I never said that a laptop makes you smarter - various salesmen of my acquaintance give the lie to that assertion:P.
What cheap laptops and internet connectivity will do for developing countries is to give the already smart kids in those countries the opportunity to benefit from freely available educational resources - it is the access to information that I see as key to empowering people.
Yes - I do have a narrow perspective - it's called 'thinking in the long term'. From that perspective, enabling developing countries to compete in the services and information markets and thereby allow them to use the wealth generated to provide sustainable healthcare, improved education and infrastructure is a good thing - short term healthcare or food aid is very worthy, but has little or no long term benefit (and can conceivably have a net defecit - population increases leading to pressure on food, water and other resources for example).
Or, can you tell me the relevance of having access to the complete works of Wikipedia versus getting Polio vaccinations, or vitamin supplements?
Call me an idealist, but thinking in the longer term, having an educated population with the capability to compete on more level terms with the developed world is relevant.
Yes, there are immediate health problems in the developing world, and it would be nice to see them solved, but solving those problems in isolation does nothing to enable the people involved to generate wealth and improve their situation in the longer term.
Well, it's quite a good constitution, and at least they've got one, unlike us poor buggers who are used to having our rights trampled underfoot by a government that doesn't have to worry about a constitution and actively subverts Parliament.
I know you were having a go at the subservient attitude of successive British governments to the US, but that's more complying with US policy than a wish to impose the US constitution.
Brown and his Stalinist mates would shit themselves if the British people actually managed to get a constitution - most of the legislation of the last decade would be struck down, and the scumbags would be impeached without delay.
Why not just move the key? Would it seriously have cost more to put a switch at the back of the computer, or to change it from a key to some other form of button, than it did to do the "screw" hack?
Probably because either solution would have required some retooling of the equipment used to produce the keyboard, which ain't cheap, while getting the assembly line workers to insert an extra screw costs very little.
You're right, though - a shocking piece of design.
As a leftie, I wipe my arse with my right hand - it seems more logical to use the hand that does least for such a mundane task.
And as an Asperger's person married to another Asperger's person, with an autistic stepson and his Asperger's twin, there's a lot of it about in my family!
one might as well redefine any methodological system, like automotive repair or accountancy into the word.
Heathen!
We, the High Priests of Automotive Repair, hereby sentence you to be sanded down to bare metal, filled, smoothed and covered with pearlescent metallic Green, then baked unto the consistency of Paint.
Our Accounting Rabbis will be along presently to present you with the bill - note that the labour costs of our acolytes does not include VAT.
Being your own grandfather is just predestination, there's no paradox there.
There might be some slight genetic issues, though - the fact of sexual reproduction and mixing of chromosones would require your grandmother, father and mother to share the exact genes to produce you later on.
That's quite different from a Heaven where you're fluffily closeted with God, Jesus and lots of chubby cherubim and seraphim, though - the OT 'heavens' just refer to the skies and the stars (unless we take Enoch to be an OT text, where the idea of different realms is introduced).
It saves a lot of effort when arguing with the religious types - "transcendent entities are necessarily outside the realm of logic, so I'll not discuss your particular version of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, thankyou."
Assuming the existence of God makes difficult questions go away
Aside from his excessive reliance on teleological reasoning, this level of argument marks him out as one of the most intellectually lazy philosophers ever to have defended the indefensible.
The question of why the universe is ordered on a macroscopic scale is indeed interesting, but bringing God into the matter is unnecessary and childish.
No - it's not baseless and idle speculation, it's just good security practise not to knowingly use a method that has a documented insecurity.
Whether the NSA have the second set of numbers or not is immaterial - the fact that they might have them is sufficient to make this implementation insecure.
Now with OSS, we can change the set of numbers used to one of our own choosing, and use the algorithm with a reasonable expectation of security.
With Vista? Sorry, mate, but there's no way to change the numbers.
Hope that explains why people are concerned about this.
Our testicles, for example, hang from our undersides dangerously exposed, just because some protein denatures at core body temperatures.
As the posessor of an exceptionally fine pair of testicles, I prefer to assume that they are a secondary sexual characteristic, and in the time before clothes would have had selection value.
Females, in my long and varied experience, are generally impressed by a large and well descended sac, and see it as a sign of fecundity.
Have you ever seen a prize ram?
Damn, they're nearly scraping the ground - not ideal for mountain climbing, but for a tupping machine they're absolutely vital.
Slashdot Mirror
What cheap laptops and internet connectivity will do for developing countries is to give the already smart kids in those countries the opportunity to benefit from freely available educational resources - it is the access to information that I see as key to empowering people.
Yes - I do have a narrow perspective - it's called 'thinking in the long term'. From that perspective, enabling developing countries to compete in the services and information markets and thereby allow them to use the wealth generated to provide sustainable healthcare, improved education and infrastructure is a good thing - short term healthcare or food aid is very worthy, but has little or no long term benefit (and can conceivably have a net defecit - population increases leading to pressure on food, water and other resources for example).
Call me an idealist, but thinking in the longer term, having an educated population with the capability to compete on more level terms with the developed world is relevant.
Yes, there are immediate health problems in the developing world, and it would be nice to see them solved, but solving those problems in isolation does nothing to enable the people involved to generate wealth and improve their situation in the longer term.
PDP-11 in my case :P
Get off my lawn.
I know you were having a go at the subservient attitude of successive British governments to the US, but that's more complying with US policy than a wish to impose the US constitution.
Brown and his Stalinist mates would shit themselves if the British people actually managed to get a constitution - most of the legislation of the last decade would be struck down, and the scumbags would be impeached without delay.
Probably because either solution would have required some retooling of the equipment used to produce the keyboard, which ain't cheap, while getting the assembly line workers to insert an extra screw costs very little.
You're right, though - a shocking piece of design.
You mean those nice Christian Coalition folks are eels?
Always thought they were slippery fuckers...
Yeah, but they're rum buggers anyway, so it's OK :P
Oh, never mind :P
And as an Asperger's person married to another Asperger's person, with an autistic stepson and his Asperger's twin, there's a lot of it about in my family!
WTF?
Very Nietzschean, and all that, so what will replace algorithms?
A will to power? Twilight Idol computation? Beyond 0 and 1?
How can anything be computed at all if not by an algorithm?
I'd mod you +1 - Batshit insane if I had points, but I'll have to settle for asking you WTF you're on about :P
When they have to start testing ink for Hep C, HIV and the like, you'll see the price of ink rise even higher :P
Knob.
Heathen!
We, the High Priests of Automotive Repair, hereby sentence you to be sanded down to bare metal, filled, smoothed and covered with pearlescent metallic Green, then baked unto the consistency of Paint.
Our Accounting Rabbis will be along presently to present you with the bill - note that the labour costs of our acolytes does not include VAT.
:P
There might be some slight genetic issues, though - the fact of sexual reproduction and mixing of chromosones would require your grandmother, father and mother to share the exact genes to produce you later on.
Shalom :P
I think the Public and Abstract Gods might find issue with this Final god of yours :P
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent
It saves a lot of effort when arguing with the religious types - "transcendent entities are necessarily outside the realm of logic, so I'll not discuss your particular version of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, thankyou."
Just off to a dangerous liaison on the corner of an undiscovered place...
Assuming the existence of God makes difficult questions go away
Aside from his excessive reliance on teleological reasoning, this level of argument marks him out as one of the most intellectually lazy philosophers ever to have defended the indefensible.
The question of why the universe is ordered on a macroscopic scale is indeed interesting, but bringing God into the matter is unnecessary and childish.
Great for those pesky situations when you need the CEO's password in a hurry - 35 seconds should do it in most cases.
:P
Excellent neologism, and if you don't get +5 Insightful, the mods are asleep.
I'll take a data slowdown over that any day.
Nice, but definitely a summer drink.
Whether the NSA have the second set of numbers or not is immaterial - the fact that they might have them is sufficient to make this implementation insecure.
Now with OSS, we can change the set of numbers used to one of our own choosing, and use the algorithm with a reasonable expectation of security.
With Vista? Sorry, mate, but there's no way to change the numbers.
Hope that explains why people are concerned about this.
As the posessor of an exceptionally fine pair of testicles, I prefer to assume that they are a secondary sexual characteristic, and in the time before clothes would have had selection value.
Females, in my long and varied experience, are generally impressed by a large and well descended sac, and see it as a sign of fecundity.
Have you ever seen a prize ram?
Damn, they're nearly scraping the ground - not ideal for mountain climbing, but for a tupping machine they're absolutely vital.