TFA omitted the original punched-cards which were strung together forming a chain and used to program weaving operations in a programmable loom. The earliest cards dated to about 1725 (and replaced punched paper tape!), while the more successful Jacquard cards dated to about 1800, and were the inspiration for Hollerith's decks of punched cards. Babbage planned on using Jacquard cards to input programs/data to his analytic engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card
I am the only one who thinks kerosene lamps actually do smell quite nice.
The smell depends on the fuel. Kerosene can contain varying amounts of sulfur and other odour-inducing substances. Better grades have less odour, and may even have some fragrances added, but cost more. I suppose that the nice-smelling varieties are less common in poorer countries. In fact, they probably mix other cheaper fuels (such as diesel) into the kerosene they do have, adversely affecting soot and smell.
Good question. I've never seen or heard an answer to it.
Twenty years protection at most, then into the public domain. That's long enough to allow inventors to profit from their inventions, and would be a tolerable term for copyright also.
Part 1 - Cheerleaders in mini-skirts rushing out excitedly to hug NYCL and toss him in the air.
Part 2 - Cowboy Neal runs out and lifts NYCL in the air.
Part 3: During the Superbowl Half-Time...
If there's going to be any "wardrobe malfunction", let's have it with the cheerleaders instead of NYCL or CowboyNeal...
Intellectual property may be king, but the lawyers are queens (pardon the expression), and their games are hideously expensive. You can't get into the legit end of the drugs business without a strategy for covering legal liability. You should budget at least as much for this as for clinical trials or production facilities. $5M is peanuts in this game.
You atheists are worse than the religious nuts, oh wait, you _are_ religious nuts!
What, atheism is a religion? Next, you'll tell us that baldness is a hair color! Or maybe that death is a lifestyle... Just to give you a clue: atheism is the lack of religion.
If you're offended by being tagged in photos belonging to others, you're in a tough spot. You can't remove the tags from other people's photos, but perhaps you can add a little poison to Google's database. Start by classifying your face in your Picassa albums, and put either an interesting name or a nice email address on them. Put your real name on some, but with the email address of a Nigerian prince looking for a financial partner or the vendor of anatomical-enhancement pills. Put a fake name on the others, and use the email address of a different scammer. So the pictures will have either your real name and one false email, or the false name with another false email.
Me? I don't use Picassa, but if I find any pictures of me (by name) in Google (with email address), I'll have to adopt some protective measures. Actually, maybe I'll start a Picassa album just as a precautionary step.
The most common complaints with ebooks are... too expensive when they're priced at a similar amount to a hard copy, and too much trouble when they're DRM-locked.
I bought two ebooks several years ago - one from Amazon and one from Adobe. Both were infested with DRM, which was not mentioned until after I had downloaded them (which was obviously after paying). Both had restrictions on printing, copying (cut/paste was actively crippled), and the need for remote authorization prevented transfer to other PCs. There was also an arduous re-authorization process to be followed every time Acrobat was updated, or if you wished to transfer the reading rights to a new PC.
The ebook bought from Adobe subsequently annoyed me greatly for another reason: after a year or so, Adobe closed their ebook store and announced that they would no longer support re-authorizations for Acrobat version changes or changes of PC. Instead, I was instructed to make an archive/frozen copy of Acrobat (v5?) using a special procedure, so that I could keep reading the book with that version even when newer versions of Acrobat were installed. Oh, and no re-authorizations for new PCs either.
The ebooks had cost me as much as the printed equivalents, but had merely arrived sooner. However, their DRM also obliterated my usual right to buy or sell second-hand. Together with the major DRM inconveniences, they were essentially a rip-off for worthless merchandise. Those disastrous ebooks were eventually deleted and replaced by real books, so I ended up paying double. Because of this experience, I swore off all ebooks with DRM of any kind. I will not buy an ebook unless it is explicitly provided without DRM. We continue to buy real books at a rate of several per month.
My publisher is addressing both with this release, and we're hoping it'll catch on.
I hope so also; it sounds like a reasonable approach. We're a "books from dead-trees" house, with more than 5000 on our shelves, but there are probably about a hundred non-DRM ebooks as well. Our kids greatly prefer books that can be held in your hand over text on a screen. Some of the reasons given are: reading without batteries or booting, turning the pages, the feel of the paper, putting unique bookmarks (e.g. horse's hair woven into a thread) in special places, and so forth.
You laugh, but they actually offer a 50Mbit package with a 30GB monthly limit. Better not leave that torrent running overnight:)
Now, that does stink. Talk about raping the customer...
We have no caps here, and the ISP has 20/2 and 100/10 Mbit services. Our house has 2 adults + 2 kids using 4 home computers and occasionally 1 or 2 work laptops. I doubt if we ever go much over 500GiB in a month, but I suspect we're rarely below 100GiB (no caps, so I don't attempt to keep track).
There are several other sections, some rather more verbose than that one. The adapter is an ATI HD 4850 and I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 with dual 24" monitors (3840x1080).
But you have a valid point about the bloodymindedness of hardware vendors. I had to install the non-FOSS ATI/AMD Catalyst driver to get all the display functions working. The situation with Windows is not that much different: I had to plough through a couple of vendor CDs to install drivers on my Windows laptop at work.
If they have an inch, they'll brag to the girls that it's at least a foot. And promptly try to block any access to evidence and squelch any opinion close to the truth.
Look carefully at any would-be censors, for they likely have something to hide, and merely seek to conceal it behind a bigger screen...
Conroy expanded the list to block Adult R18+ and X18+ web sites, and this week said it would also block sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality".
So the filter would block the Internet?
Maybe not quite all of it. There may be a few web-sites which are bland enough to pass.
Of course, the parliament in Canberra would trigger a bunch of those filters (crime, sex, revolting, immoral, etc.) and get blocked immediately.
... the "high-tech crime unit" (which still puzzles me... do they solve or commit high-tech crime.
The answer is yes. Next question, please.
Re:"Wasn't So Long Ago?!"
on
Jurassic Web
·
· Score: 1
It was 13 years ago. Maybe I'm just young but that is an eternity in the world of computer technology.
Well, I've been using the internet for two eternities, in that case (since 1984, FWIW). All the things mentioned in the OP are actually from the web, which is a layer above the internet (but a layer with disruptive impact). Before that, we had uucp, telnet, ftp, email, usenet, and lots of limited-search engines like gopher and wais. Some of these are still used (telnet, ftp, email), but often have web-based interfaces as add-ons. Heh, we had a symmetric megabit link around 1990, which caused jealousy and awe at other companies.
Ok, enough with the drooling reminiscences from a greybeard... The technology is far better today, but the anything-goes attitude is sorely missed and help-one-another has become depressingly uncommon. In particular, the increasing attention and activity of would-be censors and other malevolent do-gooders is functionally regressive and morally repulsive.
Are they really serious about cutting out access to sites promoting or depicting child abuse? If so, I look forward to them blocking all sites which aid or abet or encourage the religious indoctrination of children. They're all malevolent, and far more prevalent than any other form of abuse.
Slashdot Mirror
TFA omitted the original punched-cards which were strung together forming a chain and used to program weaving operations in a programmable loom. The earliest cards dated to about 1725 (and replaced punched paper tape!), while the more successful Jacquard cards dated to about 1800, and were the inspiration for Hollerith's decks of punched cards. Babbage planned on using Jacquard cards to input programs/data to his analytic engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card
I am the only one who thinks kerosene lamps actually do smell quite nice.
The smell depends on the fuel. Kerosene can contain varying amounts of sulfur and other odour-inducing substances. Better grades have less odour, and may even have some fragrances added, but cost more. I suppose that the nice-smelling varieties are less common in poorer countries. In fact, they probably mix other cheaper fuels (such as diesel) into the kerosene they do have, adversely affecting soot and smell.
You could write some crap submissions, auto-approve them, then sue us when fewer and fewer people read them!
Hey, that should have been a numbered list ending in "Profit!". You also left out the "???" step.
...that such a thing could happen.
Incompetence or corruption, which is worse?
Why should copyright outlast a patent?
Good question. I've never seen or heard an answer to it.
Twenty years protection at most, then into the public domain. That's long enough to allow inventors to profit from their inventions, and would be a tolerable term for copyright also.
Part 1 - Cheerleaders in mini-skirts rushing out excitedly to hug NYCL and toss him in the air. ...
Part 2 - Cowboy Neal runs out and lifts NYCL in the air.
Part 3: During the Superbowl Half-Time
If there's going to be any "wardrobe malfunction", let's have it with the cheerleaders instead of NYCL or CowboyNeal...
Intellectual property may be king, but the lawyers are queens (pardon the expression), and their games are hideously expensive. You can't get into the legit end of the drugs business without a strategy for covering legal liability. You should budget at least as much for this as for clinical trials or production facilities. $5M is peanuts in this game.
You atheists are worse than the religious nuts, oh wait, you _are_ religious nuts!
What, atheism is a religion? Next, you'll tell us that baldness is a hair color! Or maybe that death is a lifestyle... Just to give you a clue: atheism is the lack of religion.
If you're offended by being tagged in photos belonging to others, you're in a tough spot. You can't remove the tags from other people's photos, but perhaps you can add a little poison to Google's database. Start by classifying your face in your Picassa albums, and put either an interesting name or a nice email address on them. Put your real name on some, but with the email address of a Nigerian prince looking for a financial partner or the vendor of anatomical-enhancement pills. Put a fake name on the others, and use the email address of a different scammer. So the pictures will have either your real name and one false email, or the false name with another false email.
Me? I don't use Picassa, but if I find any pictures of me (by name) in Google (with email address), I'll have to adopt some protective measures. Actually, maybe I'll start a Picassa album just as a precautionary step.
The most common complaints with ebooks are ... too expensive when they're priced at a similar amount to a hard copy, and too much trouble when they're DRM-locked.
I bought two ebooks several years ago - one from Amazon and one from Adobe. Both were infested with DRM, which was not mentioned until after I had downloaded them (which was obviously after paying). Both had restrictions on printing, copying (cut/paste was actively crippled), and the need for remote authorization prevented transfer to other PCs. There was also an arduous re-authorization process to be followed every time Acrobat was updated, or if you wished to transfer the reading rights to a new PC.
The ebook bought from Adobe subsequently annoyed me greatly for another reason: after a year or so, Adobe closed their ebook store and announced that they would no longer support re-authorizations for Acrobat version changes or changes of PC. Instead, I was instructed to make an archive/frozen copy of Acrobat (v5?) using a special procedure, so that I could keep reading the book with that version even when newer versions of Acrobat were installed. Oh, and no re-authorizations for new PCs either.
The ebooks had cost me as much as the printed equivalents, but had merely arrived sooner. However, their DRM also obliterated my usual right to buy or sell second-hand. Together with the major DRM inconveniences, they were essentially a rip-off for worthless merchandise. Those disastrous ebooks were eventually deleted and replaced by real books, so I ended up paying double. Because of this experience, I swore off all ebooks with DRM of any kind. I will not buy an ebook unless it is explicitly provided without DRM. We continue to buy real books at a rate of several per month.
My publisher is addressing both with this release, and we're hoping it'll catch on.
I hope so also; it sounds like a reasonable approach. We're a "books from dead-trees" house, with more than 5000 on our shelves, but there are probably about a hundred non-DRM ebooks as well. Our kids greatly prefer books that can be held in your hand over text on a screen. Some of the reasons given are: reading without batteries or booting, turning the pages, the feel of the paper, putting unique bookmarks (e.g. horse's hair woven into a thread) in special places, and so forth.
You get 1.2 gigabits/second?
Yeah, brain fart, sorry. I meant 12MBit/s :)
It happens. Not a smelly one, though.
So that cap is reached in about 12 minutes.
You laugh, but they actually offer a 50Mbit package with a 30GB monthly limit. Better not leave that torrent running overnight :)
Now, that does stink. Talk about raping the customer...
We have no caps here, and the ISP has 20/2 and 100/10 Mbit services. Our house has 2 adults + 2 kids using 4 home computers and occasionally 1 or 2 work laptops. I doubt if we ever go much over 500GiB in a month, but I suspect we're rarely below 100GiB (no caps, so I don't attempt to keep track).
Doom and Wolfenstein were the ones that I remember most. Oh, and the Microsoft BSOD - that game could just jump up by surprise at any time.
Like the GP poster, I get great download speeds (1200Mbit/s actual)...
You get 1.2 gigabits/second?
The downside is the monthly cap (100GB combined up/down for $79 CDN, so watch your torrents).
So that cap is reached in about 12 minutes.
Hmm... Here's what I get:
$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes
$ glxinfo | grep "pbuffer"
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group,
Actually, that last grep result is just one line from the following section in the glxinfo output:
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group,
GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
There are several other sections, some rather more verbose than that one. The adapter is an ATI HD 4850 and I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 with dual 24" monitors (3840x1080).
But you have a valid point about the bloodymindedness of hardware vendors. I had to install the non-FOSS ATI/AMD Catalyst driver to get all the display functions working. The situation with Windows is not that much different: I had to plough through a couple of vendor CDs to install drivers on my Windows laptop at work.
If they have an inch, they'll brag to the girls that it's at least a foot. And promptly try to block any access to evidence and squelch any opinion close to the truth.
Look carefully at any would-be censors, for they likely have something to hide, and merely seek to conceal it behind a bigger screen...
So the filter would block the Internet?
Maybe not quite all of it. There may be a few web-sites which are bland enough to pass.
Of course, the parliament in Canberra would trigger a bunch of those filters (crime, sex, revolting, immoral, etc.) and get blocked immediately.
ISS Titanic, of course.
Since when has Jack Straw been very interested in Freedom of Information?
He merely wishes to ensure that the freedom is not "abused" (as Sir Arnold said to Sir Humphrey).
Under his Home-secretaryship Britain has become a surveillance state.
But only to prevent "abuses" of other kinds of freedom, no doubt.
... the "high-tech crime unit" (which still puzzles me... do they solve or commit high-tech crime.
The answer is yes. Next question, please.
It was 13 years ago. Maybe I'm just young but that is an eternity in the world of computer technology.
Well, I've been using the internet for two eternities, in that case (since 1984, FWIW). All the things mentioned in the OP are actually from the web, which is a layer above the internet (but a layer with disruptive impact). Before that, we had uucp, telnet, ftp, email, usenet, and lots of limited-search engines like gopher and wais. Some of these are still used (telnet, ftp, email), but often have web-based interfaces as add-ons. Heh, we had a symmetric megabit link around 1990, which caused jealousy and awe at other companies.
Ok, enough with the drooling reminiscences from a greybeard... The technology is far better today, but the anything-goes attitude is sorely missed and help-one-another has become depressingly uncommon. In particular, the increasing attention and activity of would-be censors and other malevolent do-gooders is functionally regressive and morally repulsive.
$ finger woman
finger: woman not found
$ man woman
man: no entry for woman
My late father was a principle designer on the H-MB "mining barge", and "Clementine", the huge claw made to pick up the Russian Golf class sub.
Some information on this program is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Jennifer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(Golf_II).
Saying you've never had a virus without ever scanning your PCs is like saying you've never had an STD without ever getting tested.
I'm sure most slashdot users can say this and be 100% correct.
Depends how you classify their need for thick eyeglasses...
"Censorship interprets the internet as damage, and blocks it." - me
Here's an example http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/24/028202
Are they really serious about cutting out access to sites promoting or depicting child abuse? If so, I look forward to them blocking all sites which aid or abet or encourage the religious indoctrination of children. They're all malevolent, and far more prevalent than any other form of abuse.