I got my start programming in school in 4th grade, but my parents stood behind that when I showed a strong interest. They bought me a (and my sister, fat lot she used it) Sinclair 1000. Then a Commodore 16, then C64.
Oooh... You got the Commodore 16 before the C64? Ouch...
I went down the C128 route - damn was that ever a waste of time. If I wanted to use Commodore I should've just stuck with the C64, or else gone Amiga.:)
It wasn't until I started reading SF rather than just watching Star Trek that I realised how inertial dampeners would be useful. Of course being able to absorb an impact or two without turning the occupants to jelly would be nice but if you can lower the inertial mass of your spaceship can't you accelerate at ridiculous rates?
That was a key idea in "Lensman"... (And it's a pretty silly idea, though I enjoy how the books explore the exploitation of this idea)
Inertial dampeners don't imply that you're negating the mass of the passengers, however - just that you're translating external forces to make them also apply to the ship's contents. Whether this means some kind of accelerometer/tractor beam combo, or if you imagine some kind of pervasive force field acting to translate external forces smoothly and continuously onto everything inside the ship - the idea of an inertial dampener is beyond our technology, but it doesn't necessarily break conservation of mass.
"E-Reserves" in dangr? Must I now cut back on utilization of a particularly common glyph in Anglican writing? If too much unthoughtful inclusion of this glyph occurs, will total lack of futur supply occur? How can communication work with such a handicap? Can you and I sumday go back to normal utilization of this glyph without killing its supply?
Poor little Apple fanbois feel all sad and hurt if you point out that their demigod Steve is an uncultured pathetic little micromanaging dictatorial prick.
No, they don't get all hurt and sad if you do that - they just start making excuses on his behalf.:)
Modifications to the files should be applied to the files. Metadata should be stored in the files. To do either otherwise is asking for problems.
Unfortunately, since the file system treats files as mere streams of bytes, this is impossible in the general case, and inconvenient even in many specific cases. It should be possible to store arbitrary data about the files in the files, but that's not going to happen soon, or likely ever.
Don't all commonly-used image formats support extensible metadata in the file these days?
Of course, that raises the problem that you don't necessarily want to share this metadata when you share the photo. We've seen this problem already, photos tagged with GPS coordinates, word processing documents with editing history attached, and so on... This could be considered a UI issue (that is, UI should include an option to strip this metadata when you transmit a file) but at present I think it's a pretty good argument for not putting a bunch of extra info into an image file.
On a side note - I'm generally with you, that the filesystem should be more flexible and supportive in how it presents this kind of data. What bugs me a bit more, though, is that each file has to have a unique name. This isn't always convenient. If I have a great big pile of image files I took over the years, I generally don't care what filename they have - I care what the picture is, when it was taken, and so on. The problem can mostly be ignored - it's only really problematic when attempting to merge two directories of files (the naive approach would carry the risk of clobbering a file.)
I can do better than that! I'd like to present the transformers analogy - it's like a car analogy, but it changes into a robot analogy!
Let's say the GPL and MPEG LA are both kind of like jeeps - both are utilitarian enough to help you accomplish quite a lot, but they can be rather unwieldy, too. We could say that GPL is more like the old army jeep and its relatives - it gives you access to a lot of things but it comes with its own hindrances. But you have the opportunity to pick through what's out there, perhaps finding something useful and affordable, or at least salvageable. MPEG-LA is more like the XR311 or HMMWV - it gives you a lot more capability but with a correspondingly higher price.
Now, when they turn into robots - GPL is like a force for good. It's the result of a conscientious effort to change the world for the better. However, to accomplish its aims it has to use its leverage - some would say this is a sort of trickery, drawing people in to use GPL software and then snaring them with obligations. In robot terms this would be like projecting holograms to fool people into doing certain things.
MPEG-LA is, of course, much more profit-minded. Perhaps it's not really "evil" though some people might say it is - but it's generally serving its own ends. It's important to note that the MPEG-LA is really just one part of a larger system... To return to the robot analogy, it's as though the MPEG-LA were part of a team that could combine to form a bigger robot, with the MPEG-LA acting as an arm or a leg, while other intellectual property groups could form the other limbs and the torso. Together, they would form a massive digital media powerhouse.
He drafted the comment in MS Word, which spellchecked and autocorrected "linux" as "Windows". Nothing to see here, move along...
Really? I'd never noticed that before. Let me give it a try...
"Windows is a disgraceful hack of an operating system thrown together by a bunch of fools with no coherent design goals by piling on layers of new design on top of old, badly-designed infrastructure. No one should waste their time running Windows, ever!"
You know what really gets me? The people who turn their desktop machine sideways and call it a tower. It's like, look, dude, first, that's a mini-tower at best. Second, it's not really any kind of tower at all, 'cause all your drive bays are turned the wrong way. (Yes, I know even CD trays can operate in this orientation, but it's really not ideal...)
If the school had said windows there would be many comments like:
Windows is evil! Microsoft is evil! Windows is the source of all evil! Windows is making the kids dumber! The school will be virus/malware central! The school has been assimilated!
There are many others.
Yes, it really is terrible all the persecution Microsoft suffers on this site. No, really, I'm all broken up about it. I remember I started reading this site back in 1998 or so because I was really interested in fair coverage of Microsoft-related news... And it was great! But somewhere along the line, Slashdot picked up this terrible streak of anti-Microsoft zealotry. Where did we go WRONG, Slashdot? WHERE DID WE GO WRONG??
Oh, and you can say those same things about Apple if you like... I don't know if the prospect interests you at all, but, you know...
"Apple's not the most expensive vendor in the market. Their laptops are quite price competitive for the quality of the device and software."
What PC vendor(s) and model(s) do you compare Apple to?
Sony Vaio, maybe? XD
I don't think it's entirely untrue that you get what you pay for when it comes to premium hardware - but let's not forget that not everyone needs (or wants to pay for) premium hardware. How good a machine do you really need for writing papers and such?
Which month? February, June, or August? And whose cubit? By one cubit, Goliath was 9 ft tall; by another, a very reasonable 6ft 9 inches.
Seriously, use proper units. How many furlongs per fortnight?
furlongs per fortnight is old hat, IMO. I decided to leave it to someone else to do that one.
It's common practice to use a 30-day month when counting time in "months" without a specific frame of reference. (But, yeah, I know actual months aren't all the same length - so going beyond three significant digits was pretty silly... but that was half the fun of choosing "months" in the first place...)
As for the cubit - I'm using the Roman version.:)
How about atomic units? It always seemed to me that if there was a better basis for "standard" than metric, it would be atomic units...
the speed of light = 137.0359991059 Bohr Radii * Hartree Energy per Reduced Planck's Constant
I always thought that it would be NASA that would be the first to announce the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Now i'm thinking Japan may have that honor.
They have to go somewhere to find new markets for Pokemon merchandise...
AFAIK Centrifugal force was debunked. It was the "force" that pushes stuff out into a circle when you spin it around (like a rock tied to the end of a string).
I don't think it's right to say it was "debunked" - we've known how it works since Newton, at least...
The thing is, it's not really a "force" - it's therefore, arguably, a poor choice of terminology. But in a certain context (i.e. standing on the inside of the colony wall), it seems like a force - and to the extent that this frame of reference is useful, the concept of "centrifugal force" is useful as well.
Slashdot Mirror
I got my start programming in school in 4th grade, but my parents stood behind that when I showed a strong interest. They bought me a (and my sister, fat lot she used it) Sinclair 1000. Then a Commodore 16, then C64.
Oooh... You got the Commodore 16 before the C64? Ouch...
I went down the C128 route - damn was that ever a waste of time. If I wanted to use Commodore I should've just stuck with the C64, or else gone Amiga. :)
It wasn't until I started reading SF rather than just watching Star Trek that I realised how inertial dampeners would be useful. Of course being able to absorb an impact or two without turning the occupants to jelly would be nice but if you can lower the inertial mass of your spaceship can't you accelerate at ridiculous rates?
That was a key idea in "Lensman"... (And it's a pretty silly idea, though I enjoy how the books explore the exploitation of this idea)
Inertial dampeners don't imply that you're negating the mass of the passengers, however - just that you're translating external forces to make them also apply to the ship's contents. Whether this means some kind of accelerometer/tractor beam combo, or if you imagine some kind of pervasive force field acting to translate external forces smoothly and continuously onto everything inside the ship - the idea of an inertial dampener is beyond our technology, but it doesn't necessarily break conservation of mass.
"E-Reserves" in dangr? Must I now cut back on utilization of a particularly common glyph in Anglican writing? If too much unthoughtful inclusion of this glyph occurs, will total lack of futur supply occur? How can communication work with such a handicap? Can you and I sumday go back to normal utilization of this glyph without killing its supply?
But what he really meant was "When corporations that, like, do other kinds of stuff become publishers".
Or "When corporations make the shift from not being publishers to being publishers" - is that quite clear enough?
It has nothing to do with any notion of "liability". It's all about Job's desire to control the flow of information he finds objectionable, to bring you "freedom from porn."
You know, I read the story of Job in middle school and I can't say I remember this being a part of it...
Poor little Apple fanbois feel all sad and hurt if you point out that their demigod Steve is an uncultured pathetic little micromanaging dictatorial prick.
No, they don't get all hurt and sad if you do that - they just start making excuses on his behalf. :)
Towards the end you moved from Transformers into a Macron 1 analogy, but other then that - +1 Funny.
Hey, Transformers had its share of combining robots...
Unfortunately, since the file system treats files as mere streams of bytes, this is impossible in the general case, and inconvenient even in many specific cases. It should be possible to store arbitrary data about the files in the files, but that's not going to happen soon, or likely ever.
Don't all commonly-used image formats support extensible metadata in the file these days?
Of course, that raises the problem that you don't necessarily want to share this metadata when you share the photo. We've seen this problem already, photos tagged with GPS coordinates, word processing documents with editing history attached, and so on... This could be considered a UI issue (that is, UI should include an option to strip this metadata when you transmit a file) but at present I think it's a pretty good argument for not putting a bunch of extra info into an image file.
On a side note - I'm generally with you, that the filesystem should be more flexible and supportive in how it presents this kind of data. What bugs me a bit more, though, is that each file has to have a unique name. This isn't always convenient. If I have a great big pile of image files I took over the years, I generally don't care what filename they have - I care what the picture is, when it was taken, and so on. The problem can mostly be ignored - it's only really problematic when attempting to merge two directories of files (the naive approach would carry the risk of clobbering a file.)
can't seem to find car-version
I can do better than that! I'd like to present the transformers analogy - it's like a car analogy, but it changes into a robot analogy!
Let's say the GPL and MPEG LA are both kind of like jeeps - both are utilitarian enough to help you accomplish quite a lot, but they can be rather unwieldy, too. We could say that GPL is more like the old army jeep and its relatives - it gives you access to a lot of things but it comes with its own hindrances. But you have the opportunity to pick through what's out there, perhaps finding something useful and affordable, or at least salvageable. MPEG-LA is more like the XR311 or HMMWV - it gives you a lot more capability but with a correspondingly higher price.
Now, when they turn into robots - GPL is like a force for good. It's the result of a conscientious effort to change the world for the better. However, to accomplish its aims it has to use its leverage - some would say this is a sort of trickery, drawing people in to use GPL software and then snaring them with obligations. In robot terms this would be like projecting holograms to fool people into doing certain things.
MPEG-LA is, of course, much more profit-minded. Perhaps it's not really "evil" though some people might say it is - but it's generally serving its own ends. It's important to note that the MPEG-LA is really just one part of a larger system... To return to the robot analogy, it's as though the MPEG-LA were part of a team that could combine to form a bigger robot, with the MPEG-LA acting as an arm or a leg, while other intellectual property groups could form the other limbs and the torso. Together, they would form a massive digital media powerhouse.
He drafted the comment in MS Word, which spellchecked and autocorrected "linux" as "Windows". Nothing to see here, move along...
Really? I'd never noticed that before. Let me give it a try...
"Windows is a disgraceful hack of an operating system thrown together by a bunch of fools with no coherent design goals by piling on layers of new design on top of old, badly-designed infrastructure. No one should waste their time running Windows, ever!"
Hey, it worked!
I'm sorry, you need to restate in the form of a car analogy.
-- and I hadn't even noticed your sig until I typed this out.
OK, I got it:
It's like getting rid of all the Cardassians but switching to gas-guzzling SUVs!
I work in a school district.... everyone's looking for magic bullets.
Damnit, when are people going to put the whole JFK thing to rest? Everyone's always looking for some big conspiracy...
You know what really gets me? The people who turn their desktop machine sideways and call it a tower. It's like, look, dude, first, that's a mini-tower at best. Second, it's not really any kind of tower at all, 'cause all your drive bays are turned the wrong way. (Yes, I know even CD trays can operate in this orientation, but it's really not ideal...)
If the school had said windows there would be many comments like:
Windows is evil!
Microsoft is evil!
Windows is the source of all evil!
Windows is making the kids dumber!
The school will be virus/malware central!
The school has been assimilated!
There are many others.
Yes, it really is terrible all the persecution Microsoft suffers on this site. No, really, I'm all broken up about it. I remember I started reading this site back in 1998 or so because I was really interested in fair coverage of Microsoft-related news... And it was great! But somewhere along the line, Slashdot picked up this terrible streak of anti-Microsoft zealotry. Where did we go WRONG, Slashdot? WHERE DID WE GO WRONG??
Oh, and you can say those same things about Apple if you like... I don't know if the prospect interests you at all, but, you know...
"Apple's not the most expensive vendor in the market. Their laptops are quite price competitive for the quality of the device and software."
What PC vendor(s) and model(s) do you compare Apple to?
Sony Vaio, maybe? XD
I don't think it's entirely untrue that you get what you pay for when it comes to premium hardware - but let's not forget that not everyone needs (or wants to pay for) premium hardware. How good a machine do you really need for writing papers and such?
Prithee be true.
Because a future with Microsoft is as horrible to contemplate as a future run by Cardassians.
Would you trade one Microsoft for another? It's like driving the Cardassians out only to let the Dominion in...
Who said anything about Beverly Hills?
Well, it does seem there are, in fact, hills in Beverly...
Now, if we can just confirm the existence of hillbillies, then maybe Jethro will finally get to become a goddamn rock star!
Or I guess you could be all boring and say:
the speed of light = 1 Planck Length / Planck Time
Which month? February, June, or August? And whose cubit? By one cubit, Goliath was 9 ft tall; by another, a very reasonable 6ft 9 inches.
Seriously, use proper units. How many furlongs per fortnight?
furlongs per fortnight is old hat, IMO. I decided to leave it to someone else to do that one.
It's common practice to use a 30-day month when counting time in "months" without a specific frame of reference. (But, yeah, I know actual months aren't all the same length - so going beyond three significant digits was pretty silly... but that was half the fun of choosing "months" in the first place...)
As for the cubit - I'm using the Roman version. :)
How about atomic units? It always seemed to me that if there was a better basis for "standard" than metric, it would be atomic units...
the speed of light = 137.0359991059 Bohr Radii * Hartree Energy per Reduced Planck's Constant
the speed of light = 1.72435995 × 10^15 cubits per month
I always thought that it would be NASA that would be the first to announce the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Now i'm thinking Japan may have that honor.
They have to go somewhere to find new markets for Pokemon merchandise...
Lithobraking is an ingenious term for "fuck it, we'll just crash into the planet".
Hey, it worked for the Saiyans...
Sailing is OK from a recreational point of view, but unless we get steam engines, looking for a new continent is a dead end.
What if the warp-drive experiments turn out to be, you know, kind of dangerous? The kinds of things you don't want to do on earth or even in LEO?
Yeah, the last thing we want is for another fiasco like South Ataria Island...
AFAIK Centrifugal force was debunked. It was the "force" that pushes stuff out into a circle when you spin it around (like a rock tied to the end of a string).
I don't think it's right to say it was "debunked" - we've known how it works since Newton, at least...
The thing is, it's not really a "force" - it's therefore, arguably, a poor choice of terminology. But in a certain context (i.e. standing on the inside of the colony wall), it seems like a force - and to the extent that this frame of reference is useful, the concept of "centrifugal force" is useful as well.
[Emily Litella]
What is all this fuss I hear about centipedes being forced out? It's terrible! Centipedes have enough problems as it is!
[/Emily Litella]
Especially the human ones...