"From the Russian's standpoint, they've given communism and capitalism a go, and neither has made them better off."
They haven't done either one!
Their "communism" was never more than a very bad form of Socialism, and their "experiment" with "capitalism" was nothing more than the same thugs making their profits in different ways. In other words, it wasn't "capitalism" at all, but a form of "crony-capitalism" the likes of which even we haven't seen.
No, they did not do those things, and no, they do not know what is good for them. They've been lied to for generations.
But "The People" there can probably see that true Capitalism and a real Republican (not in the party sense) government probably would do them some good. But it has to be real, not lies.
Here in the United States, in the meantime, people have been letting it slide from real, to lies.
Yes, it most certainly does. I wondered at first why they would take a good application and dumb it down. But after giving it some thought, I saw what they were doing.
I've been anticipating the day when they'd do this, for close to 2 years now.
By the way: I still use a pre-acquisition version of TweetDeck, as do many other people I know. I tried the Twitter version and went right back to the old one.
"That's not going to work. Web scrapers break when you make the slightest changes to the way the web page is delivered."
The way it's delivered doesn't change. You mean content. But a properly-designed scraper is not that fragile anyway. And if something does break, it notifies the developer, and it's fixed in a few minutes.
"What other natural phenomenon can I patent? The shape of a quartz crystal perhaps?"
That's what makes this ruling so bizarre -- and likely to be overturned. The Supreme Court has ALREADY ruled that you can't patent "elements of nature".
Unless your "multiple forms of surveillance" (by which I take it that you mean "multiple methods of observation", since "survellance STILL requires a warrant) together add up to probable cause, they CANNOT justify further surveillance. Which, as I have already stated, requires a judicial warrant.
"Wrong. Multiple forms of surveillance can be combined to determine whether something is contraband. If a helicopter pilot observes a truck at the border being loaded with people, would it be unreasonable to track any cellphone transmission coming from that truck?"
That's an irrelevant, straw-man argument.
In your example, they already have probable cause (seeing people packing into a truck certainly would be that), which makes the argument moot!
But it's pretty clear the judge intended his ruling to be outside the purview of probable cause... otherwise there would have been exactly zero point in making it, because they can already get a warrant or subpoena to perform surveillance if they have probable cause.
So yes, his ruling and your argument are both specious. You didn't think it through.
"Also, 'if a tool used to transport contraband gives off a signal that can be tracked for location, certainly the police can track the signal.'"
This ruling pre-supposes that contraband is being transported. In fact there is no way to know that for sure until AFTER an arrest. So this is a completely specious argument.
It would be like him ruling that police can look in the trunk of your car anytime they want, because you "might be" transporting drugs or something. It's a completely bogus argument.
"There aren't many natural reasons why an animal would want to run for 26 miles straight without even stopping to take a break. "
Not only that, but food and water. A man can carry enough food and water on his back to last a couple of days. On the other hand, a ruminant like a deer, for example, has to spend a lot more of its time eating to survive. Chase one for a day or two, not giving it a chance to eat or drink, and it has to collapse from exhaustion. Whereas the man only need spend a few minutes each day doing each.
"As you mention persistence hunting is not really an efficient way of hunting, given most humans don't live solo. And even solo, we should normally be able to outsmart most stuff, and use tools (spear etc)."
I think you misunderstood me. It is an efficient method of hunting, in that it frequently brings back enough meat to feed a number of people for several days, while it typically expends only the energy of one man for a day or two. It was the primary form of game hunting for primitive man, and is still used in many places. If it didn't work well, people wouldn't have done it.
"If you shoot an entire wedding, you still prune and throw away three or four for every one you keep even if you're considering your shots."
Yes, but that's beside the point. The customer will never see those, and you would never consider them as something you wanted to be archived anyway. So it's a reasonable assumption that those have ALREADY been "pruned", and it has no effect on the basic point.
"The human body just was not meant to sit upright and tense, arms outward, for long periods of time. Any furniture that's labeled "ergonomic" but isn't adjustable is putting you on."
If your arms are "outward", you're not doing it right anyway.
You are lucky it was only a temporary circulation problem. The most common result is nerve damage. I talked to my doctor about similar situations I was having. This is actually pretty relevant to the discussion. So here goes:
I was at the doctor's office to talk about something else, and I mentioned that while sitting at my desk, sometimes I would get tingling in my hands like when your leg "goes to sleep" from lack of circulation. And that it had gotten bad enough that sometimes it even occurred when I was sleeping.
He told me no, that was not the problem. He said he understood that it FELT like a circulation issue, but it was almost certainly a pinching or irritation of a nerve.
I was skeptical. I told him that when I put my arms down at my sides, the blood flowed in and the issue went away. But he was insistent. He said "I know, it FEELS like circulation. I know. But I'm telling you that your feeling is wrong. When you do that, you straighten out the nerves, the irritation goes away, and so does the feeling. Believe me, I've done research about this. The chance that it is actually a circulation problem is about maybe 1 in 10,000."
He went on to explain that my typing position, etc. (he had me describe them) was typical of the kind of dysfunctional ergonomics which cause repetitive motion disorders, nearly all of which are caused by abnormal pressure or irritation of nerves. (I should add that the guy is not a Chiropractor or some other "quasi-doctor", he is a long-established MD in a reputable medical clinic. I could be more specific about his credentials but people would think I'm exaggerating.)
Anyway, I took his advice, and improved my work environment to be more ergonomically-friendly. (In particular: proper height for the keyboard.)
I know have a properly-set-up office, and all those problems went away. Almost magically. (The very last of them went away when I switched from a mouse to Apple's "Magic Trackpad". It's a great thing.)
Things like you describe, though, can be caused even in an "ergononic" workplace, if you have bad habits. For example, some people will lean their weight on their wrists (or the very bottom part of their palms, with their hands angled up) for long periods of time. Not good.
All of the above. There are a number of causes for varicose veins. I know someone who has varicose veins, even though he is in decent physical shape. He had a heart attack as a young man, and has been taking coumadin (anti-coagulant and blood thinner) for over 30 years. The thinner blood does not allow the valves in the vessels to work properly, so blood pools in the legs.
"A horse on the other hand, can race at an average speed of 25 km/h, and do this for 6 hours. And that is carrying a person."
Yes, GP was mostly correct, but not about horses. Humans can outlast most critters but horses were born to run.
Persistence hunting is usually done by an individual. The typical hunter (we know because they still do it in places) simply tracks and chases an animal -- sometimes running and sometimes slowly, but in any case persistently -- until it collapses from exhaustion. I saw a documentary in which a film crew followed a tribesman while he did this. I don't remember what kind of animal it was, but it was medium-large. It took 2 days. And another day, give or take, to carry the kill back home (less than the outward journey because it didn't go in a straight line).
Trying to do it with 2 or more people would be a waste of resources. They should be out, out-persisting their own game.
Considering the above comments, I should clarify my own: I stated that your forearms should point down "a little bit". And I meant "a little bit". Only very slightly. Parallel to very slightly down is okay; up is not.
But I wanted to add that since I set up my own home office using proper ergonomic practices, my wrist problems have entirely gone away, as well as my backache. My wrists bothered me for years... all caused by typing on a desk that was too high. And my back was often sore... from having a monitor that was too low.
You have about the right height for keyboard, give or take. That is the most important thing. 30" is for a business desk that was designed for writing. If you are mainly doing computer work, the desk height itself is not important at all... the FIRST thing to consider is keyboard (+ mouse ) height, which should be considerably lower than a "standard" desk. Trying to type for long periods of time on a "standard" desk (too high) is one of the most common causes of Repetitive Motion disorders of the arm, hand, and wrist. And I can add personal experience to that one.
(Before I go further, here are actual ANSI standards for office ergonomics, if you want the official recommended heights.)
But for a typical office, let's assume you either have a standard desk with a keyboard tray, or a desk at keyboard height. Then what?
The NEXT thing is the height of your chair. Keyboard may be at standard height, but you may not be. The chair should be adjusted so the KEYBOARD is at the right height for you. Forget everything else for the moment and make that adjustment next. (Do not adjust the chair so your feet are flat on the ground! Forget your feet for the moment. Adjust it to the KEYBOARD.)
Your arms should rest naturally at your sides (if you have adjustable arm rests set them so your bent elbows are just touching the arm rests). The surface the keyboard is resting on should actually be slightly BELOW the height of your elbows. Your forearms should actually point DOWN just a little. (Yes, that is correct.)
Once the keyboard and chair height are in alignment FOR YOU, the next thing (aside from other adjustments to your chair... those are up to you) is the height of your monitors. The tops of the VISIBLE part of your monitor should be level with your eyes or slightly below. It can even be slightly above that, but should be no lower. Having a monitor that is too low causes neck and back problems. If you are using a laptop in the office, put it on a stand to bring its monitor up to that level, and use external keyboard and mouse! It's great that laptops are portable, but actually using a laptop in your lap while sitting in a chair is about the worst ergonomic situation you could create.
Now you should have keyboard, chair, armrest and monitor height all set. The next thing is your feet. Your legs should not dangle from the chair. That puts pressure on muscles and nerves in the back of your legs, and causes awkward sitting positions. You should have an adequate footrest. Footrests that are adjustable in height and angle are available from most major office supply stores. But the important thing is to get everything else set up at the right height FIRST, then adjust your foot rest to match, not the other way around. Yes, it's important, but it's the LAST thing you should do.
And I will throw in one more thing: if you are expected to sit in an office all day, and the company expects you to sit in a cheap BS chair, turn them in to the authorities. Retailers like Office Depot have their chairs rated for how many hours they can be sat it (with appropriate breaks, of course). You might be appalled at the prices of chairs that are actually rated for 8 hours (of course they use this as a selling point). But you can often find the same higher-end chairs at places like Costco or Sam's, or at auction, for a better price.
(I am typing this from my home office, at a TYPING desk [the entire thing is 26" high], with laptop on a stand so that it and external monitor are at proper height, using external keyboard and mouse, a damned good chair, and a footrest.)
" It simply didn't work properly, giving me incorrect results on both sorts and selections. I was kind of surprised. Been a while since I used excel but I've been face deep in spreadsheets since visicalc on the apple ii, so I don't think it was me."
I think it was you. I've been using Open Office (and now Libre Office, since Oracle's acquisition) for around 10 years, and other than a few exotic formatting issues, I've been able to read in large and VERY complex spreadsheets from Excel and use them natively. I have never encountered the kind of problems you are describing.
"I run the bulk of my current business on Ubuntu, but keep a Windows box around for my one client that wants to use Word and some other Windows only software."
You should get your hands on some pre-made WineBottles, run those few programs in Ubuntu under Wine, and just ditch the Windows box. It's an added expense that you don't need at all.
"If the OP is unable to prune, for the reasons you note, then the costs of a reliable offsite backup service needs to be included in the cost of his or her services. "
That's not an unreasonable notion: charge for the storage services. But it would require customers to change their ways somewhat... a deviation from "traditional" pricing.
Still, it strikes me as a good compromise.
But today, I still would not put my business data online. It's still not ready for prime time.
I am aware of this, too. But you're really reaching here. A very tiny weight and volume of more RAM or more flash really would not make a significant difference... any more difference than molding that Morse code into the wheels.
Therefore, I conclude as I did at first: they didn't feel it was important.
At first glance, it still seems lame compared to your typical home machine... but I didn't claim that it WAS lame.
Slashdot Mirror
"From the Russian's standpoint, they've given communism and capitalism a go, and neither has made them better off."
They haven't done either one!
Their "communism" was never more than a very bad form of Socialism, and their "experiment" with "capitalism" was nothing more than the same thugs making their profits in different ways. In other words, it wasn't "capitalism" at all, but a form of "crony-capitalism" the likes of which even we haven't seen.
No, they did not do those things, and no, they do not know what is good for them. They've been lied to for generations.
But "The People" there can probably see that true Capitalism and a real Republican (not in the party sense) government probably would do them some good. But it has to be real, not lies.
Here in the United States, in the meantime, people have been letting it slide from real, to lies.
"We win the Cold War, and then let them rot because we were gloating dicks."
"Let them rot"??? What kind of revisionist history is this? They didn't WANT our help, and resisted almost rabidly any time some was offered.
I agree that the situation was sad, but let's not let our imaginations get away from us.
"Plus two weeks for the curator of the platform's monopoly application store to approve the fix."
Not in my experience. And I used to do these for a living. It's fixed in a few minutes.
Yes, it most certainly does. I wondered at first why they would take a good application and dumb it down. But after giving it some thought, I saw what they were doing.
I've been anticipating the day when they'd do this, for close to 2 years now.
By the way: I still use a pre-acquisition version of TweetDeck, as do many other people I know. I tried the Twitter version and went right back to the old one.
"That's not going to work. Web scrapers break when you make the slightest changes to the way the web page is delivered."
The way it's delivered doesn't change. You mean content. But a properly-designed scraper is not that fragile anyway. And if something does break, it notifies the developer, and it's fixed in a few minutes.
"Twitter is working to make their developer ecosystem not smaller but more selective."
(1) You can't make it "more selective" without making it smaller.
(2) It doesn't matter what they're working toward, because what they are going to get is abandonment of Twitter en masse.
"What other natural phenomenon can I patent? The shape of a quartz crystal perhaps?"
That's what makes this ruling so bizarre -- and likely to be overturned. The Supreme Court has ALREADY ruled that you can't patent "elements of nature".
I was going to say a similar thing myself, but not about "bias".
Apple could simply be doing it on the grounds that it is necessary testimony, and disallowing it denies them a fair trial.
But inappropriate can still = grounds for appeal.
To put it a different way:
Unless your "multiple forms of surveillance" (by which I take it that you mean "multiple methods of observation", since "survellance STILL requires a warrant) together add up to probable cause, they CANNOT justify further surveillance. Which, as I have already stated, requires a judicial warrant.
"Wrong. Multiple forms of surveillance can be combined to determine whether something is contraband. If a helicopter pilot observes a truck at the border being loaded with people, would it be unreasonable to track any cellphone transmission coming from that truck?"
That's an irrelevant, straw-man argument.
In your example, they already have probable cause (seeing people packing into a truck certainly would be that), which makes the argument moot!
But it's pretty clear the judge intended his ruling to be outside the purview of probable cause... otherwise there would have been exactly zero point in making it, because they can already get a warrant or subpoena to perform surveillance if they have probable cause.
So yes, his ruling and your argument are both specious. You didn't think it through.
"Also, 'if a tool used to transport contraband gives off a signal that can be tracked for location, certainly the police can track the signal.'"
This ruling pre-supposes that contraband is being transported. In fact there is no way to know that for sure until AFTER an arrest. So this is a completely specious argument.
It would be like him ruling that police can look in the trunk of your car anytime they want, because you "might be" transporting drugs or something. It's a completely bogus argument.
"There aren't many natural reasons why an animal would want to run for 26 miles straight without even stopping to take a break. "
Not only that, but food and water. A man can carry enough food and water on his back to last a couple of days. On the other hand, a ruminant like a deer, for example, has to spend a lot more of its time eating to survive. Chase one for a day or two, not giving it a chance to eat or drink, and it has to collapse from exhaustion. Whereas the man only need spend a few minutes each day doing each.
"As you mention persistence hunting is not really an efficient way of hunting, given most humans don't live solo. And even solo, we should normally be able to outsmart most stuff, and use tools (spear etc)."
I think you misunderstood me. It is an efficient method of hunting, in that it frequently brings back enough meat to feed a number of people for several days, while it typically expends only the energy of one man for a day or two. It was the primary form of game hunting for primitive man, and is still used in many places. If it didn't work well, people wouldn't have done it.
"If you shoot an entire wedding, you still prune and throw away three or four for every one you keep even if you're considering your shots."
Yes, but that's beside the point. The customer will never see those, and you would never consider them as something you wanted to be archived anyway. So it's a reasonable assumption that those have ALREADY been "pruned", and it has no effect on the basic point.
"The human body just was not meant to sit upright and tense, arms outward, for long periods of time. Any furniture that's labeled "ergonomic" but isn't adjustable is putting you on."
If your arms are "outward", you're not doing it right anyway.
You are lucky it was only a temporary circulation problem. The most common result is nerve damage. I talked to my doctor about similar situations I was having. This is actually pretty relevant to the discussion. So here goes:
I was at the doctor's office to talk about something else, and I mentioned that while sitting at my desk, sometimes I would get tingling in my hands like when your leg "goes to sleep" from lack of circulation. And that it had gotten bad enough that sometimes it even occurred when I was sleeping.
He told me no, that was not the problem. He said he understood that it FELT like a circulation issue, but it was almost certainly a pinching or irritation of a nerve.
I was skeptical. I told him that when I put my arms down at my sides, the blood flowed in and the issue went away. But he was insistent. He said "I know, it FEELS like circulation. I know. But I'm telling you that your feeling is wrong. When you do that, you straighten out the nerves, the irritation goes away, and so does the feeling. Believe me, I've done research about this. The chance that it is actually a circulation problem is about maybe 1 in 10,000."
He went on to explain that my typing position, etc. (he had me describe them) was typical of the kind of dysfunctional ergonomics which cause repetitive motion disorders, nearly all of which are caused by abnormal pressure or irritation of nerves. (I should add that the guy is not a Chiropractor or some other "quasi-doctor", he is a long-established MD in a reputable medical clinic. I could be more specific about his credentials but people would think I'm exaggerating.)
Anyway, I took his advice, and improved my work environment to be more ergonomically-friendly. (In particular: proper height for the keyboard.)
I know have a properly-set-up office, and all those problems went away. Almost magically. (The very last of them went away when I switched from a mouse to Apple's "Magic Trackpad". It's a great thing.)
Things like you describe, though, can be caused even in an "ergononic" workplace, if you have bad habits. For example, some people will lean their weight on their wrists (or the very bottom part of their palms, with their hands angled up) for long periods of time. Not good.
All of the above. There are a number of causes for varicose veins. I know someone who has varicose veins, even though he is in decent physical shape. He had a heart attack as a young man, and has been taking coumadin (anti-coagulant and blood thinner) for over 30 years. The thinner blood does not allow the valves in the vessels to work properly, so blood pools in the legs.
"A horse on the other hand, can race at an average speed of 25 km/h, and do this for 6 hours. And that is carrying a person."
Yes, GP was mostly correct, but not about horses. Humans can outlast most critters but horses were born to run.
Persistence hunting is usually done by an individual. The typical hunter (we know because they still do it in places) simply tracks and chases an animal -- sometimes running and sometimes slowly, but in any case persistently -- until it collapses from exhaustion. I saw a documentary in which a film crew followed a tribesman while he did this. I don't remember what kind of animal it was, but it was medium-large. It took 2 days. And another day, give or take, to carry the kill back home (less than the outward journey because it didn't go in a straight line).
Trying to do it with 2 or more people would be a waste of resources. They should be out, out-persisting their own game.
Considering the above comments, I should clarify my own: I stated that your forearms should point down "a little bit". And I meant "a little bit". Only very slightly. Parallel to very slightly down is okay; up is not.
But I wanted to add that since I set up my own home office using proper ergonomic practices, my wrist problems have entirely gone away, as well as my backache. My wrists bothered me for years... all caused by typing on a desk that was too high. And my back was often sore... from having a monitor that was too low.
You have about the right height for keyboard, give or take. That is the most important thing. 30" is for a business desk that was designed for writing. If you are mainly doing computer work, the desk height itself is not important at all... the FIRST thing to consider is keyboard (+ mouse ) height, which should be considerably lower than a "standard" desk. Trying to type for long periods of time on a "standard" desk (too high) is one of the most common causes of Repetitive Motion disorders of the arm, hand, and wrist. And I can add personal experience to that one.
(Before I go further, here are actual ANSI standards for office ergonomics, if you want the official recommended heights.)
But for a typical office, let's assume you either have a standard desk with a keyboard tray, or a desk at keyboard height. Then what?
The NEXT thing is the height of your chair. Keyboard may be at standard height, but you may not be. The chair should be adjusted so the KEYBOARD is at the right height for you. Forget everything else for the moment and make that adjustment next. (Do not adjust the chair so your feet are flat on the ground! Forget your feet for the moment. Adjust it to the KEYBOARD.)
Your arms should rest naturally at your sides (if you have adjustable arm rests set them so your bent elbows are just touching the arm rests). The surface the keyboard is resting on should actually be slightly BELOW the height of your elbows. Your forearms should actually point DOWN just a little. (Yes, that is correct.)
Once the keyboard and chair height are in alignment FOR YOU, the next thing (aside from other adjustments to your chair... those are up to you) is the height of your monitors. The tops of the VISIBLE part of your monitor should be level with your eyes or slightly below. It can even be slightly above that, but should be no lower. Having a monitor that is too low causes neck and back problems. If you are using a laptop in the office, put it on a stand to bring its monitor up to that level, and use external keyboard and mouse! It's great that laptops are portable, but actually using a laptop in your lap while sitting in a chair is about the worst ergonomic situation you could create.
Now you should have keyboard, chair, armrest and monitor height all set. The next thing is your feet. Your legs should not dangle from the chair. That puts pressure on muscles and nerves in the back of your legs, and causes awkward sitting positions. You should have an adequate footrest. Footrests that are adjustable in height and angle are available from most major office supply stores. But the important thing is to get everything else set up at the right height FIRST, then adjust your foot rest to match, not the other way around. Yes, it's important, but it's the LAST thing you should do.
And I will throw in one more thing: if you are expected to sit in an office all day, and the company expects you to sit in a cheap BS chair, turn them in to the authorities. Retailers like Office Depot have their chairs rated for how many hours they can be sat it (with appropriate breaks, of course). You might be appalled at the prices of chairs that are actually rated for 8 hours (of course they use this as a selling point). But you can often find the same higher-end chairs at places like Costco or Sam's, or at auction, for a better price.
(I am typing this from my home office, at a TYPING desk [the entire thing is 26" high], with laptop on a stand so that it and external monitor are at proper height, using external keyboard and mouse, a damned good chair, and a footrest.)
" It simply didn't work properly, giving me incorrect results on both sorts and selections. I was kind of surprised. Been a while since I used excel but I've been face deep in spreadsheets since visicalc on the apple ii, so I don't think it was me."
I think it was you. I've been using Open Office (and now Libre Office, since Oracle's acquisition) for around 10 years, and other than a few exotic formatting issues, I've been able to read in large and VERY complex spreadsheets from Excel and use them natively. I have never encountered the kind of problems you are describing.
"I run the bulk of my current business on Ubuntu, but keep a Windows box around for my one client that wants to use Word and some other Windows only software."
You should get your hands on some pre-made WineBottles, run those few programs in Ubuntu under Wine, and just ditch the Windows box. It's an added expense that you don't need at all.
"If the OP is unable to prune, for the reasons you note, then the costs of a reliable offsite backup service needs to be included in the cost of his or her services. "
That's not an unreasonable notion: charge for the storage services. But it would require customers to change their ways somewhat... a deviation from "traditional" pricing.
Still, it strikes me as a good compromise.
But today, I still would not put my business data online. It's still not ready for prime time.
"At some point, you have to stop."
I am aware of this, too. But you're really reaching here. A very tiny weight and volume of more RAM or more flash really would not make a significant difference... any more difference than molding that Morse code into the wheels.
Therefore, I conclude as I did at first: they didn't feel it was important.
At first glance, it still seems lame compared to your typical home machine... but I didn't claim that it WAS lame.