce better throughput at lower unit cost given a sufficient level of demand.

That last part is the issue. Take automotive manufacturing for example. The BMW i3 is made out of expensive materials. The BOM cost for an i3 is a lot higher than most other vehicles. But in terms of vehicles with such a small production run, the cost per vehicle for the program is very low. Why? Because they have come up with such a highly automated production system. TL;DW: (The same production line could make a different vehicle with extremely limited re-tooling, and using composites means that there's no expensive dies.)

Who the hell wants to buy a product that can become abandoned by the manufacturer the instant something potentially better comes along?

There's a whole market of those people. On one hand, we call them early adopters. On the other hand, we call them the wealthy. Take supercars for example. They are basically rolling nightmares as far as maintenance is concerned, or at least they were until VW/Audi got involved in producing them and forced everyone else to up their game substantially... which seems ironic as VAG autos are not known for being highly maintainable, and which essentially proves just how dire the situation was previously. Lamborghini wiring used to look like something made by a hobbyist in a shed, that's shockingly hilarious. Yuk yuk.

Unless something is done to reverse trends in economics, the wealthy will continue to concentrate wealth to themselves and people will be finding ways to convince them to part with it. One trend has been for the ongoing creation of more super-luxury items, and (again returning to the automotive examples) there have been a handful of new super/hypercar manufacturers springing up to sell them ultra-expensive automobiles with bespoke interior. Loopholes permit these ultra-luxury vehicles to be sold without crash testing; forget about Lamborghinis, or even the R8, the A8 isn't even crash tested! So, there's an example in production of goods where people will want them to be made by variable tooling.

However, the place I really see spider robot welders being useful is not in building cars, but in building buildings. Eliminating the need for humans to clamber about a structure under construction has obvious advantages.

Anyone who has worked with products from prototype through commercial production knows that purpose built tooling will always produce better throughput at lower unit cost given a sufficient level of demand.

That last part is the issue. Take automotive manufacturing for example. The BMW i3 is made out of expensive materials. The BOM cost for an i3 is a lot higher than most other vehicles. But in terms of vehicles with such a small production run, the cost per vehicle for the program is very low. Why? Because they have come up with such a highly automated production system. TL;DW: (The same production line could make a different vehicle with extremely limited re-tooling, and using composites means that there's no expensive dies.)

Who the hell wants to buy a product that can become abandoned by the manufacturer the instant something potentially better comes along?

There's a whole market of those people. On one hand, we call them early adopters. On the other hand, we call them the wealthy. Take supercars for example. They are basically rolling nightmares as far as maintenance is concerned, or at least they were until VW/Audi got involved in producing them and forced everyone else to up their game substantially... which seems ironic as VAG autos are not known for being highly maintainable, and which essentially proves just how dire the situation was previously. Lamborghini wiring used to look like something made by a hobbyist in a shed, that's shockingly hilarious. Yuk yuk.

Unless something is done to reverse trends in economics, the wealthy will continue to concentrate wealth to themselves and people will be finding ways to convince them to part with it. One trend has been for the ongoing creation of more super-luxury items, and (again returning to the automotive examples) there have been a handful of new super/hypercar manufacturers springing up to sell them ultra-expensive automobiles with bespoke interior. Loopholes permit these ultra-luxury vehicles to be sold without crash testing; forget about Lamborghinis, or even the R8, the A8 isn't even crash tested! So, there's an example in production of goods where people will want them to be made by variable tooling.

However, the place I really see spider robot welders being useful is not in building cars, but in building buildings. Eliminating the need for humans to clamber about a structure under construction has obvious advantages.

Autonomous, goal-seeking, inter-communicating spider-robots??

I think this is the only appropriate sentiment now: Game over, man, game over!

As in "Da Da Da," by Trio?

Zuckerberg knows how much Facebook cares for its products, so it's not as if he's going to invest too much time in his account, is he?

On the Information Superhighway, there are passengers and there are drivers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

makes me laugh every time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Zombies coming from their grave? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

At least they aren't piping in ads into our dreams...


...Yet.

Let me know when a Chromebook can actually run software. No, browsing the web, sending mail or writing a letter doesn't count.

This fall.

Thanks for the laugh. Here's the clip from Dr. Strangelove https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

and we are much much worse drivers

You just need to spend more time in transport of the four-wheeled variety rather than the two-wheeled variety ;) Seriously, is there any other country in the world, with the possible exception of the Netherlands, as bicycle-obsessed as Denmark?

Out of curiosity, what do Danes generally think of Icelanders? Here the views of Danes are mixed. Most views are positive, sometimes very positive with a certain population, but you also find some people who really dislike Danes due to the country having been treated like a colony for so long and a view that many Danes still are of the same mindset (for example, those who come to Iceland and insist on speaking Danish). Former Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr's standup routine about Denmark is a more extreme case of that perspective, but it's not rare to see a lower-key version of it. But, most Icelanders aren't like that, I wouldn't say... as you may notice, you usually get lots of votes from Iceland in Eurovision, even though we rarely get as many back ;) And lots of of Icelanders go to Denmark for school or whatnot, or just for several weeks to get wasted and go to parties (among the latter group, I find that they often come back injured for one reason or another ;) )

I have a Lenovo laptop with Windows 7 Professional on it. Sometime in the last nine months, Windows has forgotten how to talk with much of the hardware in the laptop. This includes the finger reader and all networking devices. I called both Microsoft and Lenovo, and both refused to help.

Do you have "extended support" for your Windows 7? You probably don't hence the reason why Lenovo and Microsoft refused to help. Check here to get more information.

Like it or not if you want support for Microsoft Windows you either get extended support or move to Windows 10. If you do want Windows 10 then get the ISO from here rather than upgrade although make sure you do backup your important data. It is very easy to install although before you do I do suggest looking at the following video . The presenter was a Microsoft employee for 15 years and is not against Windows 10 but what he does not like is how Microsoft Windows 10 phones home by default, he then goes on and explains how to tighten your privacy.

If you have a powerful PC you can easily install Windows 10 in a virtual machine and the ISO is great for doing this. I actually have Fedora 23 on my Desktop (latest Skylake core i7 with 16GB DDR4 memory) and used my six and a half-year-old laptop's (has Fedora 23 on it) Windows 7 product key. I also used KVM as my virtual machine which surprisingly is actually certified to install Microsoft Windows. You can use VirtualBox if you wish but I am not overly impressed with Oracle at the moment.

If you have watched the video and you can even search for "windows 10 privacy concerns" in your preferred search engine (Google gets 1.8 million hits) you will know that Windows 10 phones home by default. You can turn off many of the so-called privacy features but you will either have to fiddle with the registry (Oh joy!) or get some third party (if you trust them) software to lock down Win10 but it has been known for a Microsoft update to turn some features back on again (for our own good of course :-)) so you need to be vigilant.

Basically, if you don't like Windows 10 then you better get to like it because soon it will be the only game in town (Windows 8.1 mainstream support expires 8th Jan 2018) or switch to an alternative OS such as one of the many Linux distributions, BSD or even a Mac if you have the money. If you have a work PC then the problem is not your problem.

Note wherever sufficient area for a safe turnout exists, which for a bicycle is almost anywhere.

Not right here, but yes, almost anywhere else.

It's unfortunate that the road wasn't designed well for everyone who might want to use it. Planners in the USA are laughably bad at their profession.

In ~2nd grade my brother exposed me to programming with doing simple character animations in TI 99/4A BASIC.

I actually just two weeks ago recreated that experience for the first time in 21 years and posted it to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The current cottage industry in philosophy departments of speculation about our living in a simulation stems from a conversation I had with Hans Moravec at the Artificial Life conference in 1987. (I was invited because I knew the organizer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... when he was a volunteer at the L5 Society.) Hans was rapping about the ever falling cost of computation and waving around a two inch thick paper draft of “Mind Children.” On the spur of the moment, I stopped him and said, “Hans, do you realize how unlikely it is that this is the first time we have had this conversation?” Hans gave me this really blank look, rare on one of the brightest people I have known. I explained that, given the ever falling cost of computation, we would eventually simulate history, including this conversation. And like Civil War reenactments and SCA, we would do it many times, making the chances of this being the first time virtually zero. Hans went away sandbagged. He later wrote “Pigs in Cyberspace,” references here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

We also discussed the conversation and the topic on the Extropian mailing list in the early 1990s.

Thinking back, I must have had in the back of my mind a book, Simulacron-3, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... that I read many years before.

Elon Musk doesn’t take this speculation seriously because he consistently works hard to make our world a more interesting place. You can’t take a chance that this is not the base reality.

On the other hand, perhaps making the world more interesting is a way to keep the simulation sysops from turning it off. :-)

Keith
PS Speaking of making things more interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Shorter version that was shown at the White House recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The current cottage industry in philosophy departments of speculation about our living in a simulation stems from a conversation I had with Hans Moravec at the Artificial Life conference in 1987. (I was invited because I knew the organizer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... when he was a volunteer at the L5 Society.) Hans was rapping about the ever falling cost of computation and waving around a two inch thick paper draft of “Mind Children.” On the spur of the moment, I stopped him and said, “Hans, do you realize how unlikely it is that this is the first time we have had this conversation?” Hans gave me this really blank look, rare on one of the brightest people I have known. I explained that, given the ever falling cost of computation, we would eventually simulate history, including this conversation. And like Civil War reenactments and SCA, we would do it many times, making the chances of this being the first time virtually zero. Hans went away sandbagged. He later wrote “Pigs in Cyberspace,” references here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

We also discussed the conversation and the topic on the Extropian mailing list in the early 1990s.

Thinking back, I must have had in the back of my mind a book, Simulacron-3, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... that I read many years before.

Elon Musk doesn’t take this speculation seriously because he consistently works hard to make our world a more interesting place. You can’t take a chance that this is not the base reality.

On the other hand, perhaps making the world more interesting is a way to keep the simulation sysops from turning it off. :-)

Keith
PS Speaking of making things more interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Shorter version that was shown at the White House recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...